IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/umapmt/342960.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Relationship Between Institutional Spending & College Student Persistence: Where Should Universities Spend Their Money?

Author

Listed:
  • Whitney, Joseph

Abstract

As any U.S. university student can attest, college in America is expensive. Because of this, there has been much public scrutiny over how universities spend their money. Between 2010 and 2022, average institutional expenses at not-for-profit colleges increased from $21,462/student to $35,324/student, accounting for inflation (NCES). It doesn’t help that at the same time, states have been struggling to increase their funding for higher education at the same rate that enrollment has been increasing, there being a 10% drop in real state funding per student between 1987 and 2018 (Ma et al., 2019). The increase in university spending has been pegged by the media on a host of things- higher teacher salaries, “administrative bloat”, and scope creep in the services colleges are expected to provide to students all being examples (Goodkind, 2024; McGurran, 2023; Weinstein Jr, 2023; Woodhouse, 2015). Of particular ire has been increased spending on lavish amenities, such as infinity pools and lazy rivers, to draw in prospective (and ideally wealthy) students (Korn et al., 2023; Valhouli, 2015; Woodhouse, 2015).

Suggested Citation

  • Whitney, Joseph, 2024. "The Relationship Between Institutional Spending & College Student Persistence: Where Should Universities Spend Their Money?," Master's Theses and Plan B Papers 342960, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:umapmt:342960
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.342960
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/342960/files/Joseph%20Whitney-%20Thesis%20Revised%202.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.342960?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. Marvin A. Titus, 2006. "Understanding the Influence of the Financial Context of Institutions on Student Persistence at Four-Year Colleges and Universities," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(2), pages 353-375, March.
    2. Daniel C. Hickman & Andrew G. Meyer, 2017. "Does Athletic Success Influence Persistence At Higher Education Institutions? New Evidence Using Panel Data," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 658-676, October.
    3. Gloria Crisp & Erin Doran & Nicole A. Salis Reyes, 2018. "Predicting Graduation Rates at 4-year Broad Access Institutions Using a Bayesian Modeling Approach," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(2), pages 133-155, March.
    4. Webber, Douglas A. & Ehrenberg, Ronald G., 2010. "Do expenditures other than instructional expenditures affect graduation and persistence rates in American higher education?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 947-958, December.
    5. Abott, Carolyn & Kogan, Vladimir & Lavertu, Stéphane & Peskowitz, Zachary, 2020. "School district operational spending and student outcomes: Evidence from tax elections in seven states," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    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. Ann M. Gansemer-Topf & Jillian Downey & Katherine Thompson & Ulrike Genschel, 2018. "Did the Recession Impact Student Success? Relationships of Finances, Staffing and Institutional Type on Retention," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(2), pages 174-197, March.
    2. Jeongeun Kim & Molly Ott & Lindsey Dippold, 2020. "University and Department Influences on Scientists’ Occupational Outcomes," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(2), pages 197-228, March.
    3. Gloria Crisp & Erin Doran & Nicole A. Salis Reyes, 2018. "Predicting Graduation Rates at 4-year Broad Access Institutions Using a Bayesian Modeling Approach," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(2), pages 133-155, March.
    4. Sinjini Mitra & Gerard Beenen, 2019. "A Comparative Study of Learning Styles and Motivational Factors in Traditional and Online Sections of a Business Course," INFORMS Transactions on Education, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Kelchen, Robert & Ortagus, Justin & Rosinger, Kelly & Cassell, Alex, 2022. "The effects of state performance funding policies on student loan debt," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    6. Ehrenberg, Ronald G., 2010. "Analyzing the factors that influence persistence rates in STEM field, majors: Introduction to the symposium," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 888-891, December.
    7. Daniel C. Hickman & Andrew G. Meyer, 2017. "Does Athletic Success Influence Persistence At Higher Education Institutions? New Evidence Using Panel Data," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 658-676, October.
    8. Chen, Jing & Li, Rui, 2023. "Pay for elite private schools or pay for higher housing prices? Evidence from an exogenous policy shock," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Eaton, C. & Kulkarni, K. & Birgeneau, Robert & Brady, Henry & Hout, Michael, 2017. "AFFORDING THE DREAM: Student Debt and State Need-Based Grant Aid for Public University Students," University of California at Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education qt24j8945b, Center for Studies in Higher Education, UC Berkeley.
    10. María Orduz, 2022. "Effect of educational spending on academic performance under different institutional arrangements," Documentos CEDE 20224, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    11. Calcagno, Juan Carlos & Bailey, Thomas & Jenkins, Davis & Kienzl, Gregory & Leinbach, Timothy, 2008. "Community college student success: What institutional characteristics make a difference?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 632-645, December.
    12. Cécile Bonneau, 2020. "The Concentration of investment in education in the US (1970-2018)," Working Papers halshs-02875965, HAL.
    13. Nicolai T. Borgen & Lars J. Kirkebøen & Andreas Kotsadam & Oddbjørn Raaum, 2022. "Do funds for more teachers improve student outcomes?," Discussion Papers 982, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    14. Ozan Jaquette & Edna Parra, 2016. "The Problem with the Delta Cost Project Database," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 57(5), pages 630-651, August.
    15. Webber, Douglas A., 2012. "Expenditures and postsecondary graduation: An investigation using individual-level data from the state of Ohio," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 615-618.
    16. Taylor, Ryan C. & Liang, Xiaofan & Laubichler, Manfred D. & West, Geoffrey B. & Kempes, Christopher P. & Dumas, Marion, 2021. "Systematic shifts in scaling behavior based on organizational strategy in universities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112604, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Frank Fernandez & Xiaodan Hu & Mark Umbricht, 2023. "Examining Wyoming’s Endowment Challenge Program: A Synthetic Control Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(5), pages 654-674, August.
    18. Danielle V. Handel & Eric A. Hanushek, 2024. "Contexts of Convenience: Generalizing from Published Evaluations of School Finance Policies," Evaluation Review, , vol. 48(3), pages 461-494, June.
    19. Donggeun Kim & Seoyong Kim, 2018. "Sustainable Education: Analyzing the Determinants of University Student Dropout by Nonlinear Panel Data Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-18, March.
    20. Enami, Ali & Alm, James & Aranda, Rodrigo, 2021. "Labor versus capital in the provision of public services: Estimating the marginal products of inputs in the production of student outcomes✰," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).

    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:ags:umapmt:342960. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/daumnus.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.