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Differential Pricing in Undergraduate Education: Effects on Degree Production by Field
Author(s) -
Stange Kevin
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of policy analysis and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.898
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1520-6688
pISSN - 0276-8739
DOI - 10.1002/pam.21803
Subject(s) - differential (mechanical device) , workforce , face (sociological concept) , field (mathematics) , production (economics) , differential effects , economics , business , marketing , microeconomics , labour economics , public economics , sociology , economic growth , engineering , mathematics , medicine , social science , aerospace engineering , pure mathematics
In the face of declining state support, many universities have introduced differential pricing by undergraduate program as an alternative to across‐the‐board tuition increases. This practice aligns price more closely with instructional costs and students’ ability to pay postgraduation. Exploiting the staggered adoption of these policies across universities, this paper finds that differential pricing does alter the share of students studying engineering and possibly business. There is some evidence that student groups already underrepresented in certain fields are particularly affected by the new pricing policies. Price does appear to be a policy lever through which state governments can alter the allocation of students to majors and thus the field composition of the workforce.