IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wil/wilehe/58.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Stratification and Hierarchy Among U.S. Colleges and Universities

Author

Listed:
  • Winston, G.C.

Abstract

Colleges and universities in the US differ markedly in their access to economic resources, hence in what they can do for their students. National (IPEDS) data are used here to describe the resulting hierarchy that's reflected in schools' spending on their students, the prices those students pay, and the subsidies they get in consequence. Both historical data and projections based on recent institutional saving suggest that economic disparities among institutions and their students are increasing. In a final section, the paper asks what to make of this: what we can say about "the right degree" of institutional disparity, so whether we have too much, too little, or about the right amount of differentiation.

Suggested Citation

  • Winston, G.C., 2000. "Economic Stratification and Hierarchy Among U.S. Colleges and Universities," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-58, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    • Handle: RePEc:wil:wilehe:58
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sites.williams.edu/wpehe/files/2011/06/DP-58.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael S. McPherson & Morton Owen Schapiro, 1994. "Merit Aid: Students, Institutions, and Society," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-25, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    2. Winston, G.C., 2000. "The Positional Arms Race in Higher Education," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-54, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    3. Caroline M. Hoxby & Bridget Terry, 1999. "Explaining Rising Income and wage Inequality Among the College Educated," NBER Working Papers 6873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1996. "Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot96-1, March.
    5. Stacy Berg Dale & Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 117(4), pages 1491-1527.
    6. Winston, G.C. & Zimmerman, D.J., 2000. "Where is Aggressive Price Competition Taking Higher Education?," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-56, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    7. Winston, Gordon C., 1989. "Imperfectly rational choice : Rationality as the result of a costly activity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 67-86, August.
    8. Gordon C. Winston & Yen, I.C., 1995. "Costs, Prices, Subsidies, and Aid in U.S. Higher Education," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-32, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    9. Winston, G.C. & Carbone, J.C. & Lewis, E.G., 1998. "What's Been Happening to Higher Education? Facts, Trends, and Data," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-47, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    10. Gordon C. Winston, 1999. "Subsidies, Hierarchy and Peers: The Awkward Economics of Higher Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 13-36, Winter.
    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. 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.
    2. John Bound & Brad Hershbein & Bridget Terry Long, 2009. "Playing the Admissions Game: Student Reactions to Increasing College Competition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 119-146, Fall.

    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. Gordon Winston & David Zimmerman, 2004. "Peer Effects in Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 395-424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Gordon C. Winston & Jared C. Carbone & Laurie C. Hurshman, 2001. "Saving, Wealth, Performance, and Revenues in US Colleges and Universities," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-59, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    4. 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.
    5. Pablo A. Peña, 2010. "Pricing in the Not-for-Profit Sector: Can Wealth Growth at American Colleges Explain Chronic Tuition Increases?," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(3), pages 242-273.
    6. 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.
    7. Polishchuk, L., 2010. "Collective Reputation in Higher Education: An Equilibrium Model," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 7, pages 46-69.
    8. Stacy Berg Dale & Alan B. Krueger, 2002. "Estimating the Payoff to Attending a More Selective College: An Application of Selection on Observables and Unobservables," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 117(4), pages 1491-1527.
    9. Ann M. Gansemer‐Topf & Peter F. Orazem & Darin R. Wohlgemuth, 2021. "Do liberal arts colleges maximize profit?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(1), pages 274-294, July.
    10. Gordon C. Winston, 1996. "The Economic Structure of Higher Education : Subsidies, Customer-Inputs, and Hierarchy," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-40, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    11. Jeongeun Kim, 2018. "The Functions and Dysfunctions of College Rankings: An Analysis of Institutional Expenditure," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(1), pages 54-87, February.
    12. Christopher Avery & Caroline Minter Hoxby, 2004. "Do and Should Financial Aid Packages Affect Students' College Choices?," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 239-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Karly S. Ford & Kelly Ochs Rosinger & Qiong Zhu, 2021. "Consolidation of Class Advantages in the Wake of the Great Recession: University Enrollments, Educational Opportunity and Stratification," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 62(7), pages 915-941, November.
    14. Hill, Catharine B. & Winston, Gordon C., 2006. "Access: Net prices, affordability, and equity at a highly selective college," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 29-41, February.
    15. Pedro Teixeira & Vera Rocha & Ricardo Biscaia & Margarida F. Cardoso, 2014. "Public and private higher education in Europe: competition, complementarity or worlds apart?," Chapters, in: Andrea Bonaccorsi (ed.), Knowledge, Diversity and Performance in European Higher Education, chapter 3, pages iii-iii, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. David L. Sjoquist & John V. Winters, 2016. "The Effects of State Merit Aid Programs on Attendance at Elite Colleges," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(2), pages 527-549, October.
    17. Elizabeth Becker & Cotton M. Lindsay & Gary Grizzle, 2003. "The derived demand for faculty research," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(8), pages 549-567.
    18. Martin D. Dooley & A. Abigail Payne & A. Leslie Robb, 2012. "The impact of cost on the choice of university: evidence from Ontario," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(2), pages 755-783, May.
    19. Justine S. Hastings & Christopher A. Neilson & Seth D. Zimmerman, 2013. "Are Some Degrees Worth More than Others? Evidence from college admission cutoffs in Chile," NBER Working Papers 19241, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Laura Thissen & Sjef Ederveen, 2006. "Higher education; time for coordination on a European level?," CPB Discussion Paper 68, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    EDUCATION ; INCOME ; STUDENTS ; CHOICE;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid

    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:wil:wilehe:58. 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: Stephen Sheppard (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cdwilus.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.