IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wil/wilehe/40.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Economic Structure of Higher Education : Subsidies, Customer-Inputs, and Hierarchy

Author

Listed:
  • Gordon C. Winston

Abstract

Misurderstanding its economic structure will make it more difficult to predict the effects of changes that are sweeping higher education : increasing price competition, the weakening of tenure, taxpayer revolts, new technologies, the reduction in research support, etc. This paper follows Hansmann, James, Rothschild-White, Baku, and Clotfelter, inter alia, to describe the economic structure of higher education and identify its unique characteristics and circumstances.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:wil:wilehe:40
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://sites.williams.edu/wpehe/files/2011/06/DP-40.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susan Rose-Ackerman, 1996. "Altruism, Nonprofits, and Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 701-728, June.
    2. Philip J. Cook & Robert H. Frank, 1993. "The Growing Concentration of Top Students at Elite Schools," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education, pages 121-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Hansmann, Henry, 1990. "Why Do Universities Have Endowments?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 3-42, January.
    4. 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.
    5. Gordon C. Winston & Valerie Weber, 1994. "The Economic Performance of Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore and Wellesley 1988-9 to 1992-3: A Global Comparison," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-28, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    6. Basu, Kaushik, 1989. "A Theory of Association: Social Status, Prices and Markets," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(4), pages 653-671, October.
    7. Estelle James, 1978. "Product Mix and Cost Disaggregation: A Reinterpretation of the Economics of Higher Education," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 13(2), pages 157-186.
    8. Gordon C. Winston & Yen, I.C., 1995. "Costs, Prices, Subsidies, and Aid in U.S. Higher Education," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-32, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    9. Rothschild, Michael & White, Lawrence J, 1995. "The Analytics of the Pricing of Higher Education and Other Services in Which the Customers Are Inputs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(3), pages 573-586, June.
    10. 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, August.
    11. Charles T. Clotfelter, 1996. "Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number clot96-1.
    12. Gordon C. Winston & Lewis, E.G., 1996. "Physical Capital and Capital Costs in US Colleges and Universities: 1993," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-35, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    13. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    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. David J. Zimmerman, 2003. "Peer Effects in Academic Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 9-23, February.
    2. Jonathan Pincus, 1998. "Is the Treasury subsidising Australian Undergraduates? or, Investing in Higher Education," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 1998-15, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    3. Winston, G.C., 1998. "A Guide to Measuring College Costs," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-46, Department of Economics, Williams College.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2009. "The Changing Selectivity of American Colleges," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 95-118, Fall.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Cook, Emily E. & Turner, Sarah, 2022. "Progressivity of pricing at US public universities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. 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.
    9. Winston, G.C., 1998. "A Guide to Measuring College Costs," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-46, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    10. Semjén, András, 2012. "A tandíj közgazdaságtana [The economics of tuition fees]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 31-62.
    11. Laura Thissen & Sjef Ederveen, 2006. "Higher education; time for coordination on a European level?," CPB Discussion Paper 68.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Harvey S. Rosen & Alexander J. W. Sappington, 2016. "Impact of Endowment Shocks on Payouts," Working Papers 250, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    15. Curs, Bradley & Singell, Larry Jr., 2002. "An analysis of the application and enrollment processes for in-state and out-of-state students at a large public university," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 111-124, April.
    16. Clotfelter, C. T., 2003. "Alumni giving to elite private colleges and universities," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 109-120, April.
    17. Joan Roselló Villalonga, 2017. "Does Decentralization in the Provision of Higher Education Increase Quality of Education?," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 220(1), pages 13-55, March.
    18. Gordon C. Winston, 1999. "Subsidies, Hierarchy and Peers: The Awkward Economics of Higher Education," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 13-36, Winter.
    19. Polishchuk, L., 2010. "Collective Reputation in Higher Education: An Equilibrium Model," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 7, pages 46-69.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    EDUCATION; SUBSIDIES;

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid

    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:wil:wilehe:40. 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: Stephen Sheppard (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cdwilus.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.