IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/reihed/v60y2019i1d10.1007_s11162-018-9502-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Effects of Tuition Increases on Racial/Ethnic Diversity at Public Colleges and Universities

Author

Listed:
  • Drew Allen

    (Princeton University)

  • Gregory C. Wolniak

    (New York University)

Abstract

As tuition becomes a more prominent tool to address financial challenges of colleges and universities, it is critically important to examine the implications of tuition increases on institutions and their students. The goal of this study is to examine the effects of tuition increases at public 4 year and community colleges on institutions’ racial/ethnic composition. The study addresses two primary research questions: What are the effects of tuition increases on racial/ethnic diversity at public institutions over time, and do the relationships between tuition increases and racial/ethnic diversity at 4 year institutions vary by institution selectivity? The study uses multivariate analyses with fixed effects models to estimate the relationship between observed changes in tuition and racial/ethnic diversity across U.S. public 4 and 2 year colleges and universities across a 14 year period. The standardized measure of institutional diversity we utilize allows us to consistently evaluate changes in overall racial/ethnic composition of enrolled students that enables comparisons across different institution types. Our findings suggest that tuition increases at open-access, non-selective public 4 year institutions are negatively and significantly associated with the racial/ethnic diversity of enrolled students. This same negative relationship can be seen among 2 year public institutions, and the effects are more pronounced in full-time, first-time freshmen as compared to the overall full-time campus population.

Suggested Citation

  • Drew Allen & Gregory C. Wolniak, 2019. "Exploring the Effects of Tuition Increases on Racial/Ethnic Diversity at Public Colleges and Universities," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(1), pages 18-43, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:60:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11162-018-9502-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11162-018-9502-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11162-018-9502-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11162-018-9502-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael B. Paulsen & Edward P. St. John, 2002. "Social Class and College Costs," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(2), pages 189-236, March.
    2. Eric A. Hanushek & John F. Kain & Steven G. Rivkin, 2009. "New Evidence about Brown v. Board of Education: The Complex Effects of School Racial Composition on Achievement," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(3), pages 349-383, July.
    3. Donald E. Heller, 1997. "Student Price Response in Higher Education," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 68(6), pages 624-659, November.
    4. Mitchell J. Chang & Nida Denson & Victor Sáenz & Kimberly Misa, 2006. "The Educational Benefits of Sustaining Cross-Racial Interaction among Undergraduates," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(3), pages 430-455, May.
    5. Susan Dynarski, 2008. "Building the Stock of College-Educated Labor," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(3), pages 576-610.
    6. Susan M. Dynarski, 2003. "Does Aid Matter? Measuring the Effect of Student Aid on College Attendance and Completion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 279-288, March.
    7. Page, Lindsay C. & Scott-Clayton, Judith, 2016. "Improving college access in the United States: Barriers and policy responses," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 4-22.
    8. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2009. "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    9. Peter Hinrichs, 2024. "An Empirical Analysis of Racial Segregation in Higher Education," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 19(2), pages 218-251, Spring.
    10. David M. Drukker, 2003. "Testing for serial correlation in linear panel-data models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(2), pages 168-177, June.
    11. Clara H Mulder & William A V Clark, 2002. "Leaving Home for College and Gaining Independence," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(6), pages 981-999, June.
    12. Dynarski, Susan, 2000. "Hope for Whom? Financial Aid for the Middle Class and Its Impact on College Attendance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(3), pages 629-662, September.
    13. Thomas J. Kane, 1995. "Rising Public College Tuition and College Entry: How Well Do Public Subsidies Promote Access to College?," NBER Working Papers 5164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Peter Hinrichs, 2024. "An Empirical Analysis of Racial Segregation in Higher Education," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 19(2), pages 218-251, Spring.
    15. Rodney J. Andrews & Kevin M. Stange, 2019. "Price Regulation, Price Discrimination, and Equality of Opportunity in Higher Education: Evidence from Texas," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 31-65, November.
    16. Do, Chau, 2004. "The effects of local colleges on the quality of college attended," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 249-257, June.
    17. Caroline M. Hoxby, 1997. "How the Changing Market Structure of U.S. Higher Education Explains College Tuition," NBER Working Papers 6323, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Dylan Conger & Lesley J. Turner, 2015. "The Impact of Tuition Increases on Undocumented College Students' Attainment," NBER Working Papers 21135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Susan Dynarski & Judith Scott-Clayton, 2013. "Financial Aid Policy: Lessons from Research," NBER Working Papers 18710, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Pierre Canisius Kamanzi & Gaële Goastellec & Laurence Pelletier, 2021. "Mass University and Social Inclusion: The Paradoxical Effect of Public Policies," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(3), pages 32-43.
    2. Siân Mughan & Jessica Sherrod Hale & Joanna Woronkowicz, 2022. "Build It and will They Come?: The Effect of Investing in Cultural Consumption Amenities in Higher Education on Student-Level Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(1), pages 60-91, February.

    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. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/527ht1a96e837pq2dubgo2953q is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Estelle Herbaut & Koen Geven, 2019. "What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/527ht1a96e8, Sciences Po.
    3. Estelle Herbaut & Koen Geven, 2019. "What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid," Working Papers hal-03456943, HAL.
    4. Elsayed, Mahmoud A.A., 2016. "The Impact of Education Tax Benefits on College Completion," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 16-30.
    5. Ferreyra,Maria Marta & Garriga,Carlos & Martin,Juan David & Sanchez Diaz,Angelica Maria, 2020. "Raising College Access and Completion : How Much Can Free College Help ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9428, The World Bank.
    6. David Deming & Susan Dynarski, 2009. "Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the Postsecondary Attainment of the Poor," NBER Working Papers 15387, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Charles T. Clotfelter & Steven W. Hemelt & Helen F. Ladd, 2018. "Multifaceted Aid For Low‐Income Students And College Outcomes: Evidence From North Carolina," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 278-303, January.
    8. Estelle Herbaut & Koen Geven, 2019. "What Works to Reduce Inequalities in Higher Education? A Systematic Review of the (Quasi-)Experimental Literature on Outreach and Financial Aid," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03456943, HAL.
    9. Andrew Barr, 2015. "From the Battlefield to the Schoolyard: The Short- Term Impact of the Post- 9/11 GI Bill," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(3), pages 580-613.
    10. Vergolini, Loris & Zanini, Nadir, 2015. "Away, but not too far from home. The effects of financial aid on university enrolment decisions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 91-109.
    11. Angela Boatman & Bridget Terry Long, 2016. "Does Financial Aid Impact College Student Engagement?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(6), pages 653-681, September.
    12. Jeffrey A. Groen, 2011. "Building Knowledge Stocks Locally," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 25(4), pages 316-329, November.
    13. Eric Bettinger & Oded Gurantz & Laura Kawano & Bruce Sacerdote, 2016. "The Long Run Impacts of Merit Aid: Evidence from California’s Cal Grant," NBER Working Papers 22347, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Bifulco, Robert & Fletcher, Jason M. & Oh, Sun Jung & Ross, Stephen L., 2014. "Do high school peers have persistent effects on college attainment and other life outcomes?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 83-90.
    15. Gabrielle Fack & Julien Grenet, 2015. "Improving College Access and Success for Low-Income Students: Evidence from a Large Need-Based Grant Program," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 1-34, April.
    16. Susan M. Dynarski & Judith E. Scott-Clayton, 2008. "Complexity and Targeting in Federal Student Aid: A Quantitative Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 22, pages 109-150, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Dynarski, Susan M. & Scott–Clayton, Judith E., 2006. "The Cost of Complexity in Federal Student Aid: Lessons From Optimal Tax Theory and Behavioral Economics," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(2), pages 319-356, June.
    18. Deven E. Carlson & Alex Schmidt & Sarah Souders & Barbara L. Wolfe, 2020. "The Effects of Need-Based Financial Aid on Employment and Earnings: Experimental Evidence from the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars," NBER Working Papers 27125, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Lindsay C. Page & Judith Scott-Clayton, 2015. "Improving College Access in the United States: Barriers and Policy Responses," NBER Working Papers 21781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Turner, Nicholas, 2010. "The Effect of Tax-Based Federal Student Aid on College Enrollment," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt6758069g, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    21. David L. Sjoquist & John V. Winters, 2015. "State Merit-Based Financial Aid Programs And College Attainment," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 364-390, June.

    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:spr:reihed:v:60:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11162-018-9502-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.