Students’ heterogeneous preferences and the uneven spatial distribution of colleges

Chao Fu, Junjie Guo, Adam J. Smith and Alan Sorensen

Journal of Monetary Economics, 2022, vol. 129, issue C, 49-64

Abstract: The uneven geographic distribution of colleges in the United States endows students with uneven access to colleges depending on where they live. To examine the implication of this for student welfare, we estimate a model of high school students’ college choices, allowing for rich heterogeneity in students’ preferences for college attributes. We use data on students’ enrollment decisions and application decisions—i.e., the sets of colleges to which they applied—to identify the distribution of students’ preferences, and find that place indeed matters: the expected value of applying to college differs dramatically across states and across counties within a state.

Keywords: Higher education; College competition; Geography of opportunity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:moneco:v:129:y:2022:i:c:p:49-64

DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoneco.2022.03.001

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