DP-1 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, "Does Student Aid Affect College Enrollment? New Evidence on a Persistent Controversy," April 1990. [A version appears in American Economic Review, March 1991, pp. 309-318.]
DP-2 Schapiro, Morton Owen, Michael P. O'Malley, and Larry H. Litten, "Progression to Graduate School from the 'Elite' College and Universities," revised September 1990. [A version appears in Economics of Education Review, Fall 1991, pp. 227-244.]
DP-3 Sabot, Richard and John Wakeman-Linn, "The Implications of Grading Policies for Student Course Choice," November 1988. [A version appears in Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 1991, pp. 159-170.]
DP-4 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, "Measuring the Effects of Federal Student Aid: An Assessment of Some Methodological and Empirical Problems," May 1990. [A version appears in McPherson, Schapiro, and Winston Paying the Piper, University of Michigan Press, 1993, ch. 8.]
DP-5 McPherson, Michael S. And Morton Owen Schapiro, "Expenditure Patterns and Trends in U.S. Higher Education: Implications for Quality," May 1990.
DP-6 Schapiro, Morton Owen, Michael P. O'Malley, and Larry H. Litten, "Tracing the Economic Backgrounds of COFHE Students: Has There Been a 'Middle-Income Melt'?" November 1990. [A version appears in McPherson and Schapiro, Keeping College Affordable, Brookings Institution, 1991, ch. 5.]
DP-7 Sabot, Richard and John Wakeman-Linn, "Determinants of Performance in Introductory Courses in Economics and Seven Other Disciplines," April 1991
DP-8 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, "Projections of College Costs and Affordability: 1990-2010," June 1990. [A version appears in McPherson and Schapiro, Keeping College Affordable, Brookings Institution, 1991, ch. 6.]
DP-9 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, "The Effect of Government Financing on the Behavior of Colleges and Universities," October 1990. [A version appears in McPherson and Schapiro, Keeping College Affordable, Brookings Institution, 1991, ch. 4.]
DP-10 Bradburd, Ralph M. and Duncan P. Mann, "Wealth in Higher Education Institutions," March 1991. [A version appears in Journal of Higher Education, July/Aug 1993.]
DP-11 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, "The Student Finance System for Undergraduate Education: How Well Does it Work?" March 1991. [A version appears in Change, May/June 1991, pp. 16-22.]
DP-12 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, "Federalism and Higher Education Finance: Rethinking the Role of the States and the Federal Government in Paying for College," March 1991. [A version appears in Brookings Review, Volume 9, No. 3, Summer 1991, pp. 14-19.]
DP-13 McPherson, Michael S. and Gordon C. Winston, "The Economics of Cost, Price and Quality in U.S. Higher Education," April 1991. [A version appears in McPherson, Schapiro, and Winston Paying the Piper, University of Michigan Press, 1993, ch. 4.]
DP-14 Winston, Gordon C., "Why Are Capital Costs Ignored by Colleges and Universities and What Are the Prospects for Change?" July 1991. [Versions appear in NACUBO Business Officer, June 1993, and McPherson, Schapiro, and Winston Paying the Piper, University of Michigan Press, forthcoming, ch. 13.]
DP-15 Winston, Gordon C., "Organizing Economic Information for Colleges and Universities: An Alternative to Fund Accounting," November 1991. [A version appears as "The Necessary Revolution in Financial Accounting," Planning for Higher Education, Summer 1992.]
DP-16 Winston, Gordon C., "Hostility, Trust, and Maximization: An Economic View of Higher Education in 1992," January 1992. [A version appears in Change, July/August 1992, as "Hostility, Maximization, and the Public Trust."]
DP-17 Blasdell, Scott W., Michael S. McPherson, and Morton Owen Schapiro, "Trends in Revenues and Expenditures in U.S. Higher Education: Where Does the Money Come From? Where Does it Go" June 1992. [A version appears in McPherson, Schapiro, and Winston, Paying the Piper, 1993, ch. 2.]
DP-18 Behrman, Jere R., Lori G. Kletzer, Michael S. McPherson and Morton Owen Schapiro, "The College Investment Decision: Direct and Indirect Effects of Family Background on Choice of Postsecondary Enrollment and Quality," July 1992.
This paper focuses on two components of the postsecondary schooling decision process. The first concern is to investigate the implications of the endogeneity of high school scholastic achievement in analyzing postsecondary school choice. The second concern is to incorporate an explicit analysis of choice of institutional quality into the investigation of postsecondary enrollment behavior. Our theme in both these components is the role of family background. Our basic data source is the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLSHS72). Family background characteristics show the expected effect on scholastic achievement: students from families with high income, better educated parents, or parents with higher socioeconomic status generally do better on tests of scholastic achievement. Scholastic achievement is positively related to attending a four-year postsecondary school, but not to attending a two-tear school. The estimated effects of achievement are larger with achievement treated as endogenous than when achievement is treated as exogenous. We find similar influences of family background directly on postsecondary enrollment and quality.
DP-19 Winston, Gordon C., "New Dangers in Old Traditions: The Reporting of Economic Performance in Colleges and Universities," November 1992. [A version appears in Change, January/February 1993.]
DP-20 Schapiro, Morton O., and Michael S. McPherson, "Projections of College Costs, Affordability, and Tuition Dependency at COFHE and Other Institutions: 1990-2010," March 1993.
DP-21 Easterlin, Richard A, "Prices and Preferences in Choice of Career: The Switch to Business, 1972-87," August 1993.
DP-22 Winston, Gordon C, "Maintaining Collegiate Wealth: Global Accounts, Fund Accounting, and Rules of Thumb," December 1993.
DP-23 Winston, Gordon C, "A Note on The Logic and Structure of Global Accounting: Tautologies to Accounts," January 1994.
DP-24 Winston, Gordon C, "The Decline in Undergraduate Teaching: Moral Failure or Market Pressures?", May 1994.
DP-25 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, ÒMerit Aid: Students, Institutions, and Society,Ó July 1994.
DP-26 Ahlburg, Dennis, Michael S. McPherson, and Morton Owen Schapiro, ÒPredicting Higher Education Enrollment in the United States: An Evaluation of Different Modeling Approaches,Ó August 1994.
The purpose of this paper is to assess the state of the art in model-based enrollment prediction for U.S. higher education. We review available studies, consider methodological and data-availability issues raised by the approaches reflected in the literature, and report on a study comparing the forecast performance of several alternative models. We conclude that combining the results from disaggregated forecasting models and trying alternative approaches is a much better option for predicting higher education enrollments than searching for a universal model that works for all groups at all times.
DP-27 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, ÒExpenditures and Revenues in American Higher Education,Ó September 1994.
This paper analyzes changes in expenditure patterns and revenue sources for the majority of private and public non-profit colleges and universities from the years 1986-87 to 1988-89 and 1990-91. It compares the changes between public and private schools by Carnegie types, uncovering similar trends in all types. Net spending per student is greater at private institutions than at public ones--and is increasing relative to them, largely because of declines in state and local appropriations to public schools. Their reaction to cuts in appropriations has been to cut spending with future benefits (i.e., library, plant maintenance) rather than spending on current students. Financial aid is increasing dramatically at all types of institutions, but net tuition still increases, posing concerns about what is happening to the access to higher education of those less able to afford it.
DP-28 Weber, Valerie and Gordon C. Winston, ÒThe Economic Performance of Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, and Wellesley 1988-9 to 1992-3: A Global Comparison,Ó September 1994.
DP-29 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, ÒCollege Choice and Family Income: Changes Over Time in the Higher Education Destinations of Students From Different Income Backgrounds,Ó November 1994.
McPherson and Schapiro analyze data from the American Freshman Surveys of 1980, 1989, and 1993 to determine how family income has affected choice of institution, and how this has varied over time. A major topic of analysis is middle income melt, a popular conception which holds that rising net tuition at private institutions has forced middle-income students to switch to less costly institutions. They find that although the percentage of students attending private colleges from middle-income families has fallen, this is only because the percentage of students in higher education in general from middle-income families has fallen; the proportion of middle-income students attending private universities and 4-year colleges has remained relatively stable. Instead, at least for the four-year private colleges, the decline in the proportion of high-income, full-pay students may explain their apparent financial pressures. High-income students have shifted to public and private universities and to public four-year colleges; along with the middle-income students, they have shifted away from public two-year colleges which has made these schools increasingly concentrated with low-income students.
DP-30 Constantine, Jill M., ÒMeasuring the Effect of Attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities on Future Wages of Black Students,Ó December 1994. [A version will appear in Industrial and Labor Relations Review, April 1995.]
This paper estimates the effect of attending historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) on future wages of black students. The analysis attempts to determine if HBCUs have a causal effect on wages by first modelling and estimating all the choices available to black high school graduates. Wages are then estimated conditional on the determinants of this choice. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the Class of 1972 (NLS-72) are used to estimate the models. Students that attend HBCUs appear to come from lower in the potential wage distribution than students that attend mixed or historically white institutions. The value added, in terms of future wages, from attending appears to be over 30% for some individuals. These results suggest HBCUs played an important role in the labor market success of black students in the 1970s.
DP-31 McPherson, Michael S. and Morton Owen Schapiro, ÒSkills, Innovations and Values: Future Needs for Postsecondary Education,Ó February 1995.
We discuss the current context in which colleges and universities find themselves and then speculate about the future state of the nation and of its educational needs. The current context is summarized in an examination of trends in revenue sources and charges for different groups of higher education institutions, trends in the types of tuition discounting, and trends in the postsecondary educaton destinations of students from different income backgrounds. The future speculation falls in to three broad headings: skill development and professional training; research and innovation; and values education and social criticism.
DP-32 Winston, Gordon C. and Ivan C. Yen, "Costs, Prices, Subsidies and Aid in U.S. Higher Education," July 1995.
Studies of student subsidies in US higher education -- how much more it costs to educate a student that he or she pays -- have focused on the distribution of subsidies by student characteristics: "Which students with what characteristics get how much subsidy?" This paper turns to the very different question of institutional strategies with respect to price, costs, and aid to ask, "Which colleges and universities grant how much student subsidy and in what form?" Enrollment and financial data from 2687 US colleges and universities for 1991 are used to describe price, costs, and aid patterns for public and private institutions by Carnegie type and, most important, by size distribution of the subsidies among schools. These appear to be defining characteristics of both individual colleges and universities and, more fundamentally, of the economic structure of higher education.
Economics