What Do Course Offerings Imply about University Preferences?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Thomas, James
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/722087
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 53-83
• 关键词: financial-aid policies; college major; higher-education; grade-inflation; GENDER; tuition; CHOICE; IMPACT; demand; models

摘要

This paper empirically analyzes how universities decide which courses to offer and the implications of these decisions for students. At a sample university, course offerings significantly impact student course choices and implicitly sacrifice student utility to increase enrollment in STEM and business and occupational courses. This is because new course sections in these fields have slightly smaller effects on student utility and cost substantially more than new offerings in other fields. The university changes its course offerings in counterfactual scenarios, and ignoring these responses leads to understating the effects of interventions.