Financial Autonomy and Institutional Performance under Economic Instability: Evidence from Educational Systems
The relevance of the research topic stems from the increasing impact of global crises on the stability of education system funding, necessitating a rethinking of resource management mechanisms. In such conditions, financial autonomy emerges as a strategic tool for enhancing the resilience and efficiency of educational institutions. The aim of the article is to identify effective mechanisms for managing the financial autonomy of educational institutions under economic instability. The study focuses on establishing the relationship between the level of financial independence and the performance of educational institutions in the context of their capacity for strategic adaptation.
The methodology is based on cross-country comparative analysis, regression modelling, and dynamic financial data analysis. The research covers 30 educational institutions from six countries over the period 2016–2023. An integrated financial autonomy index was calculated on a scale from 0 to 1. A positive correlation was found between the level of autonomy and institutional effectiveness: an increase of 0.1 in the financial autonomy index correlates with a 2% increase in graduates’ average scores and a 1.5% rise in employment rates (p < 0.01). This study is the first to combine regression analysis of financial autonomy and educational outcomes at the international level, offering a quantitative model for evaluating the effectiveness of autonomy as a strategic management tool in education. Future research should expand the quantitative analysis by including more countries with diverse autonomy models and development levels. It is also advisable to use qualitative methods to gain deeper insights into internal management practices related to financial autonomy.
Copyright© 2026 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article’s History: Received 23rd of April, 2026; Revised 29th of May, 2026; Accepted 12th of June, 2026; Available online: 30th of June, 2026. Published as research article in the Volume XXI, Summer, Issue 3(93), 2026.
Sokrovolska, N., Poliak-Sverhun, M., Lytvyn, L., Shchokin, R., & Hryhorieva, N. (2026). Financial Autonomy and Institutional Performance under Economic Instability: Evidence from Educational Systems. Journal of Applied Economic Sciences, Volume XXI, Summer, 3(93), 877 – 891. https://doi.org/10.57017/jaes.v21.3(93).10
Acknowledgments/Funding: The authors gratefully acknowledge the institutions and organizations that provide open-access educational and statistical data used in this study, including the OECD, Eurostat, the European University Association (EUA), the World Bank, the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance of Ukraine, and other public sources. No specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors was received for the preparation of this research.
Conflict of Interest Statement: The authors declare that they have no known financial, professional, institutional, or personal conflicts of interest that could have influenced the research, analysis, interpretation of data, or publication of this article.
Data Availability Statement: The data used in this study were obtained from publicly available sources, including the OECD, Eurostat, the World Bank, the European University Association (EUA), the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance of Ukraine, and other official educational and statistical databases. The compiled dataset and supporting analytical files used for the comparative, regression, and dynamic analyses are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Ethical Approval Statement: This study is based exclusively on secondary data obtained from publicly available international and national databases. The research did not involve human participants, animal subjects, surveys, interviews, experiments, or access to personal or confidential information. Consequently, ethical approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee was not required. All data were collected, processed, and analysed in accordance with the terms of use of the respective data providers and the principles of research integrity, transparency, and reproducibility.
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