Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-217). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-217). Also available on the Internet.

As populist forces stretch apart higher education and government, colleges lobby in measurable ways to secure scarce funding and respond to accountability regulations. The non-profit and corporate lobbying literature provides a basis of comparison to ask if colleges lobby like corporations, which have been successful lobbyists under challenging conditions. This study shows the connection between federal governmental funding and higher education lobbying by drawing on a newly-created database of 2,000 B.A-granting institutions of higher education from 2004-2014, and explores the rationales and tactics of higher education via interviews with 20 New York-based lobbyists and legislators and a sampling of 200 news stories from the 50 states. I find that for-profit college lobbying is slightly associated with Pell grant dependence and that non-profit college lobbying is strongly associated with federal research and development dependence. I also find that although lobbyists band together to advocate for large pots of funding to help equalize on-campus budgets, colleges break away into increasingly small coalitions as funding becomes more specific along the budget process. Colleges lobby in response to high-profile accountability measures but do so in ways distinct from corporations. The study adds detail to the emerging higher education lobbying literature, opens pathways for further exploration, and offers implications for scholars who study higher education and political science.

Financial aid policies are widely used to foster access to higher education for low–income and underrepresented students. Prior research has documented the positive impacts of these programs on the outcomes of the students it intents to help (e.g., Mello, 2021; Londoño-Velez et al., 2020; Bleemer, 2021a; Black, Denning, & Rothstein, 2020). However, how the influx in the number of low–income and underrepresented students at selective institutions shape student outcomes is a somewhat overlooked aspect. Increasing the number of low–income and underrepresented students may come at the cost of reducing the overall academic performance of the group (Arcidiacono et al., 2015). Moreover, it could also lead to social segregation between wealthy and low–income and underrepresented students within the institution. This is an undesirable outcome, if we take into account the increasing evidence on the importance of social membership and networks for employment and overall social mobility (Marmaros & Sacerdote, 2002; S. D. Zimmerman, 2019; Michelman et al., 2021; Rivera, 2016).This dissertation starts by addressing two questions. First, what are the consequences of in- creasing the presence of low–income students at an elite college on students’ academic achieve- ment? And second, can this form of desegregation lead to more interactions between low–income and traditionally privileged students? To answers these questions, I focus on an Elite University in Colombia which experienced a large influx in its enrollment of low–income students, due to the implementation of a large financial aid program known as Ser Pilo Paga (SPP). The program induced plausibly random variation in the shares of low–income students within cohorts and across majors, which I use to examine how the changes in peers’ composition impacted the traditionally privileged students attending this elite institution. In the first chapter of this dissertation, I use administrative data from the Elite University and document how the influx in the share of low–income students led to significant achievement gaps between wealthy and low–income students. Then, I use a difference–in–difference research de- sign to examine the effect that this influx in low–income peers had on wealthy students academic performance and persistence. Overall, my results indicate the influx in low–income peers had no impact on the academic performance of the students traditionally attending this institution. Peer effects estimations suggest that the relatively low academic performance of low–income students had no impact on wealthy students. These findings complement those from Bleemer (2021a), who find college re–segregation has no impacts on the academic performance of White and Asian stu- dents. My results are also consistent with K–12 evidence showing desegregation policies have no impact on the students traditionally attending the desegregated schools (Angrist & Lang, 2004). In the second chapter, I examine whether the influx in the share of low–income peers at the Elite University led students to diversify their social interactions. I complement the administrative data and research design from the previous chapter with administrative records on students’ co– movements across campus captured by turnstiles located at all entrances. To validate the turnstile– elicited interactions, I use secondary survey data on social networks from a sub–sample of students at Elite University. The 9.5 percentage points average increase in the share of low–income peers at an entry cohort–major led wealthy students to double their connections with low–income peers. At least half of the increase in interactions between wealthy and low–income students, however, is explained by interactions of wealthy students with low–income but high–achieving students. These results suggest students diversify their interactions primarily among students with similar academic achievement levels. In the last chapter, I focus on a broader aspect of financial aid policies, and examine how student loans impact college and employment outcomes. In this chapter, my co–author and I are particularly interested in understanding the monetary returns to increasing investments in college education through student loans. To do so, we focus on a nation–wide student loan program in Colombia known as ACCES that covered 75 percent of the tuition cost for low–income students, and exploit rich administrative data to assess the impact of the loan. Importantly, the cost of tuition per semester is fixed for full–time students, regardless of the number of credits they take. The eligibility to the loan increased college enrollment by 9.6 percentage points, the number of semesters attained in 1.76 semesters, and college graduation in 15.4 percentage points. We also find evidence suggesting students with the loan had salaries 13 percent higher six years after high school graduation. To shed light on how student loans can lead to better salaries, we estimate the returns to additional college investments as captured by the marginal increase in college semesters found among loan recipients. We estimate a return to the additional college semester of 3.5 percent of the average daily salary. Sub–group analyses suggest much of the return to the additional semester of college is driven by college completion. This chapter contributes to the literature that has examined how relaxing credit constrains can have positive impacts on long–term outcomes by increasing human capital investments (e.g., Black, Denning, Dettling, et al., 2020; Cameron & Taber, 2004).

This dissertation includes three chapters focusing on policies directly related to improving college access and success. The first chapter focuses on lifetime eligibility of federal and state financial aid policies. The Pell Grant plays a critical role in helping students across the US to afford undergraduate education. In spite of its importance to the US system of higher education finance, relatively little is known about the optimal amount of time students should be eligible to receive Pell or other need-based grant aid programs. I exploit changes made during the Obama administration in 2012 that effectivelylowered the maximum lifetime eligibility for Pell from 9 to 6 years of full-time equivalent study. I use a student fixed effects model that estimates the impact of reductions in lifetime Pell eligibility on student enrollment and degree completion outcomes for community college and four-year college students at a large, urban public university system. Findings suggest that lower lifetime eligibility reduced the likelihood of student re-enrollment and lowered students’ academic performance. The policy change reduced the average amount of grant aid students received. Black and Hispanic students and community college entrants were most likely to be impacted by the policy change and attempted to offset declines in grant aid through increases in outside earnings. These results suggest that there are more effective policy levers to encourage enrollment through degree completion outside of the threat of financial aid loss. The second chapter centers on the role of guidance counselors in education production. Counselors are a common school resource for students navigating complicated and consequential education choices. However, most students have limited access to school counselors. We study one of the largest US policies to increase access to school counselors - California’s Supplemental School Counseling Program. The program increased the average number of high school counselors by .5 and reduced student to counselor ratios by about 40 students. Counselors hired as a result of the program had less experience on average. These changes led to modest increases in high school exit exam pass rates. Our findings hold important policy implications for schools to address persistent equity gaps in college access and rising concerns over students’ mental health. The third chapter offers further evidence on the efficacy and effectiveness of federal and state financial aid programs. I exploit discontinuities in the Pell Grant formula known as Automatic-Zero Estimated Family Contribution to estimate the effects of Pell Grant aid on community college student enrollment and financial and academic outcomes. I find suggestive evidence that increases in grant aid boost associate degree completion, but these increases do not translate into significantly higher bachelor’s degree completion rates or lower student debt burdens. These results fall in line with most of the empirical literature on Pell Grant aid effectiveness finding only modest effects of marginal increases in financial aid on degree completion. Findings further highlight the potential importance of combining efforts to improve financial aid programs with efforts to improve the transfer experience for degree-seeking, transfer-intending community college students.

Higher education and training in South Africa in the post-Apartheid era has never been more volatile than it is currently, some two decades into democracy. Despite the many advances and achievements of higher education, the student protests of 2015 and 2016 have given expression to underlying fault-lines, including increasing student expectations and frustrations with regard to access and funding. This research was undertaken to document the underlying historical issues and models pertaining to funding within the higher education and training sector as well as the existing higher education and training taxation policies and incentives enacted in South Africa and selected international jurisdictions. This was done with a view to providing a framework for higher education and training tax policy formation in South Africa to assist in meeting its higher education and training “access and affordability” targets as set out in the National Plan on Higher Education and the Higher Education White Paper, while at the same time not hindering economic growth. A doctrinal research methodology was adopted in this study as it mainly analysed and interpreted legislation and policy documents and therefore the approach was qualitative in nature. An extensive literature survey was done in order to document the various internationally selected legislated higher education and training tax policies and incentives. The literature indicated that there are widespread funding perspectives and initiates, and that international tax policies enacted with the aim of ensuring that higher education and training is more accessible and affordable to the public, is stable and effective in certain jurisdictions. It is submitted that while a higher education dedicated tax may not be sufficiently effective in South Africa, a combination of broad-based tax incentives will help to promote the change to a more affordable and stable higher education funding system, whilst not preventing growth through sustainable development.