Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/29829.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Progressivity of Pricing at US Public Universities

Author

Listed:
  • Emily E. Cook
  • Sarah Turner
Abstract
Substantial increases in public university tuition often raise concerns about college affordability. But assessment of the impacts on low- and moderate-income families requires consideration of whether net tuition—tuition less grant aid—has increased commensurately. This paper describes recent shifts in net tuition by family income and institution type and assesses the role of changes in state funding in generating these shifts. Using data reported by universities on net tuition paid by students from different family income levels, we find that public research universities have increasingly shifted to high-tuition, high-aid pricing. From 2012 to 2018, net tuition fell by far more than would have been predicted by the growth in state appropriations, while tuition levels continued to rise, albeit at a slower rate than in the prior years. The increased progressivity in pricing, particularly among research universities, cannot be explained by changes in state appropriations.

Suggested Citation

  • Emily E. Cook & Sarah Turner, 2022. "Progressivity of Pricing at US Public Universities," NBER Working Papers 29829, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29829
    Note: ED
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w29829.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Courant, Paul N. & McPherson, Michael & Resch, Alexandra M., 2006. "The Public Role in Higher Education," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(2), pages 291-318, June.
    2. Michael Rothschild & Lawrence J. White, 1993. "The University in the Marketplace: Some Insights and Some Puzzles," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education, pages 11-42, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. William R. Johnson, 2006. "Are Public Subsidies to Higher Education Regressive?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 1(3), pages 288-315, June.
    4. John Bound & Breno Braga & Gaurav Khanna & Sarah Turner, 2020. "A Passage to America: University Funding and International Students," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 97-126, February.
    5. Clotfelter, Charles T. & Rothschild, Michael (ed.), 1993. "Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226110547, September.
    6. Rajashri Chakrabarti & Nicole Gorton & Michael F. Lovenheim, 2020. "State Investment in Higher Education: Effects on Human Capital Formation, Student Debt, and Long-Term Financial Outcomes of Students," CESifo Working Paper Series 8592, CESifo.
    7. Webber, Douglas A., 2017. "State divestment and tuition at public institutions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1-4.
    8. Charles T. Clotfelter & Michael Rothschild, 1993. "Introduction to "Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education"," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education, pages 1-10, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. John Bound & Breno Braga & Gaurav Khanna & Sarah Turner, 2019. "Public Universities: The Supply Side of Building a Skilled Workforce," NBER Working Papers 25945, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. David J. Deming & Christopher R. Walters, 2017. "The Impact of Price Caps and Spending Cuts on U.S. Postsecondary Attainment," NBER Working Papers 23736, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Sinan Sarpça & Holger Sieg & Melanie Zaber, 2019. "Market power and price discrimination in the US market for higher education," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(1), pages 201-225, March.
    12. Buckles, Kasey & Hagemann, Andreas & Malamud, Ofer & Morrill, Melinda & Wozniak, Abigail, 2016. "The effect of college education on mortality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 99-114.
    13. Kane, Thomas J, 1994. "College Entry by Blacks since 1970: The Role of College Costs, Family Background, and the Returns to Education," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(5), pages 878-911, October.
    14. Charles T. Clotfelter & Michael Rothschild, 1993. "Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot93-1.
    15. Rothschild, Michael & White, Lawrence J, 1995. "The Analytics of the Pricing of Higher Education and Other Services in Which the Customers Are Inputs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(3), pages 573-586, June.
    16. Susan Dynarski & CJ Libassi & Katherine Michelmore & Stephanie Owen, 2021. "Closing the Gap: The Effect of Reducing Complexity and Uncertainty in College Pricing on the Choices of Low-Income Students," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(6), pages 1721-1756, June.
    17. W. Lee Hansen & Burton A. Weisbrod, 1969. "The Distribution of Costs and Direct Benefits of Public Higher Education: The Case of California," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 4(2), pages 176-191.
    18. Eric P. Bettinger & Bridget Terry Long & Philip Oreopoulos & Lisa Sanbonmatsu, 2012. "The Role of Application Assistance and Information in College Decisions: Results from the H&R Block Fafsa Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1205-1242.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter Hinrichs, 2022. "State Appropriations and Employment at Higher Education Institutions," Working Papers 22-32, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2009. "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    2. Semjén, András, 2012. "A tandíj közgazdaságtana [The economics of tuition fees]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 31-62.
    3. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1996. "Bibliography, Index," NBER Chapters, in: Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education, pages 285-308, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Frank A. Scott & Jeffrey D. Anstine, 1997. "Market Structure in the Production of Economics Ph.D.'s," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(1), pages 307-320, July.
    5. Dahlia K. Remler & Elda Pema, 2009. "Why do Institutions of Higher Education Reward Research While Selling Education?," NBER Working Papers 14974, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. E. Han Kim & Min Zhu, 2010. "Universities as Firms: The Case of US Overseas Programs," NBER Chapters, in: American Universities in a Global Market, pages 163-201, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Gordon C. Winston, 1997. "Why Can't a College be More Like a Firm?," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-42, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    8. Ege Aksu & Sidhya Balakrishnan & Eric Bettinger & Jonathan S. Hartley & Michael S. Kofoed & Dubravka Ritter & Douglas A. Webber, 2024. "Navigating Higher Education Insurance: An Experimental Study on Demand and Adverse Selection"," Working Papers 24-07, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    9. Laurie Bates & Rexford Santerre, 2000. "A Time Series Analysis of Private College Closures and Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 17(3), pages 267-276, November.
    10. Brian Jacob & Brian McCall & Kevin Stange, 2018. "College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students’ Preferences for Consumption?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 309-348.
    11. Christian Hertrich, 2013. "Asset Allocation Considerations for Pension Insurance Funds," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-658-02167-2, June.
    12. Joseph Calhoun & David Kamerschen, 2010. "The impact of governing structure on the pricing behavior and market structure of public institutions of higher education in the U.S," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 57(3), pages 317-333, September.
    13. Siow, Aloysius, 1997. "Some evidence on the signalling role of research in academia," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 271-276, July.
    14. Steuerle, C. Eugene, 1997. "A Principled Approach to Educational Policy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(2), pages 351-365, June.
    15. Robert Jantzen, 2000. "Price and quality effects on the demand for U.S. graduate business programs," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 6(4), pages 730-740, November.
    16. Peter Michaelis, 2004. "Education, Research and the Impact of Tuition Fees - A Simple Model of the University," Discussion Paper Series 265, Universitaet Augsburg, Institute for Economics.
    17. Amy Ellen Schwartz & Benjamin Scafidi, 2004. "What's Happened to the Price of College?: Quality-Adjusted Net Price Indexes for Four-Year Colleges," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(3), pages 723-745.
    18. Singell, Larry D. & Tang, Hui-Hsuan, 2013. "Pomp and circumstance: University presidents and the role of human capital in determining who leads U.S. research institutions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 219-233.
    19. Steuerle, C. Eugene, 1997. "A Principled Approach to Educational Policy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(2), pages 351-65, June.
    20. Peter Hinrichs, 2022. "State Appropriations and Employment at Higher Education Institutions," Working Papers 22-32, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29829. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.