IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/9720.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does the Format of a Financial Aid Program Matter? The Effect of State In-Kind Tuition Subsidies

Author

Listed:
  • Bridget Terry Long

Abstract

Does the format of a financial aid program influence how it affects college decisions? This paper examines this question by focusing on state appropriations to public postsecondary institutions. While these funds subsidize tuition costs for in-state students, the in-kind format of the aid an resulting price gap between public and private colleges could also affect choices between colleges. The paper analyzes this possible effect utilizing a conditional logistic choice model, which exploits extensive match-specific information between individuals and nearly 2,700 colleges. Using estimates of how price, quality, and distance influence college decisions, I examine the impact of several dissimilar state subsidy regimes and simulate how decisions would change if the aid were awarded in other ways. The results suggest that the level and distribution pattern of state subsidies strongly influence decisions. When in-kind subsidies are large, students appear to choose public colleges even if the gap in resources between public and private options is substantial. If the aid were instead distributed as a credit applicable to any in-state college, up to 29 percent more students would prefer to attend private four-year colleges. The results also suggest that the in-kind subsidies create incentives for students to favor public four-year colleges over two-year institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Bridget Terry Long, 2003. "Does the Format of a Financial Aid Program Matter? The Effect of State In-Kind Tuition Subsidies," NBER Working Papers 9720, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9720
    Note: ED PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w9720.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Terry Long, B.Bridget, 2004. "How have college decisions changed over time? An application of the conditional logistic choice model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 271-296.
    2. Sonstelie, Jon, 1982. "The Welfare Cost of Free Public Schools," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(4), pages 794-808, August.
    3. Victor R. Fuchs, 1996. "Individual and Social Responsibility: Child Care, Education, Medical Care, and Long-Term Care in America," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number fuch96-1, February.
    4. Pechman, Joseph A, 1972. "Note on the Intergenerational Transfer of Public Higher-Education Benefits," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(3), pages 256-259, Part II, .
    5. Fuchs, Victor R. (ed.), 1996. "Individual and Social Responsibility," National Bureau of Economic Research Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226267869, April.
    6. Peltzman, Sam, 1973. "The Effect of Government Subsidies-in-Kind on Private Expenditures: The Case of Higher Education," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(1), pages 1-27, Jan.-Feb..
    7. James M. Poterba, 1996. "Government Intervention in the Markets for Education and Health Care: How and Why?," NBER Chapters, in: Individual and Social Responsibility: Child Care, Education, Medical Care, and Long-Term Care in America, pages 277-308, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Johnson, George E, 1984. "Subsidies for Higher Education," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(3), pages 303-318, July.
    9. Daniel McFadden, 1977. "Quantitative Methods for Analyzing Travel Behaviour of Individuals: Some Recent Developments," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 474, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    10. 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.
    11. Caroline M. Hoxby & Bridget Terry, 1999. "Explaining Rising Income and wage Inequality Among the College Educated," NBER Working Papers 6873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Ganderton, Philip T., 1992. "The effect of subsidies in kind on the choice of a college," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 269-292, August.
    13. Allen, Robert F. & Shen, Jianshou, 1999. "Some new evidence of the character of competition among higher education institutions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 465-470, October.
    14. John M. Quigley & Daniel L. Rubinfeld, 1993. "Public Choices in Public Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education, pages 243-284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Hans J. Baumgartner & Viktor Steiner, 2004. "Enrolment into Higher Education and Changes in Repayment Obligations of Student Aid – Microeconometric Evidence for Germany," HEW 0410003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Ashantha Ranasinghe & Xuejuan Su, 2023. "When social assistance meets market power: A mixed duopoly view of health insurance in the United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 851-869, October.
    3. Eric A. Hanushek, 1998. "Conclusions and controversies about the effectiveness of school resources," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 4(Mar), pages 11-27.
    4. Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Mark R. Cullen, 2010. "Estimating Welfare in Insurance Markets Using Variation in Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 877-921.
    5. Matthew Panhans, 2019. "Adverse Selection in ACA Exchange Markets: Evidence from Colorado," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 1-36, April.
    6. Andrei Shleifer, 1998. "State versus Private Ownership," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 133-150, Fall.
    7. Stephanie R. Cellini & Rajeev Darolia & Lesley J. Turner, 2020. "Where Do Students Go When For-Profit Colleges Lose Federal Aid?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 46-83, May.
    8. Hanushek, Eric A. & Leung, Charles Ka Yui & Yilmaz, Kuzey, 2003. "Redistribution through education and other transfer mechanisms," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(8), pages 1719-1750, November.
    9. Tilman Klumpp & Xuejuan Su, 2019. "Price–quality competition in a mixed duopoly," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(3), pages 400-432, June.
    10. Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Raymond Kluender & Paul Schrimpf, 2016. "Beyond Statistics: The Economic Content of Risk Scores," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 195-224, April.
    11. Limwattananon, Supon & Neelsen, Sven & O'Donnell, Owen & Prakongsai, Phusit & Tangcharoensathien, Viroj & van Doorslaer, Eddy & Vongmongkol, Vuthiphan, 2015. "Universal coverage with supply-side reform: The impact on medical expenditure risk and utilization in Thailand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 79-94.
    12. Gasparini, Leonardo C. & Pinto, Santiago M., 2006. "Equality of opportunity and optimal cash and in-kind policies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-2), pages 143-169, January.
    13. Katherine Baicker & Jonathan Skinner, 2011. "Health Care Spending Growth and the Future of U.S. Tax Rates," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 39-68.
    14. Victor R. Fuchs, 2005. "Health, Government, and Irving Fisher," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(1), pages 407-425, January.
    15. Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2014. "The Effect of Patient Cost Sharing on Utilization, Health, and Risk Protection," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2152-2184, July.
    16. Amy Finkelstein & Robin McKnight, 2005. "What Did Medicare Do (And Was It Worth It)?," NBER Working Papers 11609, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Wuppermann, Amelie Catherine, 2011. "Empirical Essays in Health and Education Economics," Munich Dissertations in Economics 13187, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    18. Hans Pitlik & Margit Schratzenstaller-Altzinger, 2011. "Growth Implications of Structure and Size of Public Sectors," WIFO Working Papers 404, WIFO.
    19. Klumpp, Tilman & Su, Xuejuan, 2017. "Public Private Competition," Working Papers 2017-10, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    20. Blank, Rebecca M, 2000. "When Can Public Policy Makers Rely on Private Markets? The Effective Provision of Social Services," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(462), pages 34-49, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:9720. 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: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.