The Finance of Higher Education: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice

Edited by Michael B. Paulsen, University of New Orleans and John C. Smart, University of Memphis, this new volume is a comprehensive examination of governmental and institutional policies and practices, and of the essential theories and areas of research that in combination establish the foundation, explore and extend the boundaries, and expand the base of knowledge in the field of higher education finance. Nine of the fifteen chapters were written for this volume; the other six are reprinted from recently published volumes of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Finance, each with an updating epilogue provided by the authors.

The authors and editors of this book include prominent economists, social scientists and higher education policy analysts who have had substantial experience in the field and have made significant contributions to the existing literature on the economics and finance of higher education. Among them are eight economists—three of whom are or have been college or university presidents—and a number of the leading social scientists and policy analysts in the field.

A unique feature of the book is its comprehensive, systematic presentation of the theories and models from the policy science of economics that have been the most frequently and productively applied to the study of higher education finance. These perspectives include human capital theory, public sector economics, the microeconomic theories of cost and productivity, and the price theory of microeconomics, each of which is addressed in a separate chapter.

Also unique—and groundbreaking—is a chapter by David W. Breneman, James L. Doti, and Lucie Lapovsky that examines the analytics of tuition discounting as the predominant means by which many private colleges and universities achieve enrollment targets. Based on the results of their latest research, the authors present a new model of the pricing and enrollment practices of private institutions and use it as a framework for examining the key relationships between tuition, enrollment, merit-based and need-based aid, composition of the student body, and tuition discounting practices. Their analysis redefines the boundaries and extends the frontiers of knowledge about tuition discounting.

Taken together, the 15 chapters of The Finance of Higher Education provide a set of rigorous, but accessible and workable, frameworks that can help build a strong analytic foundation to better inform and forearm those engaged in the development of policies and practices related to the finance of higher education.

For a complete table of contents, short biographies of all contributors, and to order, please click here.