Kevin N. Rask

The influence of the US News and World Report collegiate rankings on the matriculation decision of high-ability students: 1995-2004

The annual U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) Guide to America’s Best Colleges is a much anticipated magazine among both high-ability prospective students and college and university administrators. In this paper we use a decade of Colgate University Admitted Student Questionnaire surveys to estimate the influence of changes in a school’s USNWR rank on the probability of matriculation of high-ability students. We find that the school choice of students is more responsive to changes in rank the higher (better) a school is ranked. This sensitivity to rank is independent of other objective measures of quality. As a group, women (aided and fullpay) are slightly less sensitive to the rankings than men, minorities (full-pay) are less sensitive to the rankings than non-minorities, and the rankings themselves have become more important over time for aided students. In terms of financial factors, the net cost of attendance along with the packaging of the aid matters for aided students. Finally, merit aid in general does not appear to influence high-ability full-pay students. Our results suggest that it is rational for college administrators (especially those at the highest ranked institutions) to pay attention to their USNWR rank because it is an important influence in yielding accepted students.

Are Faculty Role Models? Evidence from Major Choice in an Undergraduate Institution.

Abstract The gap between mens and womens choice of college majors has not changed over the past two decades. One aspect of the debate surrounding their choice is the presence or absence of women and minority faculty role models who could attract female and minority students to a particular major. The authors provide new evidence using micro-data from student records, transcript records, and faculty records from the Colgate University classes of 1988–2000. The authors found role-model effects for women, minorities, and men. The proportion of classes taken with a faculty member “like-you” has a positive effect on the probability that a student will choose that major. These results support the idea that faculty members can exert a role-model effect on women and minority undergraduates.

Public insurance substituting for private insurance: new evidence regarding public hospitals, uncompensated care funds, and medicaid

This paper examines the impact of public health insurance programs, whether structured as subsidies to health care providers (public hospitals and uncompensated care reimbursement funds) or as direct insurance (Medicaid), on the purchase of private health insurance. The presence of a public hospital is associated with a lower likelihood of private insurance for those with incomes between 100-200% and 200-400% of the poverty level. Uncompensated care reimbursement funds were associated with less purchase of private health insurance and a higher likelihood of being uninsured across all income groups. More generous Medicaid programs showed both safety-net and crowd out effects.

Clean air and renewable fuels: the market for fuel ethanol in the US from 1984 to 1993

Abstract Ethanol made from corn has become an increasingly important fuel additive in the US over the past decade. The market for ethanol has grown from 550 million gallons in 1984 to approximately 1.5 billion gallons in 1995. Recent clean-air legislation has mandated the use of cleaner burning fuels in the US in specific regions and seasons. The fundamental role of fuel ethanol is changing from a gasoline substitute and octane enhancer to being one of a number of possible clean-air additives. In addition to these changing market conditions, the institutional structure surrounding the ethanol market has changed. While there is a uniform national subsidy for ethanol use, each state has its own supplemental subsidy level which varied from zero to over

Clean air policy and oxygenated fuels: do we get what we pay for?

0.40 per gallon. Recently, many state subsidy levels have been declining, but significant incentives still remain (including the federal

Evidence of the empirical relevance of the infant industry argument for the protection of Brazilian ethanol production

0.54 per gallon incentive). This paper explores the economic characteristics of the US ethanol market. The market supply and demand for ethanol are estimated econometrically. The results highlight the importance of the state and federal incentives and mandates, along with transportation costs, in making corn-based ethanol an attractive alternative to gasoline. Further investigation using a probit model to predict whether a state has an ethanol market or not reinforces the results of the supply–demand market model. The implications of the market characteristics for current and future US ethanol policy and clean-fuels use are discussed.

Too Few Women? - Or Too Many Men? The Gender Imbalance in Undergraduate Economics

Abstract The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 set ambient air quality standards for the United States. Areas that violate these standards (usually large urban centers) are required to use cleaner-burning automotive fuels (oxygenated fuels or ‘oxyfuels’) during the winter months in some cases and year-round (reformulated gasoline) in the worst cases. Oxygenated fuels are the primary alternative fuel in use, however, cleaning-up our aggregate automobile emissions can be done through many different methods. Using a cross-section of data from the California emissions testing program this paper investigates the environmental benefits gained by the use of oxyfuels. It estimates the actual CO and HC emissions abatement due to the use of the oxyfuel. The results suggest the CO emissions reductions are lower than previously thought due to the differential impact of the fuel on different automobile vintages. Cars built since 1988 have no CO emissions benefits as a result of using oxyfuels. Oxyfuels are also found to have no systematic impact on HC emissions. The oxyfuel smog test results are then compared to emissions’ improvements resulting from emissions system repairs. Increased maintenance and repairs are found to be a much more cost-effective method for lowering CO and HC emissions than oxyfuels.

The Effect of Institutional Expenditures on Employment Outcomes and Earnings

The infant industry argument for protection of import competing industries has a long and almost entirely theoretical history in the literature. In this paper the empirical evidence of infant industry dynamics in the Brazilian ethanol industry is investigated. In Brazil ethanol has developed into a primary automotive fuel over the past 18 years. This import substitute is attractive because it allows decreased dependence on international oil supplies while at the same time it addresses environmental concerns because it is a clean-burning renewable fuel. While ethanol was initially a high-cost alternative to imported 0il, observed cost reductions have led to an increased belief that this industry may in fact warrant the subsidization it has received because of infant industry reasons. The results of this study suggest that there is no empirical evidence of economies of scale and very little technical change. There appears to be no empirical validity to the infant industry argument for subsidization of the Brazilian ethanol industry.

Attrition in STEM Fields at a Liberal Arts College: The Importance of Grades and Pre-Collegiate Preferences

There is a gender imbalance in undergraduate economics departments with most departments educating a strong majority of young men. This imbalance has led many economists to ponder the question of why relatively few women choose to take courses and major in economics. Our hypothesis is that the gender imbalance in undergraduate economics, particularly at institutions with traditional liberal arts curriculums, is as much the result of too many men choosing economics as it is too few women. Students choose their majors based on both their interests and their abilities. The literature indicates that the grade a student receives in an introductory class relative to grades received in other departments is one of the strongest predictors of whether or not the student chooses to enroll in more courses in the discipline. However, our hypothesis is that men who take economics courses are less responsive to this signal than are women. As a result, men who do poorly in economics are more likely to continue in the major. Women who do poorly, in contrast, are more likely to abandon economics and pursue a different major. Our results, generated from 16 years of data from a liberal arts college where economics is one of the most popular majors, support this hypothesis. The overall economics GPA for female majors is significantly higher than that for males. In addition, histograms show that male students dominate the bottom of the grade distribution. Finally, results from estimation of a series of selection models of the decision to take more economics courses indicate that, holding other characteristics constant, women are more responsive to the relative grade received in the second semester of economics than are men.

The role of grade sensitivity in explaining the gender imbalance in undergraduate economics

In recent decades, public attention on colleges has risen in response to rising college expenditures and costs. This study uses the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to investigate how spending impacts salaries and employment outcomes, controlling for selection. Our findings indicate that spending on instruction increases salaries, the probability of full‐time employment, and job match, particularly for more disadvantaged students, while there are smaller benefits of spending on student services for less disadvantaged students. Spending on research has large positive impacts on salary and the probability of full‐time employment, especially for disadvantaged students.