What's happened to the price of college? Quality-adjusted net price indexes for four-year colleges

Amy Ellen Schwartz, Benjamin Scafidi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper we estimate hedonic models of the (consumer) price of college to construct quality-adjusted net price indexes for U.S. four-year colleges, where the net price of college is defined as tuition and fees minus financial aid. For academic years 1990-91 to 1994-95, we find adjusting for financial aid leads to a 22 percent decline in the estimated price index for all four-year colleges, while quality adjusting the results leads to a further, albeit smaller, decline. Nevertheless, public comprehensive colleges, perhaps an important gateway to college for students from low-income backgrounds, experienced the largest net price increases.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)723-745
Number of pages23
JournalJournal of Human Resources
Volume39
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2004
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Strategy and Management
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

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