The (adverse) effects of expanding higher education: Evidence from Italy

Abstract

Over the period 1995-1998 Italy experienced an expansion of its higher education supply with the aim of reducing regional di¤erences in educational attainment. This paper evaluates the e¤ects of this policy on enrolment, drop out and academic performance. The paper combines di¤erences across provinces in the number of campuses constructed with di¤erences across cohorts of secondary school leavers. A sequential model of educational choices with uncertainty is derived and estimated. Findings suggest that enrolment rose, particularly among middle ability individuals from less favorable backgrounds, as well as the probability of being retained in the university system. The decline in passed exams, especially experienced in Southern regions, casts doubts on the policy e¤ectiveness in reducing regional disparities.

University supply expansion and inequality of opportunity of access: the case of Uruguay

“…While empirical research has largely focused on the demand side of educational expansion (Machin and Blanden, 2004;Machin and Vignoles, 2005;Peragine and Serlenga, 2007;Ferreira and Gignoux, 2011), studies that explore the supply side of higher education and its effects on inequality of opportunity are relatively scarce. Exceptions are found in Bratti et al (2008) and Oppedisano (2011) for the Italian case, and Oviedo (2015) for the Colombian case. From a theoretical perspective, these studies stress that any reduction in the influence of at least one circumstance on individuals' educational choices can be considered as reducing inequality of opportunity in education.…”

The elite exclusion: stratified access and production during the Chinese higher education expansion

“…First, we find evidence of the enlarging unequal access to elite higher education for students from different family backgrounds during the enrollment expansion, which supports the effectively or expanding maintained inequality theory (Lucas, 2001 ; Alon, 2009 ). These results speak to a large body of literature on higher education enrollment expansion and access in many countries, for instance, the United States (Taubman et al., 1972 ; Walters, 1984 ; Juhn et al., 2005 ; Barr & Turner, 2013 ; Soliz, 2018 ), France (Deer, 2005 ), the United Kingdom (Walker & Zhu, 2008 ; Boliver, 2011 ; Devereux & Fan, 2011 ), Italy (Bratti et al., 2008 ; Oppedisano, 2011 )), Germany (Reimer & Pollak, 2010 ), Turkey (Özoǧlu et al., 2016 ), Brazil (McCowan, 2007 ; Boliver, 2011 ; Dias et al., 2011 ), Ireland (McCoy & Smyth, 2011 ), and China (Luo et al., 2018 ; Ou & Hou, 2019 ). In particular, this paper shows new evidence of the expanding socioeconomic gaps in college access in the presence of higher education selectivity stratification.…”

Nordic Economic Policy Review

“…Opening up colleges in areas where there had previously been no nearby institution of higher education may have substantial effects on college attendance. This has been found using historical data (Currie and Moretti, 1993), as well as for more recent expansions (Holzer, 2009;Oppedisano, 2011). The type of institution of higher education that is opened up also seems to matter.…”