Economic Stratification and Hierarchy Among U.S. Colleges and Universities

Gordon Winston

No DP-58, Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education from Department of Economics, Williams College

Abstract: Colleges and universities in the US differ markedly in their access to economic resources, hence in what they can do for their students. National (IPEDS) data are used here to describe the resulting hierarchy that's reflected in schools' spending on their students, the prices those students pay, and the subsidies they get in consequence. Both historical data and projections based on recent institutional saving suggest that economic disparities among institutions and their students are increasing. In a final section, the paper asks what to make of this: what we can say about "the right degree" of institutional disparity, so whether we have too much, too little, or about the right amount of differentiation.

Keywords: EDUCATION; INCOME; STUDENTS; CHOICE (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2000-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Review of Industrial Organization, Volume 24, Number 4, pp. 331-54.

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