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Estimating the Social Value of Higher Education: Willingness to Pay for Community and Technical Colleges

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Author Info
Blomquist, Glenn C. () (University of Kentucky)
Coomes, Paul A. () (University of Louisville)
Jepsen, Christopher () (University of Kentucky)
Koford, Brandon C. () (Valdosta State University)
Troske, Kenneth () (University of Kentucky)

Additional information is available for the following registered author(s):

Abstract

Much is known about private returns to education in the form of higher earnings. Less is known about social value, over and above the private, market value. Associations between education and socially-desirable outcomes are strong, but disentangling the effect of education from other causal factors is challenging. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the social value of one form of higher education. We elicit willingness to pay for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System directly through a stated-preferences survey and compare our estimate of total social value to our estimates of private value in the form of increased earnings. Our earnings estimates are based on two distinct data sets, one administrative and one from the U.S. Census. The difference between the total social value and the increase in earnings is our measure of the education externality. Our work differs from previous research by eliciting values directly in a way that yields a total value including any external benefits and by focusing on education at the community college level. Our preferred estimate indicates the social value of expanding the system substantially exceeds private value by approximately 50 percent.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 4086.

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Length: 56 pages
Date of creation: Mar 2009
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4086

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Related research
Keywords: social returns; education externalities; contingent valuation; earnings;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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