Wow! eBook
Studies of Supply & Demand in Higher Education 2nd ed. Edition
Author(s): Clotfelter (Author)
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press
- Publication Date: 1 Mar. 1993
- Edition: 2nd ed.
- Language: English
- Print length: 304 pages
- ISBN-10: 0226110540
- ISBN-13: 9780226110547
Book Description
In the United States today, there are some 3,400 separately governed colleges and universities, amounting to a higher education industry with expenditures that constitute 2.8% of the gross national product. Yet, the economic issues affecting this industry have been paid relatively little attention. In this collection of eight essays, experts in economics and education bring economic analysis to bear on such underexamined topics as the nature of competition in higher education, higher education’s use of resources, and who chooses to purchase what kind of education and why. In higher education, supply refers to such issues as government support for public colleges and universities, the means by which graduate programs allocate financial support to students, and the criteria that universities use for investing endowments. Demand pertains to patterns of student enrollment and to the government, business, and individual market for the service and research activities of higher education. Why are tuitions nearly the same among schools despite differences in prestige? How are institutions with small endowments able to compete successfully with institutions that have huge endowments? How are race and ethnicity reflected in enrollment trends? Where do the best students go? What choices among colleges do young people from low-income backgrounds face? This volume addresses these questions and suggests subjects for further study of the economics of higher education.
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
In the United States today, there are some 3,400 separately governed colleges and universities, amounting to a higher education industry with expenditures that constitute 2.8% of the gross national product. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to the economic issues affecting this industry. In this collection of eight essays, experts in economics and education apply economic analysis to such underexamined topics as the nature of competition in higher education, higher education’s use of resources, and who chooses to purchase what kind of education and why. The first study in the volume looks at the higher education market as a whole, including the ways in which colleges with small endowments are able to compete successfully with institutions that have much larger endowments for faculty, students, and financial support. The chapter also examines why tuitions are nearly the same among schools despite differences in prestige. Three other studies analyze recent trends in college enrollment, focusing on the racial composition of enrollments and the quality of students entering highly ranked institutions. The authors seek to understand the variation in enrollment between blacks and whites, for example, and they find that more and more of the top students, regardless of race, are going to elite private institutions. Another essay considers the choices among colleges that young people from low-income backgrounds face, and argues that economists must look at subjective variables, such as expectations about schooling, when studying enrollment patterns. Rounding out the volume, three chapters discuss student interest in pursuing an academic career, the effect of changes in federallyfinanced fellowships on universities, and the criteria universities use for deciding how to invest their endowments. By addressing these issues, this volume fills a large gap in studies of the economics of higher education and suggests subjects for further study in this field.
About the Author
Charles T. Clotfelter is the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy, professor of economics and law, and director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke University. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the former director of the NBER Working Group on Higher Education.
