Sherrie L. W. Rhine

Institutions of Higher Education as Multi-product Firms: Economies of Scale and Scope

A multiple-output cost function is estimated for institutions of higher education in the United States, employing data for 1981-82. The authors flexible fixed cost quadratic function includes three outputs--undergraduate teaching, graduate teaching, and research grants--and one input price--average faculty salaries. Results indicate the existence of scope economies (at least up to a point) for both public and private institutions of higher education. Ray economies of scale are more pronounced in the private sector and product-specific economies of scale are observed only in the public sector for research and graduate teaching. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.

The Importance of Check-Cashing Businesses to the Unbanked: Racial/Ethnic Differences

The roughly 9.5 percent of all U.S. families that are without some type of transaction account (unbanked) are disproportionately represented by minorities. The unbanked often must rely on alternative ways to carry out basic financial transactions such as cashing payroll checks and paying bills. This study analyzes unique survey data and finds that a consumers decision to patronize check-cashing businesses is jointly made with the decision to be unbanked. For the unbanked, these businesses are an important source for financial services. Attributes that contribute to these decisions, however, vary for each racial/ethnic group. Latent preference effects are also observed to influence this joint decision for Blacks and Hispanics. These findings may explain in part why the provisions of the Debt Collection Improvement Act (DCIA) of 1996 have not been more successful in bringing unbanked federal benefits recipients into the financial mainstream. ; Consumer participation in mainstream financial markets can improve their ability to build assets and create wealth, protect them from theft and discriminatory, predatory or unsavory lending practices, and may promote economic stability and vitality in the communities where they reside. By more fully understanding a consumers financial decisions, policies can be better directed to improve the effectiveness of legislation such as the DCIA of 1996 in encouraging mainstream financial market participation.