Three Essays on the Economics of For-Profit Colleges

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three studies regarding the growing role of for-profit colleges and universities in the United States. Analyzing the behaviors of these institutions through a microeconomic lens, I investigate the ways in which the internal and external environmental factors in which for-profit colleges and universities operate influence their behaviors as well as impact on traditional colleges and universities. The three separate research questions asked by this dissertation are all analyzed using sophisticated quantitative econometric models. The substantive conclusions of this dissertation is that many of the assumed behaviors of for-profit colleges and universities – such as the predatory targeting of minority communities – are not empirically realized. Additionally, this dissertation illustrates that the competitive forces introduced by for-profit colleges and universities may lead to positive increased in the efficiency of public institutions. For all three chapters, practical policy recommendations are forwarded in order to promote evidence-based policymaking as it relates to for-profit colleges and universities. Major empirical contributions of this dissertation include one of the first applications of a novel bias correction – the split-panel jackknife - to a substantive policy area as well as a comparison and discussion of the quasi-experimental methodologies used by researchers in applied policy analysis.