State Investment in Higher Education: Effects on Human Capital Formation, Student Debt, and Long-Term Financial Outcomes of Students

Bridging the Gaps in Quality Education

“…Investment and policy support for quality education involves the allocation of resources, funding, and the development of frameworks, guidelines, and regulations by governments and institutions to ensure effective, equitable, and high-quality education. Scholarly works, such as those by Chakrabarti et al (2020) and Hanushek and Woessmann (2020), emphasise the critical role of financial investment in fostering quality education by addressing infrastructural needs, providing resources, and supporting educational reforms. These studies highlight the correlation between increased financial investment and improved educational outcomes, stressing the importance of effectively allocating resources to improve teaching quality, student learning experience, and overall system performance.…”

Progressivity of pricing at US public universities

“…Several recent empirical papers explore how public institutions and student outcomes adjust to appropriations. There is increasing consensus that state appropriations impact educational outcomes, including degree attainment and time to degree through the channel of instructional expenditures (Deming and Walters, 2017;Chakrabarti, Gorton, and Lovenheim, 2020). Other research has shown that appropriations changes induce additional adjustments, such as changes in the composition of students to attract more full-pay students from abroad (Bound et al, 2020).…”

“…Changes in state appropriations are an especially policy-relevant budget shock that may impact tuition and, in turn, net tuition paid by students from different circumstances. While it has been well-established that tuition increases less than dollar-for-dollar with declines in appropriations per student (Bound et al, 2019;Deming and Walters, 2017;Chakrabarti, Gorton, and Lovenheim, 2020), this analysis is the first to examine the response of net tuition at different income levels to changes in appropriations. In general, appropriations changes do not explain increased progressivity of pricing by family income.…”

Campus Reopening in Fall 2020: Linked More to Political Leadership and Institutional Characteristics than to COVID-19 Pandemic Severity

“…Americans are united, however, on issues of affordability. Reductions in state support, especially under unified Republican state governments, have resulted in increased costs for students and families, often financed through student loans (Chakrabarti et al, 2020), or compensated for via institutions recruiting more out-of-state students (Jaquette & Curs, 2015). Passing costs from the taxpayer to students shows something of a perverse incentive structure at work for decision-makers (Raisanen & Birkeland, 2016).…”