Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Myths And Realities About Rising College Tuition, David H. Feldman

David Feldman

The list-price tuition at U.S. colleges and universities has risen by roughly 7% per year since the early 1980s. The inflation rate has averaged just 3.2%. These are some of the numbers that fuel public anxiety about how to pay for higher education.

The story of rising tuition is complex. Unfortunately, much of the public discussion about the cost of attendance is too simplistic. To understand the reasons for rising tuition, and the effect that this has on families, we need to break down the forces that affect how tuition is set and that determine who pays the bill.

The Anatomy Of College Tuition, Robert B. Archibald, David H. Feldman

David Feldman

A report by Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman based on their book, Why Does College Cost So Much? explores an economic framework for the forces driving college tuition.

Federal Financial Aid Policy And College Behavior, Robert B. Archibald, David H. Feldman

David Feldman

This monograph by Robert B. Archibald and David H. Feldman finds little evidence that increases in federal financial aid drive up college tuition, and that institutions rarely rely on federal aid as a rationale to give out less of their own institutional aid.

The authors use the so-called Bennett Hypothesis as the launching pad for their analysis. First advanced by William Bennett, secretary of education in the Reagan administration, the theory suggests that the availability of federal student loans, particularly subsidized loans, provides “cover” for institutions to raise tuition because students can offset any price increase with these loans. However, …

Does Federal Aid Drive College Tuition?, Robert B. Archibald, David H. Feldman

David Feldman

The “greedy colleges” thesis conflicts with how nonprofit universities decide on admissions and pricing.

A Quality-Preserving Increase In Four-Year College Attendance, Robert B. Archibald, David H. Feldman, Peter Mchenry

David Feldman

We use the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 data sets to evaluate changes in the college matching process. Rising attendance rates at 4-year institutions have not decreased average preparedness of college goers or of college graduates, and further attendance gains are possible before diminishing returns set in. We use multinomial logic models to demonstrate that measures of likely success (grade point average) became more predictive of college attendance over time, while other student characteristics such as race and parents’ education became less predictive. Our evidence suggests that schools …