IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

College Expansion and Curriculum Choice

Author Info

Listed author(s):

Abstract

This paper analyzes the impact of college enrollment expansion on student academic achievements and labor market outcomes. When public policies promote “access” to college education, colleges adjust their curricula: Non-elite public colleges adopt a less demanding curriculum to accommodate the influx of low-ability students, benefiting them at the expense of middle-ability students. In response to the reduced competitive pressure for middle-ability students, private colleges adopt a more demanding curriculum to better serve their high-ability students, again at the expense of middle-ability students. The model offers an explanation to the observed U-shaped earnings growth profile among college-educated workers in the U.S.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~econwps/2012/wp2012-25.pdf
File Function: Full text
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by University of Alberta, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 2012-25.

as
in new window

Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: 01 Oct 2012
Date of revision: 01 Apr 2015
Handle: RePEc:ris:albaec:2012_025
Contact details of provider: Postal:
8-14 HM Tory, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H4

Phone: (780) 492-3406
Fax: (780) 492-3300
Web page: http://www.ualberta.ca/economics

More information through EDIRC

Keywords: curriculum; postsecondary education; enrollment expansion; income distribution;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets
  • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
  • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
  • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
  • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as
in new window


  1. David Card & Thomas Lemieux, 2001. "Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 705-746.
  2. Rey, Elena Del, 2001. "Teaching versus Research: A Model of State University Competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 356-373, March.
  3. Driskill, Robert A & Horowitz, Andrew W, 2002. "Investment in Hierarchical Human Capital," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(1), pages 48-58, February.
  4. Oded Galor & Omer Moav, 2000. "Ability-Biased Technological Transition, Wage Inequality, and Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 115(2), pages 469-497.
  5. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano, 2008. "Educational Vouchers And Cream Skimming," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1395-1435, November.
  6. Daron Acemoglu & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2001. "Productivity Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 563-606.
  7. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
  8. Su, Xuejuan, 2006. "Endogenous determination of public budget allocation across education stages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 438-456, December.
  9. Costrell, Robert M, 1994. "A Simple Model of Educational Standards," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 956-971, September.
  10. Eisenkopf, Gerald & Wohlschlegel, Ansgar, 2012. "Regulation in the market for education and optimal choice of curriculum," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 53-65.
  11. Lance Lochner & Youngki Shin, 2014. "Understanding Earnings Dynamics: Identifying and Estimating the Changing Roles of Unobserved Ability, Permanent and Transitory Shocks," NBER Working Papers 20068, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  12. Su, Xuejuan, 2004. "The allocation of public funds in a hierarchical educational system," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 2485-2510, December.
  13. Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard E, 1998. "Competition between Private and Public Schools, Vouchers, and Peer-Group Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 33-62, March.
  14. Epple, Dennis & Newlon, Elizabeth & Romano, Richard, 2002. "Ability tracking, school competition, and the distribution of educational benefits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 1-48, January.
  15. Blankenau, William, 2005. "Public schooling, college subsidies and growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 487-507, March.
  16. Epple, Dennis & Figlio, David & Romano, Richard, 2004. "Competition between private and public schools: testing stratification and pricing predictions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1215-1245, July.
  17. Elise S. Brezis & Joel Hellier, 2013. "Social mobility at the top: Why are elites self-reproducing?," Working Papers 312, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
  18. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Holger Sieg, 2006. "Admission, Tuition, and Financial Aid Policies in the Market for Higher Education," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(4), pages 885-928, 07.
  19. William Blankenau & Steven Cassou & Beth Ingram, 2007. "Allocating Government Education Expenditures Across K-12 and College Education," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 31(1), pages 85-112, April.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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

as
in new window


Cited by:

  1. Volker Meier & Ioana Cosmina Schiopu, 2015. "Why Academic Quality in Higher Education Declines," CESifo Working Paper Series 5480, CESifo Group Munich.
  2. Elise S. Brezis & Joel Hellier, 2013. "Social mobility at the top: Why are elites self-reproducing?," Working Papers 312, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
  3. Hellier, Joël, 2017. "Stratified higher education,social mobility at the top and efficiency: The case of the French ‘Grandes écoles’," MPRA Paper 76724, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  4. Elisa S. Brezis & Joel Hellier, 2016. "Social Mobility and Higher-Education Policy," Working Papers 095, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:albaec:2012_025. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Joseph Marchand)

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.