文档介绍：petition and Higher Education Finance*
(Preliminary)
Roger T. Kaufman
Professor of Economics
Department of Economics
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
(413) 585-3612
******@
Geoffrey Woglom
Richard S. Volpert ‘56
Professor of Economics
Amherst College
Amherst, MA 01002
(413) 542-2433
******@
Corresponding Author
I. Introduction
In previous work (Kaufman and Woglom [2005a] & [2005b]), we have documented the striking differences in financing among the top liberal arts colleges (as of 2001):
There are enormous differences in wealth.
The differences prehensive fees are much smaller.
The wealthiest schools spend more and provide more financial aid, but again the differences are not as great as the differences in wealth.
Table 1 provides updated financial data for the 2003/2004 fiscal year for 99 top liberal arts colleges. The schools are listed according to their 2005 . News and Business Report, ranking, and the financial and enrollment data were obtained from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (or IPEDS) annual surveys, conducted by the . Department of Education. Only 99 colleges in the top 100 had IPEDS data, and 2003/04 is the latest date for which we plete data. The data are available at /.
While the more affluent schools spend more, their wealth is so large that they are still able to save more, and their endowments grow more rapidly. The data in Table 2 indicate that the trend in financial disparities continues and is, in fact, growing. In this paper, we are concerned with the forces driving the increasing disparities in wealth. We believe the growing disparities are the result petition between the Ivies and the very top liberal arts colleges. The petitive pressures then filter down to the less affluent schools who are just trying to keep up. If we are correct, the petition has important implications for higher education in general and for the fate of many of the less