TY - JOUR
T1 - Enrollment expansion and quality differentiation across higher education systems
AU - Meier, Volker
AU - Schiopu, I.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Calin Arcalean, Michael Kaganovich, Sushanta Mallick, Helmut Rainer, an Associate Editor and three anonymous referees for useful comments and suggestions. Financial support from Banc Sabadell, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science ( ECO2011-2492 ) and Catalonian Government (AGAUR) ( 2017 SGR 640 ) is gratefully acknowledged. The usual caveat applies.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - While the impact of a higher college wage premium on enrollment expansion is well understood, the link between university quality differentiation and student outcomes in this context has received less attention. To address this issue, we model different higher education systems. Academic standards decline in a differentiated, U.S.-type education system - as a low-quality segment emerges - but also in a system in which a uniform standard is politically determined, as in most European countries, since the interests of marginal students matter for the chosen standard. In the absence of full information about graduates' skills, employers put more weight on university reputation than on individual human capital signal. Thus, higher differentiation can decrease the effort and skill of medium-ability students. Obtaining the preferred academic standard is particularly important for high-and low-ability students, hence the trend toward more unequal societies raises political support for strongly differentiated systems.
AB - While the impact of a higher college wage premium on enrollment expansion is well understood, the link between university quality differentiation and student outcomes in this context has received less attention. To address this issue, we model different higher education systems. Academic standards decline in a differentiated, U.S.-type education system - as a low-quality segment emerges - but also in a system in which a uniform standard is politically determined, as in most European countries, since the interests of marginal students matter for the chosen standard. In the absence of full information about graduates' skills, employers put more weight on university reputation than on individual human capital signal. Thus, higher differentiation can decrease the effort and skill of medium-ability students. Obtaining the preferred academic standard is particularly important for high-and low-ability students, hence the trend toward more unequal societies raises political support for strongly differentiated systems.
KW - Enrollment expansion
KW - Higher education systems
KW - Quality differentiation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132385243&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.econmod.2020.04.020
DO - 10.1016/j.econmod.2020.04.020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132385243
SN - 0264-9993
VL - 90
SP - 43
EP - 53
JO - Economic Modelling
JF - Economic Modelling
ER -