ERIC Number: ED615399
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Oct
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
College Choice, Private Options, and the Incidence of Public Investment in Higher Education. Working Paper 29353
Bound, John; Simon, Andrew
National Bureau of Economic Research
Previous measures of the incidence of public investment in higher education focus on the transfer to public college students. This implies that the net benefits to students who do not attend public colleges is negative. However, they miss potential general equilibrium effects on the private college and labor markets. Changes in the public college market affect who private colleges admit, what prices they charge, and the number of students who enroll in any college. We show that capturing these spillovers is important for characterizing incidence using a model of higher education that we validate with quasi-experimental variation in state spending. Unlike previous measures, we find that high-income-modest-ability students especially benefit since they are only admitted to high-quality private colleges when state spending is high, and the public colleges create sufficient competitive pressure. Decreased investment also reduces educational attainment, raising the college wage premium. This exacerbates private college market power.
Descriptors: College Choice, Incidence, Higher Education, State Colleges, College Students, Private Colleges, Costs, Enrollment, Models, State Aid, Educational Finance, Income, Advantaged, Academic Ability, Educational Quality, College Admission, Competition
National Bureau of Economic Research. 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-5398. Tel: 617-588-0343; Web site: http://www.nber.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED)
Authoring Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305B150012