TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kane,Thomas J.
TI  - Rising Public College Tuition and College Entry: How Well Do Public Subsidies Promote Access to College?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5164
PY  - 1995
Y2  - July 1995
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5164
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5164.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thomas J. Kane
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Center for Education Policy Research
50 Church St., 4th Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/496-4359
E-Mail: kaneto@gse.harvard.edu
AB  - Though economists have spent the past decade analyzing the rising payoff to schooling, we know much less about the responses of youth or the effectiveness of policies aimed at influencing those decisions. States and the federal government currently spend more than $53 billion annually, hoping to promote greater access to college.  This paper evaluates the price sensitivity of youth, using several sources of non-experimental variation in costs.  The bulk of the evidence points to large enrollment impacts, particularly for low-income students and for those attending two-year colleges. The states have chosen to promote college enrollment by keeping tuition low through across-the-board subsidies rather than using more targeted, means-tested aid.  As public enrollments increase, this has become an expensive strategy.  Means-tested aid may be better targeted.  However, the evidence of enrollment responses to such targeted aid is much weaker.  After a federal means-tested grant program was established in 1973, there was no disproportionate increase in enrollment by low-income youth.  Given the number of public dollars at stake, the two sets of results should be reconciled.
ER  -