Herfindahl Hirschman Index (HHI) for assessing the competition among education selling countries
HHI is typically calculated to observe the market structure and competition among the manufacturers for a specific product by using the market share of each manufacturer. Therefore, the HHI value shows the market power, potential buying pattern for the product based on the number of manufacturers and the product pricing generated by this competition. But, a major limitation of the HHI is that it cannot account for many variables. Considering both advantages and limitations, HHI can be used to calculate the competitiveness of the countries that provide international educational programmes by using the share of annual student intakes by each country. The assumptions would be, all these countries have a Cournot competition where each keen on the amount of student intake ( will be the output at the end), which decide on independently of each other and at the same time, and deliver similar programmes as per the global trends and market demand i.e., course structures, advancements in subject areas while competing for the same market niche of international students in the year. HHI can be used to determine the competition since it does not require many variables. The HHI value of the country can be used deciding new programmes, changes for student facilitations or cost structures.
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