Education Economics Commons^™

Evaluating The Impact Of State Funding Vehicles Of Appropriations And Financial Aid On Graduation Rates At Public Institutions: A Multilevel Analysis, Tara Abbott

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Guided by a theoretical framework derived from principal-agent models, persistence theories or college impact models, and microeconomic theory, the present study utilized multilevel modeling techniques to assess the correlation between state higher education funding vehicles of appropriations, need-based financial aid, and merit-based financial aid and graduation rates after controlling for known covariates at the institution and state levels. The present study also evaluated the correlation between funding vehicles and minority student graduation rates as well as determined if funding vehicles impact institutions with greater percentages of minority students differently than those with a less diverse student population. The present study …