IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v39y2004i3p723-745.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What's Happened to the Price of College?: Quality-Adjusted Net Price Indexes for Four-Year Colleges

Author

Listed:
  • Amy Ellen Schwartz
  • Benjamin Scafidi

Abstract

In this paper we estimate hedonic models of the (consumer) price of college to construct quality-adjusted net price indexes for U.S. four-year colleges, where the net price of college is defined as tuition and fees minus financial aid. For academic years 1990–91 to 1994–95, we find adjusting for financial aid leads to a 22 percent decline in the estimated price index for all fouryear colleges, while quality adjusting the results leads to a further, albeit smaller, decline. Nevertheless, public comprehensive colleges, perhaps an important gateway to college for students from low-income backgrounds, experienced the largest net price increases.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy Ellen Schwartz & Benjamin Scafidi, 2004. "What's Happened to the Price of College?: Quality-Adjusted Net Price Indexes for Four-Year Colleges," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(3), pages 723-745.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:39:y:2004:i:3:p:723-745
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/XXXIX/3/723
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Charles T. Clotfelter & Michael Rothschild, 1993. "Introduction to "Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education"," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education, pages 1-10, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Charles T. Clotfelter & Michael Rothschild, 1993. "Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot93-1, February.
    3. Bruce Sacerdote, 2001. "Peer Effects with Random Assignment: Results for Dartmouth Roommates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 681-704.
    4. Clotfelter, Charles T. & Rothschild, Michael (ed.), 1993. "Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226110547, April.
    5. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1996. "Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot96-1, February.
    6. Caroline M. Hoxby, 1997. "How the Changing Market Structure of U.S. Higher Education Explains College Tuition," NBER Working Papers 6323, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1999. "The Familiar but Curious Economics of Higher Education: Introduction to a Symposium," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 3-12, 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. Zhifeng Cai & Jonathan Heathcote, 2022. "College Tuition and Income Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(1), pages 81-121, January.
    2. Denise Hazlett & Cynthia D. Hill, 2003. "Calculating the Candy Price Index: A Classroom Inflation Experiment," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 214-223, January.
    3. Elliott, Caroline & Soo, Kwok Tong, 2013. "The international market for MBA qualifications: The relationship between tuition fees and applications," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 162-174.
    4. J. N. Lye and J. G. Hirschberg, 2012. "What is a high school worth?: A model of Australian private secondary school fees," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1161, The University of Melbourne.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.

    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. E. Han Kim & Min Zhu, 2010. "Universities as Firms: The Case of US Overseas Programs," NBER Chapters, in: American Universities in a Global Market, pages 163-201, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. 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.
    3. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2009. "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    4. 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.
    5. Brian Jacob & Brian McCall & Kevin Stange, 2018. "College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students’ Preferences for Consumption?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(2), pages 309-348.
    6. 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.
    7. Cook, Emily E. & Turner, Sarah, 2022. "Progressivity of pricing at US public universities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Christian Hertrich, 2013. "Asset Allocation Considerations for Pension Insurance Funds," Springer Books, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-658-02167-2, March.
    9. Egon Franck & Christian Opitz, 2001. "Zur Funktion von Studiengebühren angesichts von Informationsasymmetrien auf Humankapitalmärkten," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 91-106, March.
    10. Joseph Calhoun & David Kamerschen, 2010. "The impact of governing structure on the pricing behavior and market structure of public institutions of higher education in the U.S," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 57(3), pages 317-333, September.
    11. Steuerle, C. Eugene, 1997. "A Principled Approach to Educational Policy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 50(2), pages 351-365, June.
    12. Steuerle, C. Eugene, 1997. "A Principled Approach to Educational Policy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 50(2), pages 351-65, June.
    13. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1996. "Bibliography, Index," NBER Chapters, in: Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education, pages 285-308, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. 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.
    15. Joan Rosselló Villalonga, 2013. "Stratification of Public Universities and Students’ Segregation," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 205(2), pages 99-124, June.
    16. Laurie Bates & Rexford Santerre, 2000. "A Time Series Analysis of Private College Closures and Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 17(3), pages 267-276, November.
    17. Amanda H. Goodall & John M. McDowell & Larry D. Singell, 2017. "Do Economics Departments Improve after They Appoint a Top Scholar as Chairperson?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(4), pages 546-564, November.
    18. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano & Sinan Sarpça & Holger Sieg & Melanie Zaber, 2019. "Market power and price discrimination in the US market for higher education," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(1), pages 201-225, March.
    19. Frank A. Scott & Jeffrey D. Anstine, 1997. "Market Structure in the Production of Economics Ph.D.'s," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(1), pages 307-320, July.
    20. Ehrenberg, R.G.Ronald G., 2004. "Econometric studies of higher education," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 19-37.

    More about this item

    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:uwp:jhriss:v:39:y:2004:i:3:p:723-745. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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.