Panel:
Supply, Student Sorting, and Policy Effects in College Education
(Education)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
This panel considers the policy consequences of the way that colleges and their students interact with each other and in the market. The first two papers consider institutional behavior. The first paper concludes that by maximizing “prestige” rather than student welfare, institutions generate large welfare losses. Increased transparency has been a main policy response to the goal of improving institutional performance. The second paper examines the consequences of one such policy – the creation of the College Affordability and Transparency Center website – on institutions’ behavior. The effects of many such policies depends on how students alter their choices of institution, major, or program in response to new information or changes in their circumstances. The final three papers thus consider influences on student sorting in higher education. The third paper measures whether students’ program choice responds to changes in the labor market, and in comparison to pricing and proximity. The fourth paper documents large socioeconomic and gender gaps in students’ university match, which cannot be explained by prior achievement. This speaks to the need for policies that explicitly target disparities at a student- rather than institution-level. The final paper examines how pricing policies – targeted scholarships and zero tuition – influence major choice, specifically the decision to study teaching. Collectively the papers in this panel consider the US, UK, and Chilean contexts using a range of methodological strategies to better understand how policies can improve the functioning of the higher education market.
