IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v28y2010i1p94-109.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enrollment At Highly Selective Private Colleges: Who Is Left Behind?

Author

Listed:
  • HASHEM DEZHBAKHSH
  • JOHN A. KARIKARI

Abstract

This study examines the enrollment decisions of freshmen applicants to highly selective private colleges relative to highly selective public colleges. The empirical analysis shows that college enrollment varies by family income—in particular, low‐income students with demonstrated financial need are less likely to enroll at private colleges, controlling for other factors including race and financial aid. Grant aid tends to have a moderating effect but the amount of aid under the existing college pricing and financial aid system appears to be inadequate. This finding provides support for recent revamping of financial aid offerings to low‐income students by some highly selective private colleges. In addition, the results suggest that while family income appears to be a strong determinant of enrollment at these colleges, race does not seem to play a role. (JEL I21)

Suggested Citation

  • Hashem Dezhbakhsh & John A. Karikari, 2010. "Enrollment At Highly Selective Private Colleges: Who Is Left Behind?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(1), pages 94-109, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:28:y:2010:i:1:p:94-109
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2009.00166.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.2009.00166.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1465-7287.2009.00166.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2000. "Benevolent Colluders? The Effects of Antitrust Action on College Financial Aid and Tuition," NBER Working Papers 7754, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Thomas J. Kane, 1995. "Rising Public College Tuition and College Entry: How Well Do Public Subsidies Promote Access to College?," NBER Working Papers 5164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Dennis W. Carlton & Gustavo E. Bamberger & Roy J. Epstein, 1995. "Antitrust and Higher Education: Was There a Conspiracy to Restrict Financial Aid?," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(1), pages 131-147, Spring.
    4. Bridget Terry Long, 2004. "Does the Format of a Financial Aid Program Matter? The Effect of State In-Kind Tuition Subsidies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(3), pages 767-782, August.
    5. Avery, Christopher & Fairbanks, Andrew & Zeckhauser, Richard, 2001. "What Worms for the Early Bird: Early Admissions at Elite Colleges," Working Paper Series rwp01-049, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Steven C. Salop & Lawrence J. White, 1991. "Policy Watch: Antitrust Goes to College," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 193-202, Summer.
    7. Catharine B. Hill & Gordon C. Winston & Stephanie A. Boyd, 2005. "Affordability: Family Incomes and Net Prices at Highly Selective Private Colleges and Universities," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(4), pages 769-790.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. DANIEL P. McMILLEN & LARRY D. SINGELL & GLEN R. WADDELL, 2007. "Spatial Competition And The Price Of College," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 45(4), pages 817-833, October.
    2. Bridget T. Long, 2004. "The Impact of Federal Tax Credits for Higher Education Expenses," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 101-168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Heather Antecol & Janet Kiholm Smith, 2012. "The Early Decision Option in College Admission and Its Impact on Student Diversity," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(1), pages 217-249.
    4. John A. Karikari & Hashem Dezhbakhsh, 2013. "Are selective private and public colleges affordable?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 60-78, February.
    5. Holger Sieg & Dennis Epple & Richard Romano, 2003. "Peer effects, financial aid and selection of students into colleges and universities: an empirical analysis," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(5), pages 501-525.
    6. Robert W. Crandall & Clifford Winston, 2005. "Does antitrust policy improve consumer welfare? Assessing the evidence," Chapters, in: Colin Robinson (ed.), Governments, Competition and Utility Regulation, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Karsten Mause, 2009. "Too Much Competition in Higher Education? Some Conceptual Remarks on the Excessive‐Signaling Hypothesis," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(5), pages 1107-1133, November.
    8. Cory Koedel, 2009. "Postsecondary Education Structure," Working Papers 0906, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 04 Oct 2010.
    9. Richard Murphy & Gill Wyness, 2023. "Testing Means-Tested Aid," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(3), pages 687-727.
    10. Shao, Ling, 2014. "Estimating the relationship between calculated financial need and actual aid received using quarter of birth instruments," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 165-174.
    11. Bernhard Eckwert & Itzhak Zilcha, 2012. "Private Investment in Higher Education: Comparing Alternative Funding Schemes," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 79(313), pages 76-96, January.
    12. Bas Jacobs, 2002. "An investigation of education finance reform; graduate taxes and income contingent loans in the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 9.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    13. Moshe Buchinsky & Phillip Leslie, 2010. "Educational Attainment and the Changing U.S. Wage Structure: Dynamic Implications on Young Individuals' Choices," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 541-594, July.
    14. Bryan Caplan & Edward Stringham, 2003. "Networks, Law, and the Paradox of Cooperation," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 16(4), pages 309-326, December.
    15. Riphahn, Regina T., 2004. "The Enrollment Effect of Secondary School Fees in Post-War Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1295, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Márton Medgyesi & Temesváry, Z., 2013. "GINI DP 84: Conditional cash transfers in high- income OECD countries and their effects on human capital accumulation," GINI Discussion Papers 84, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    17. Hemelt, Steven W. & Marcotte, Dave E., 2008. "Rising Tuition and Enrollment in Public Higher Education," IZA Discussion Papers 3827, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. 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.
    19. Amanda Pallais, 2015. "Small Differences That Matter: Mistakes in Applying to College," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 493-520.
    20. George B. Bulman & Caroline M. Hoxby, 2015. "The Returns to the Federal Tax Credits for Higher Education," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 13-88.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    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:bla:coecpo:v:28:y:2010:i:1:p:94-109. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.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.