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Explaining Increases in Higher Education Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Robert B. Archibald

    (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary)

  • David H. Feldman

    (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary)

Abstract

This paper presents new evidence on the conflict between two competing explanations of the increase in college costs, the cost disease theory of William Baumol and William Bowen and the revenue theory of cost of Howard Bowen. Using cross section data, the paper demonstrates that the cost disease explanation dominates.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert B. Archibald & David H. Feldman, 2006. "Explaining Increases in Higher Education Costs," Working Papers 42, Department of Economics, College of William and Mary.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwm:wpaper:42
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    File URL: http://economics.wm.edu/wp/cwm_wp42.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Baumol, William J, 1972. "Macroeconomics of Unbalanced Growth: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 150-150, March.
    2. Thomas Lemieux, 2006. "Postsecondary Education and Increasing Wage Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 195-199, May.
    3. Robert B. Archibald & David H. Feldman, 2006. "State Higher Education Spending and the Tax Revolt," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(4), pages 618-644, July.
    4. Claudia Goldin & Robert A. Margo, 1992. "The Great Compression: The Wage Structure in the United States at Mid-Century," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(1), pages 1-34.
    5. Clotfelter, Charles T. & Ehrenberg, Ronald G. & Getz, Malcolm & Siegfried, John J., 1992. "Economic Challenges in Higher Education," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226110509.
    6. Bela Balassa, 1964. "The Purchasing-Power Parity Doctrine: A Reappraisal," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(6), pages 584-584.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Agasisti, Tommaso & Barra, Cristian & Zotti, Roberto, 2016. "Evaluating the efficiency of Italian public universities (2008–2011) in presence of (unobserved) heterogeneity," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 47-58.
    2. Taylor K. Odle, 2022. "Free to Spend? Institutional Autonomy and Expenditures on Executive Compensation, Faculty Salaries, and Research Activities," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 63(1), pages 1-32, February.
    3. Catalin Dragomirescu-Gaina, 2015. "An empirical inquiry into the determinants of public education spending in Europe," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Grey Gordon & Aaron Hedlund, 2017. "Accounting for the Rise in College Tuition," NBER Chapters, in: Education, Skills, and Technical Change: Implications for Future US GDP Growth, pages 357-394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. 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.
    6. Robert Kelchen, 2020. "Does the Bennett Hypothesis Hold in Professional Education? An Empirical Analysis," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(3), pages 357-382, May.
    7. Andrés Álvarez & Camilo Gómez & Hernando Zuleta, 2019. "Bequests, Imperfections in Factor Markets, and Long-Run Inequality: A Theoretical Assessment of Piketty," Documentos CEDE 17674, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    8. Jos L. T. Blanc & Alex A. S. van Heezik & Bas Blank, 2023. "Productivity and efficiency of central government departments: a mixed-effect model applied to Dutch data in the period 2012-2019," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 47(3), pages 335-351.
    9. Xiaodan Hu & Pedro Villarreal, 2019. "Public Tuition on the Rise: Estimating the Effects of Louisiana’s Performance-Based Funding Policy on Institutional Tuition Levels," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(5), pages 636-669, August.
    10. Aaron Hedlund & Grey Gordon, 2017. "Accounting for Tuition Increases at U.S. Colleges," 2017 Meeting Papers 1550, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. 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.
    12. Kelchen, Robert, 2019. "An empirical examination of the Bennett hypothesis in law school prices," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    13. Duane Rockerbie & Stephen Easton, 2024. "Government Funding Allocations to Universities and the Business Cycle: An Analysis of Canada’s Provincial Governments," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-12, April.
    14. Tommaso Agasisti & Guo-liang Yang & Yao-yao Song & Carolyn-Thi Thanh Dung Tran, 2021. "Evaluating the higher education productivity of Chinese and European “elite” universities using a meta-frontier approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(7), pages 5819-5853, July.
    15. Ozan Jaquette & Bradley R. Curs, 2023. "Enrollment Growth and Faculty Hiring at Public Research Universities," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(3), pages 349-378, May.
    16. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Isidoro Mazza, 2016. "Efficiency assessment and convergence in teaching and research in Italian public universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 107(3), pages 1063-1094, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Higher education costs; cost disease; revenue theory of cost;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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