The Impact of Tuition Increases on Enrollment at Public Colleges and Universities
- 1 December 2011
- journal article
- Published by American Educational Research Association (AERA) in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
- Vol. 33 (4), 435-457
- https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373711415261
Abstract
In this paper we review recent increases in tuition at public institutions and estimate impacts on enrollment. We use data on all U.S. public 4-year colleges and universities from 1991 to 2006 and illustrate that tuition increased dramatically beginning in the early part of this decade. We examine impacts of such increases on total enrollment and credit hours, and estimate differences by type of institution. We estimate that the average tuition and fee elasticity of total headcount is -0.0958. At the mean, a $100 increase in tuition and fees would lead to a decline in enrollment of about 0.25 percent, with larger effects at Research I universities. We find limited evidence that especially large tuition increases elicit disproportionate enrollment responses.Keywords
This publication has 23 references indexed in Scilit:
- Why Have College Completion Rates Declined? An Analysis of Changing Student Preparation and Collegiate ResourcesAmerican Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2010
- The Changing Selectivity of American CollegesJournal of Economic Perspectives, 2009
- Cohort crowding: How resources affect collegiate attainmentJournal of Public Economics, 2006
- The Cost of Complexity in Federal Student Aid: Lessons from Optimal Tax Theory and Behavioral EconomicsPublished by National Bureau of Economic Research ,2006
- The economics and politics of cost sharing in higher education: comparative perspectivesEconomics of Education Review, 2004
- Does Aid Matter? Measuring the Effect of Student Aid on College Attendance and CompletionAmerican Economic Review, 2003
- Hope for Whom? Financial Aid for the Middle Class and Its Impact on College AttendanceNational Tax Journal, 2000
- Student Price Response in Higher Education: An Update to Leslie and BrinkmanThe Journal of Higher Education, 1997
- Rising Public College Tuition and College Entry: How Well Do Public Subsidies Promote Access to College?Published by National Bureau of Economic Research ,1995
- College Entry by Blacks since 1970: The Role of College Costs, Family Background, and the Returns to EducationJournal of Political Economy, 1994