A bibliometric Review of Research on Economies of Scale in Education, 1970 - 2020

Mergers and acquisitions in education have played a long tradition, given the aim of achieving economies of scale. Researches have been studied education institutions worldwide to unlock the optimal scale for education units. Nevertheless, there has not yet been a comprehensive systematic knowledge of economies of scale in education. This paper aims to identify key authors, journals, and publications then analyze the intellectual structure of the research topics. Results indicate three academic domains in current literature are: (i) optimization of production and cost functions; (ii) administrative issues regarding mergers and acquisitions; and (iii) scale efficiency of educational institutions. The review also illuminates current research trends and topical foci regarding economies of scale in education