Staggered adoption of policies by different units at different times creates promising opportunities for observational causal inference. Estimation remains challenging, however, and common regression methods can give misleading results. A promising alternative is the synthetic control method (SCM), which finds a weighted average of control units…

Prior research substantially overstates the cost of retention under test-based promotion policies to both taxpayers and students who delay labor market entry because it omits two important factors. First, there is a delay between the intervention and the taxpayer's expenditure. Second, on average, the treatment leads to less than a full year of…

Education in society especially in Mexico, seems to be a powerful instrument of intergenerational social mobility to produce individuals with "capabilities and functions" allowing them to obtain a greater well-being. "Education as schooling," in the first instance, improves the individuals living conditions, since this is a…

According to a formula developed to measure the adequacy of state educational finance levels, only three of six selected midwestern states provided adequate levels of expenditure per pupil in 1981-82. The formula for determining adequacy, developed by Jerry Miner and Walter McMahon, consists of totaling adequate levels of expenditure in seven…

This handbook provides information and guidelines to assist college administrators and researchers in calculating the economic impact of their community college on its locality. First, background is presented on an economic impact project conducted in New Jersey to help support the case for increased state and county funding to community colleges.…

Many colleges and universities set spending from endowment at a fixed fraction of its market value. Analysis of this policy suggests that the maximum permissible spending fraction is related to the institution's target growth rate and the endowment's real return. Mathematical formulas and charts specifying this relationship are offered. (MSE)

In an effort to measure the economic impact of Dutchess Community College (DCC), in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Dutchess County, a study was undertaken of expenditures and jobs created in the county during fiscal year 1991-92. To measure the tangible economic impact, three major financial components were examined: direct expenditures by the college…

A survey conducted by the Higher Education Panel sought trends in various items of information about the financial condition of colleges and universities. A stratified sample of 760 insitutions was used, excluding major research universities. Information was requested on basic finance data, dormitory occupancy rates, occurrence of institutional…

The short-term impacts of public community colleges upon the business and government sectors of Maryland's economy were measured through a series of linear cash-flow formulas. In 1976-77, total direct and indirect expenditures attributable to the 17 colleges in areas of salaries, purchase of materials, and capital building improvements were almost…

Price indices related to specific expenditure categories are necessary for realistic budget projections in higher education. Given the erratic inflationary behavior of the past seven years, and the uniqueness of higher education expenditures, realistic inflation prediction requires a balanced combination of analytic forecasting and intuitive…

Designed as a tool for colleges and the State Board for Community Colleges in Maryland to update economic impact data on a regular basis, this manual describes sources of impact information, and how the information can be used in economic equations. Part I of the manual describes how values for short-term economic impacts of community college…

Quantitative data on the nature and magnitude of the economic impact of Trenton State College (New Jersey) on the surrounding community are provided in an attempt to reduce conjecture. Data were collected for fiscal year 1977-78. In many cases the data were then applied to a model developed by John Caffrey and Herbert H. Isaacs; in other cases,…

The short-range economic impact of Mercer County Community College (MCCC) upon the local community was investigated in terms of business volume, property tax revenues, and jobs for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1978. MCCC generated $6,456,979 in local business volume; approximately two-thirds of these local purchases were directly attributable…

Explained and illustrated is the formula funding system used for colleges and universities in Texas. This system is considerably more complicated than the formulas used in other states. Data for institutions in the state system for fiscal 1978 are presented; actual appropriations are used rather than requests, and formula-produced amounts are…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) commissioned the papers in this publication to address advances in measuring education inflation and adjusting for it, as well as to examine the emergence of a new focus on school spending, rather than school district spending, as well as new, private sources of funding for public education, and…