Economic of higher education:
Requirements :
The paper consists of a referee report – a critical evaluation of a scholarly article. Based on the readings of those two paper:
• Winston, Gordon. “Subsidies, Hierarchy and Peers: The Awkward Economics of Higher Education.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 13, no. 1 (1999): 13-36.
(Feel free to skip the parts of Winston paper that talks about concepts you may not be familiar with, like non-distribution constraint (when discussing non-profits). These should not affect your understanding of his main points and insight.)
• You can read some background material in the paper by Charles Clotfelter in the same issue:
Charles Clotfelter, “The Familiar but Curious Economics of Higher Education”, Journal of Economic Perspectives 13, no. 1 (Winter 1999): 3-12.
Hoxby, Caroline M. (2012). Endowment Management Based on a Positive Model of the University. NBER Working Paper 18626, December 2012, https://www.nber.org/papers/w18626.
(this is optional)
HAVE TO cover in THE REPORT :
The report should be about 4 pages long, with 1.5 spacing and one-inch margins.
i) The importance/motivation/background of the issue. For example, you can talk about how knowing the economics behind higher education will help us in formulating appropriate policies, or help us in assessing the impact of different trends (in financing, enrollment).
ii) The conclusions of the paper, and its contribution. What do we learn from reading the paper, in particular about the nature of a university?
iii) How do recent trends in state subsidies and college prices affect your understanding and interpretation of this paper?
iv) (Brief) How do what we have learned in our discussion of the for-profit sector influence your reading of Winston? In particular, does it surprise you that there are so few for-profits among four-year colleges?
v) We will be discussing peer effects in higher education next week. How do your understanding of these peer effects – based on your reading of the assigned chapter and the class discussion – help you in critically analyzing what Winston is saying?