The impact of NCAA men’s basketball probations on the quantity and quality of student applications and enrollment

Collegiate sports programmes have been characterized as the front porch of a university, serving to publicize the institution and draw students to the door. Previous research in this area has indicated a positive correlation between athletic success and the quantity and quality of students attending the university. Conversely, we seek to analyse if athletic malfeasance, as measured by NCAA probations of men’s basketball programmes, negatively affects either the quantity or quality of students at a university. Our findings suggest that while basketball probations do not change the overall quantity of applications nor enrolment at a university, there is a significant adverse impact on the quality of freshman enrolling at the university as measured by Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. Our finding suggests that athletics do indeed serve as a front porch to a university and that athletic sanctions in men’s basketball have a detrimental effect on the average quality of students attending a university.     

Educational contributions, academic quality, and athletic success

This article examines the role of successful Division I football and basketball programs in motivating alumni and other donors to make charitable educational contributions to U.S. universities. Results from fixed effects analysis of panel data on 87 universities for the period 1986–87 to 1995–96 indicate that year-to-year changes in athletic success have a positive impact on levels of alumni giving, but that other types of donors are not as responsive. Also, long-standing athletic traditions established prior to the sample period appear to generate academic benefits in the form of increased charitable donations from all sources. However, the estimated impact of a successful athletic tradition is relatively weak when compared to the effect of student and faculty quality on educational contributions.     

MARCH MADNESS: NCAA TOURNAMENT PARTICIPATION AND COLLEGE ALCOHOL USE

While athletic success may improve the visibility of a university to prospective students and thereby benefit the school, it may also increase risky behavior in the current student body. Using the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, we find that a school's participation in the NCAA Basketball Tournament is associated with a 47% increase in binge drinking by male students at that school. Additionally, we find evidence that drunk driving increases by 5% among all students during the tournament. (JEL I12, I23, Z28)     

Natural disasters and university enrolment: evidence from L’Aquila earthquake

Although there are several studies looking at the effect of natural disasters on economic growth, less attention has been dedicated to their impact on educational outcomes, especially in more developed countries. We use the synthetic control method to examine how the L’Aquila earthquake affected subsequent enrolment at the local university. This issue has wide economic implications as the University of L’Aquila made a large contribution to the local economy before the earthquake. Our results indicate that the earthquake had no statistically significant effect on first-year enrolment at the University of L’Aquila in the three academic years after the disaster. This natural disaster, however, caused a compositional change in the first-year student population, with a substantial increase in the number of students aged 21 or above. This is likely to have been driven by post-disaster measures adopted in order to mitigate the expected negative effects on enrolment triggered by the earthquake.     

DOES ATHLETIC SUCCESS INFLUENCE PERSISTENCE AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS? NEW EVIDENCE USING PANEL DATA

This study examines the relationship between athletic success and student persistence toward a degree. We build an updated panel of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions and utilize within‐institution variation to identify the effects of athletic success. Using a ranking of all institutions, we find that having more successful men's basketball and football teams has a significant positive effect on first‐year retention rates. We also find some evidence that improved basketball rankings increase graduation rates, and that success in the NCAA tournament may have a sizable impact on retention. Although the estimated effects are generally modest in scale, we find rather limited evidence of other institutional factors affecting persistence, suggesting that athletics can be one avenue for institutions of higher education to engage and retain students. (JEL I23, Z20, L83)     

Does Attending a Catholic School Make a Difference? Evidence From Italy

This paper analyses whether attending a Catholic high school in Italy yields higher benefits in student achievement compared with enrolment at a public school. Because a measure of the success of a given high school might be how its students perform after leaving high school, our attention is focused on university participation and the risk of university dropout. We find that attending a Catholic school increases the likelihood of enrolling at university but has no effect on dropout behaviour. Additionally, our findings show that the source of the effectiveness of Catholic schools in boosting university participation does not lie in better resource availability, peer group influences or positive selection.     

DOES TEACHER QUALITY AFFECT STUDENT PERFORMANCE? EVIDENCE FROM AN ITALIAN UNIVERSITY

In this paper, we analyse whether the characteristics of university teaching staff matter with regard to students' performance and interest in the discipline. We use data on about 1000 students enrolled on the first-level degree course in business and economics at a medium-sized Italian university. Thanks to the random assignment of students to different teaching classes during their first year, we are able to analyse the effect that teachers with different characteristics, in terms of experience and research productivity, produce both on students' performance, measured in terms of the grades obtained at subsequent examinations, and on courses chosen. Our results suggest that teacher quality has statistically significant effects on students' grades in subsequent courses. These effects are also robust after controlling for unobserved individual characteristics. On the other hand, we find less clear evidence when relating teacher quality to student involvement with a subject. It emerges that research productivity does not produce a statistically significant effect on the probability of a student undertaking additional courses in a subject, while more experienced teachers have a negative impact. However, also this effect does not become statistically significant when we run separate regressions for different disciplines.     

The impact of cost on the choice of university: evidence from Ontario

Abstract. This paper provides the first Canadian study of the link between cost to the student and the choice of university. Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the differences among Ontario universities in ‘net cost’ defined as tuition and fees minus the expected value to an academically strong student of a guaranteed merit scholarship. Our estimates generally indicate no relationship between net cost and the overall share of strong applicants that a university is able to attract. An increase in net cost is associated with an increase in the ratio of strong students from high‐income neighbourhoods to strong students from middle‐income and low‐income neighbourhoods in Arts and Science programs but not in Commerce and Engineering. Finally, more advantaged students are more likely to attend university, but merit aid is not of disproportionate benefit to those from more economically advantaged backgrounds, given registration. JEL classification: Health Education and Welfare     

Does college football impact the size of university applicant pools and the quality of entering students?

The role played by collegiate athletics in furthering the mission of institutions of higher education has been one of the more active research streams in the economics literature. Two areas of emphasis in this particular genre concern the relationship between athletics success and the size of a university’s applicant pool, and the relationship between athletics success and the quality of a university’s incoming class. This study extends both lines of research above by employing a unique panel data set consisting of 10 institutions that either added or eliminated college football between 1997 and 2015 in order to examine the impact of the presence of college football programme on both the size of university applicant pools and the quality of the students chosen for admission. Results from a panel data estimator presented here suggest that the size of their applicant pool shrinks the year following discontinuation of a college football programme. In the case of ACT scores, the results are similar, indicating that the ACT scores of incoming freshmen decrease after discontinuation of football.     

The satisfaction of university students in Spain: differences by field of study

This article analyses the factors associated with student satisfaction in a sample of undergraduate students from the University of Zaragoza (Spain). In addition to considering socio-demographic characteristics, we also examine factors related to expectations and motivations. Using data from a survey carried out during the academic year 2011/12, we show that the level of satisfaction of the students varies according to their field of study, finding that students in Engineering and Science are comparatively less satisfied than those in other disciplines. Also, expectations about whether having a university degree will be enough to obtain a job are associated with their level of satisfaction. Moreover, alcohol consumption is positively associated with their level of satisfaction. Analysing the correlates of student satisfaction is important to understand student retention and persistence.     

论大学生就业适应性的提升——区域性就业系列研究之三

当前,大学生的就业问题引起了社会各界的高度重视,大学生就业适应性的高低已经成为影响大学生就业的一个重要因素。为此,如何提升大学生的就业适应性,为大学生就业创造更多的就业机会,这是摆在我们面前的严峻问题。为了提升大学生的就业适应性,我们必须从学生、高校、企业和政府等四个层面来加以落实,主要措施包括：一是学生要转变就业观念,确立大学生正确的就业观;二是高校要加快教育教学改革,提高大学生的就业竞争力;三是企业要提供稳定的实习基地,提高大学生的实践能力;四是政府要强化管理职能,切实提高大学生就业能力。     

SYSTEMATIC INFLUENCES ON TEACHING EVALUATIONS: THE CASE FOR CAUTION*

In this paper, we examine eight years of Quality of Teaching (QOT) responses from an Economics Department in an Australian University. This is done to determine what factors, besides the instructor, have an impact on the raw average student evaluation scores. Most of the previous research on student ratings has been conducted in the US. One significant difference between US and Australian tertiary education is that, on average, the number of foreign undergraduate students in Australia is ten times the number in US institutions. We find that cultural background significantly affects student evaluations. Other factors that have an influence on the average QOT score include: year level; enrolment size; the quantitative nature of the subject; the gender of the student; fee‐paying status by gender; course of study; the differences between the course mark and previous marks; the quality of workbooks; the quality of textbooks; and the QOT score relative to those in other subjects taught at the same time. In addition, average QOT scores for instructors who have taught in a mix of subjects are similar to those based on scores adjusted to account for subject and student characteristics.     

Estimating tuition elasticities of resident and non-resident enrolments at south-eastern public universities

Due to increased reliance on tuition revenue, universities must be cognizant of the impacts tuition changes have on enrolment. In economics, the law of demand indicates that price increases (tuition) cause quantity demanded (enrolments) to decrease. The impacts of tuition increases on revenue depend on the magnitude of these two changes. The contribution of this article is the methodology used to control for competitor pricing in enrolment elasticity models. For resident enrolment, we included other in-state, 4-year public universities. For non-resident enrolment, we used weighting schemes based on enrolment patterns by school and by state to incorporate competitors’ tuition rates and relevant economic and demographic information. We applied these methodologies to universities in the south-eastern U.S. from 2003 to 2010. We found that tuition elasticities of both resident and non-resident enrolments at 4-year public universities varied from inelastic resident enrolments to elastic non-resident enrolments at the state level. In some cases, competitor pricing significantly impacted enrolments; in other cases, it did not. Across the full sample, 1% increase in resident tuition rates decreased enrolments by 0.3%. The techniques developed in this article can be used by individual universities or university systems to inform their strategies in setting tuition rates.     

Easy grading practices and supply–demand factors: evidence from Italy

In this article, we investigate how heterogeneity in grading standards across university degree courses is related to supply and demand factors. Using a sample of almost 26,000 students enrolled at an Italian University, we document how grades vary significantly across degrees. After controlling for student characteristics, class-size, classmate quality and degree fixed effects, it emerges that students obtain better grades and are less likely to drop-out when their degree course experiences an excess of supply. We adopt an instrumental variable strategy to account for endogeneity problems and instrument the excess of supply using the total number of universities offering each degree course. Our two-stage least squares (TSLS) estimates confirm that the teaching staff on degree courses facing low demand tend to set lower academic standards with the result that their students obtain better grades and have a lower probability of dropping out than they might otherwise. Similar results are obtained using a control function approach.     

Birthday effect

According to the Turkish legal code, a student born in December must enrol in primary school alongside students born 11 months earlier in January. In this study, Turkish college admissions data is used to measure the effect of younger enrolment in primary school. It was found that students who are born in the second half of the year are less likely to be from selective public high schools, and are less likely to be successful in college admissions test. These results are consistent with disadvantages associated with younger enrolment in primary school.     

The impact of international students on housing markets

We study the impact of the 2005–2015 international student boom in US universities on local housing markets. By constructing a sample of American college towns characterizing rarely studied local markets in small urban areas, we show that international students exogenously sustained demand for rentals and residential investment, representing counter-cyclical shocks during the Great Recession. Exploiting the historical distribution of foreign enrolment across college towns and country-of-origin networks, we find that international students increased rents by 1.3% and home prices by 2.5% relative to the housing boom peak, translating into home equity gains of $4,000. An analysis exploiting within-city dynamics reveals that neighbourhoods near campus absorbed international inflows by replacing single-family homes with apartment rentals.     

The Good,the Poor and the Wealthy: who Responds Most to College Financial Aid?

Financial aid programmes for students in the United States focus increasingly on academic merit, rather than financial need. There is little empirical evidence, however, on the distributional effects of merit–based aid – who benefits or responds most. We develop a bivariate probit model of the enrolment process estimated using data for a large public university over several years. Results show that merit–based aid increases enrolment for all students, but that financially–able students respond disproportionately, even with academic merit held constant. Thus, increased emphasis on merit in financial aid may exacerbate the trend toward greater income inequality in the US, even among students of equal academic merit.     

Communications

The University of California, Berkeley sends more undergraduate students to economics PhD programs than any other public university. While this fact is surely a function of its size, there may be lessons from the Berkeley experience that others could adopt. To investigate why Berkeley generates so many economics PhD students, the author convened and interviewed two groups: economics student services staff and a self-selected focus group of twelve economics undergraduates who plan to apply to PhD programs. Four factors came up repeatedly in these conversations: math preparation, advanced track for theory courses, research opportunities, and availability of information. A fifth factor was implicit in the conversations: peer effects.     

HIGH SCHOOLS AND STUDENTS' INITIAL COLLEGES AND MAJORS

We use statewide administrative data from Missouri to examine the explanatory power of high schools over student sorting to colleges and majors at 4‐year public universities. We develop a “preparation and persistence index” (PPI) for each university‐by‐major cell in the Missouri system that captures dimensions of selectivity and rigor and allows for a detailed investigation of sorting. Our analysis shows that students' high schools predict the quality of the initial university, as measured by PPI, conditional on their own academic preparation, and that students from lower–socioeconomic status high schools systematically enroll at lower‐PPI universities. However, high schools offer little explanatory power over major placements within universities. (JEL I2, J1)     

Renewable Resource Use and Nonseparable Amenity Benefits

We incorporate amenity benefits into an overlapping generations model with a renewable resource as a factor of production, source of amenity benefits and store of value. Unlike the conventional renewable resource problems studied under the assumption of additive consumption and amenity benefits, we let amenity benefits affect the utility of consumers in a nonseparable fashion. We examine the role that weights given to consumption and amenities have for harvesting and the resource stock. We characterize dynamics and stability of steady state equilibria with a logistic resource growth function. We demonstrate in parametric and numerical models that the weights given to consumption and amenities in the utility function matter substantially for the steady state equilibrium stock and its stability and dynamics. Both conventional saddle point equilibria and indeterminacy with infinite number of equilibria and saddle-node bifurcation is possible depending on the weights given to consumption and amenities. In addition, we show that for each inefficient equilibrium stock, there is a unique subsidy rate that can move the economy from an inefficient equilibrium to an efficient one. The presence of indeterminacy provides a challenge to resource policies, because the system becomes unpredictable. Therefore, expectations and market psychology may play an important role in resource utilization and provision of amenities.