When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, it looked at first as if many European universities were going to escape the worst. Higher education has long been considered a public right and a taxpayer-financed obligation, and there was optimism that universities, which government leaders hail as drivers of economic growth, would emerge relatively…

Competitively allocated research funds, from both public and private sources, constitute an increasing share of university revenues. The article investigates empirically, using data on the Italian university system, whether structural and strategic features of universities--such as size, age and especially the importance that they assign to their…