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Current and Emerging Research on Economics of Higher Education

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Economics of Higher Education

Abstract

In this concluding chapter, we briefly revisit each of the topical areas in the economics of higher education that we have covered in Chaps. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of this book. Our purpose here is not to summarize the content of those chapters. Instead, for each broad topical area or chapter, we introduce and examine a subtopic that has been the focus of more recent and current economic research in each subject. Current research is the best indicator of future research. Therefore, by considering representative examples of recent research on a subtopic related to each chapter of the book, we hope to illustrate future directions toward which economic research has recently been, or is now, moving in each of the broad areas.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, see Belasco and Trivette (2015), Bowen et al. (2009), Hoxby and Avery (2013), Roderick, Nagaoka, Coca, and Moeller (2009, April), and Smith, Pender, and Howell (2013).

  2. 2.

    See Card (1999) for a comprehensive review of much of this literature, with a special focus on analysis of the variety of methodological approaches to the estimation of returns on investment in education.

  3. 3.

    President Obama recently proposed a version of this plan. See the Mangan and Supiano (2015) article on “The Players Who Influenced Obama’s Free-College Plan” on Inside Higher Education, January 11, 2015. This article provides some information about the proposal, along with the origins of the ideas in the plan.

  4. 4.

    For example, see Belfield and Bailey’s explanation of this concern (2011, p. 47).

  5. 5.

    See, for example, Bahr (2014), Belfield and Bailey (2011), Cellini and Chaudhary (2014), Dadgar and Weiss (2012), Jepsen, Troske, and Coomes (2014), and Liu, Belfied, and Trimble (2014).

  6. 6.

    For example, for a study using data on Kentucky see Jepsen et al. (2014), for North Carolina see Liu et al. (2014), for Texas see Andrews, Li, and Lovenheim (2012), and for Washington State see Dadgar and Weiss (2012).

  7. 7.

    The new state-level datasets provide some additional benefits for researchers. For example, as Liu et al. (2014) explain, another “important distinction between these newer studies and earlier studies is that the newer studies make comparisons within the sample of postsecondary students and not between postsecondary students and high school graduates who never attended college” (p. 44).

  8. 8.

    Most of these early studies of the demand for higher education (enrollment demand) occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. These studies were well reviewed in Becker (1990) and Paulsen (1990).

  9. 9.

    Some examples of economists’ research on the effects of the Great Recession on higher education enrollment include the following: Brown and Hoxby (2015), Long (2015), Barr and Turner (2013) and Barr and Turner (2015).

  10. 10.

    For example, see Baum, Ma, and Payea (2013), Damon and Glewwe (2011), Institute for Higher Education Policy (2013), McMahon (2006, 2009, 2010), Paulsen and Fatima (2007) and Trostel (2010).

  11. 11.

    For example, see Adkisson and Peach (2008), Canche (2014), Jaquette and Curs (2015), Jaquette, Curs, and Posselt (in press), Leeds and DesJardins (2015), Winters (2012), and Zhang (2007).

  12. 12.

    The finding of a positive relationship between nonresident tuition and nonresident enrollment (Adkisson & Peach, 2008) is counter-theoretical to price theory. Nevertheless, a number of plausible explanations of this result for nonresident enrollment demand have been proposed (e.g., see Zhang, 2007). One possible explanation is that some nonresident students may view price as an indicator or signal of quality and respond favorably to higher quality in their enrollment decision-making. Another plausible explanation is that nonresident students are more likely to enroll for reasons other than the published nonresident tuition level. In support of this, Leeds and DesJardins (2015) have found that nonresident students who have sufficiently high academic scores to qualify for the University of Iowa’s National Scholars Awards (NSA)—for which only nonresident students are eligible—are significantly more likely to enroll than their peers who did not receive the NSA. Moreover, analysis of subgroup behavior showed that minorities were more responsive in their enrollment to NSA receipt than their white counterparts.

  13. 13.

    There are, however, some unintended consequences of strategically pursuing greater tuition revenues via recruitment of nonresident enrollment. In particular, Jaquette et al. (in press) have found that when public research universities increase their proportion of nonresident enrollment, the growth in nonresident students is negatively related to the proportions of low-income and underrepresented minority student enrollment.

  14. 14.

    For example, see Bound and Turner (2007), Bound, Lovenheim, and Turner (2010a, 2010b), Bowen et al. (2009), Goldin and Katz (2008), Titus (2009), Webber (2012), Webber and Ehrenberg (2010).

  15. 15.

    In an earlier study, Bound and Turner (2007) refer to this phenomenon as the “cohort crowding” effect. They explain that “within public institutions, those that expand to meet population-related shifts in demand may face reductions in resources per student, further reducing attainment of enrolled students” (p. 896).

  16. 16.

    See, for example, Titus (2009), Webber (2012) and Webber and Ehrenberg (2010).

  17. 17.

    See Curtis and Thornton (2014) and Rippner and Toutkoushian (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Meigs Hall 114, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA

    Robert K. Toutkoushian

  2. N491 Lindquist Center, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA

    Michael B. Paulsen

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  1. Robert K. Toutkoushian
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Toutkoushian, R.K., Paulsen, M.B. (2016). Current and Emerging Research on Economics of Higher Education. In: Economics of Higher Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7506-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7506-9_10

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