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| Publications [#45344] of Charles T. Clotfelter
Books
- Charles T. Clotfelter, Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education
(1996), Princeton: Princeton University Press
(last updated on 2007/01/05)
Abstract:
Expenditures by American colleges and universities increased rapidly during the 1980s, markedly among private institutions. Tuition charges rose sharply as well, making the rate of inflation in private college tuition worse even than the much-heralded run-up in medical costs. This book is a study of these increases, particularly as they have affected elite private research universities. Using detailed unpublished data on expenditures,faculty teaching, class size, and other items, the study focuses on expenditure patterns in four universities--Duke, Harvard, and Chicago --and one college,Carleton, over a 15-year period. The study finds very high rates of real increase in internally-financed expenditures, ranging from 5.3 to 6.8 percent per year. Among the factors associated with these increases, financial aid was responsible for the largest share. Other contributing trends included increases in the number of faculty (and the corollary decline in average classroom teaching loads), increases in real faculty salaries, and increased administrative expenditures. Ultimately, the rise in expenditures by elite institutions during the 1980s can best be explained in reference to the unbounded striving for excellence on the part of the institutions and set of conditions that made it possible for them to raise tuitions above the rate of inflation over a sustained period.
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