We often think that a college degree will open doors to opportunity regardless of one's background or upbringing. In this eye-opening book, two of today's leading economists argue that higher education alone cannot overcome the lasting effects of inequality that continue to plague us, and offer sensible solutions for building a more just and…

This dissertation contains three essays discussing government policy in higher education, the effects of online social networks during college on students after graduating, and how to use search data as a tool to recover characteristics of both products and customers to estimate demand. In the first chapter, co-authored with Shengmao Cao, we study…

This report looks at the scale of the gender pay gap between male and female graduates and the factors that may influence this. It finds the overall graduate gender pay gap is not wholly accounted for by subject of study, type of university attended, prior attainment, social background or ethnicity. It also explores differences in approaches and…

This article tests effectively maintained inequality theory against the case of China. Employing Chinese College Student Survey data from 2012, the study elaborates on the rationale and causes behind the expansion of higher education over the last two decades and the impact this has had on the system. Rather than empowering disadvantaged students,…

Widened participation in post-compulsory and higher education is generally regarded as a result of the growing recognition of the internal and external benefits of higher education, which are categorised either as a private or public good. However, a question can be raised: once these incentives become less promising or less evident, will a strong…

This study aims to explore the impact of college quality on early labor market outcomes in China, including the fresh college graduates' initial employment status and starting wages for students who graduated in 2011. The main data source is the College Student Labor Market (CSLM) survey conducted by Tsinghua University. Distinguished from…

The Virginia Plan for Higher Education, now in its sixth year, charts a course to make Virginia the best-educated state by 2030. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia developed The Virginia Plan as part of its statutory role to "advocate for and promote the development and operation of an educationally and economically sound,…

In the first chapter, I analyze the growth patterns of postsecondary education costs in re-cent years. It shows the trends of college revenue, expenditure and other financial items using data drawn from the Delta Data Project between 1987 and 2010. Connections between various categories of revenue/spending and state-level macroeconomic indicators…

A policy analysis of Florida's 10-factor Performance-Based Funding system for state universities. The focus of the article is on the system of performance metrics developed by the state Board of Governors and their impact on institutions and their missions. The paper also discusses problems and issues with the metrics, their ongoing evolution, and…

We examine the links between various measures of university quality and graduate earnings in the United Kingdom. We explore the implications of using different measures of quality and combining them into an aggregate measure. Our findings suggest a positive return to university quality with an average earnings differential of about 6 percent for a…

In the two years that the "Education" priority national project has been in the process of implementation, it has been found that in spite of its obviously abstract character in terms of strategy (a shortcoming that is characteristic of all four of the national projects), a flexible mechanism of state and civic administration is built…

In November of 2007, Alberta Advanced Education and Technology contracted Insightrix Research, Inc. to conduct a survey of individuals who graduated from post-secondary institutions in Alberta in the fall of 2005 or the spring of 2006 (excluding apprenticeship graduates, who are surveyed through a separate initiative). The purpose of the survey is…

Estimates the effects of three types of qualitative differences in college experiences (college major, school quality, and educational performance) on recent college graduates' earnings, using hierarchical linear modeling. Results show that all three types of qualitative factors influence initial earnings, but the effects of institutional quality…

Using the quartile deviation of faculty salary data as a measure of institutional quality, the authors ranked the 138 major universities designated by AAUP as Class I institutions. Since the results were similar to other ranking systems and salary data are readily available, it is argued that studies of salaries hold promise as measures of…

This chapter presents a study which used data from the U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to examine racial differences in the effects of college quality and student diversity on wages. The study investigated whether the economic benefit of college quality might be higher for groups helped by diversity programs and whether a…