Stephen A. Hoenack

Cost-Related Tuition Policies and University Enrollments.

This paper explores the analytical issues which a university would face in implementing a cost-related tuition policy and presents empirical estimates of the impact of implementing such a policy using data from the University of Minnesota. The empirical results suggest that universities can use standard econometric analyses of enrollment demand behavior to reduce considerably the uncertainty about the effects of changes in tuition policy. However, substantial uncertainty remains for some categories of enrollments. In this context the paper addresses the relevant analytical issues in combining incomplete empirical predictions with a procedure of gradual implementation of a cost-related tuition policy and a careful monitoring of enrollments as the policy is implemented.

Economics, Organizations, and Learning: Research Directions for the Economics of Education.

Abstract The production and supply of education take place in organizations as do the activities that determine the demands for educated personnel. The analysis of educational outcomes and evaluation of their efficiency depend on three elements of the analysis of organizational behavior: costly information, decentralized advantages in defraying information costs, and incentives. This paper suggests several research directions in which economists can apply these tools in the analyses of educational institutions and of those employing educated personnel. Most economists of education work in organizations and their own choices of research projects are influenced by the three elements of organizational analysis. Organizational analysis can also explain when economists have the discretion to resist, in favor of efficiency or social justice equity, their usual incentives and, in the process, possibly do much more interesting research.

Firm utilization of university scientific research

This study investigates the assumption that scientific research taking place in universities “trickles down” to industry. Publication characteristics are used to examine the collaboration and utilization behavior of scientists employed in the computer equipment and aircraft industries. The data indicate that these industries are using research generated by university scientists and that collaboration between sectors is occurring. Four sets of factors (article, firm, industry, and university characteristics) are used to explain research utilization and publication practices. Logistical regression results confirm that university/firm proximity is associated with increased collaboration and that collaborative relationships promote firm utilization of university research. These results indicate that university policymakers should consider ways to encourage collaborative relationships between sectors to promote information transfer. Further, the result linking proximity and collaboration suggests support for academic scientific activities should be encouraged at the local level.

The marginal costs of instruction

This is a study of the costs of instruction in a large public research university. It departs from other work on instructional costs in its attempt to draw inferences about the economic costs of incremental or “marginal” enrollments. Focusing on graduate education, we examine how the costs directly facing faculty differ from those incurred by the institutions administration and legislature as reflected in the budgetary rewards for instruction. These cost differences provide the wherewithal for a university to carry out basic research and other important functions that lack a paying clientele. The study also explores the roles of economic costs in the institutions pricing of graduate education.

Direct and incentive planning within a university

Abstract This paper explores appropriate roles of “direct” and “incentive” academic planning in helping universities relate advantageously to the aspect of their environments represented by the instructional and research demands of their constituencies. Adopting these roles requires a university to have flexible, uncommitted resources which are difficult to obtain from program reductions because of the impossibility of administratively valuing a universitys programs. The paper presents evidence that at one university these funds can be derived alternatively from improved tuition policy and legislative funding relationships.

The economics of education in developing countries: An assessment of the state of the art

Abstract This paper assesses the present state of the art of the economics of education in developing countries in the context of the papers in this special issue. These papers help fill analytical gaps in the field by addressing the frequently overlooked roles of organization and incentives in shaping more efficient and equitable educational outcomes. Additional work needs to be done to broaden the fields analytical framework if economists are to have more influence in favor of such outcomes. High on the list is to include within the fields analytical framework the behavioral relationships that shape decisions whether to implement more efficient or equitable policies.

A Comparison of Effects of Personnel and Enrollment Policies on the Size and Composition of a University's Faculty

This paper expands the use of a faculty flow model to include simulation of the indirect effects on a universitys faculty of institutional policies which directly affect enrollments. The results, ...

Can Economic Incentives Explain the Recent Population Movements to Nonmetropolitan Areas

A major trend of population movement from metropolitan to nonmetropolitan areas began sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s. We present estimates of a time series equation that explains part of the migration behavior underlying these movements in Minnesota. The hypothesized economic influences on behavior were significant and of the expected signs. We also found support for the null hypothesis of exogeneity of nonmetropolitan unemployment, the economic influence on migration that is most likely to be endogenous. The results of Chow Tests indicate that changes in the portion of migration behavior that we investigated reflect stable responses to changes in economic incentives.

On the stability of legislative outcomes

This paper argues that by arranging vote trades in the face of information costs, legislative committees contribute to the stability of legislative outcomes. A structure of permanent committees and subcommittees facilitates informational specialization and helps legislators acquire experience in their specializations. Committees arrange vote trades by adjusting amounts of recommended spending on separate items in bills that receive majority support. Each legislator is allotted a roughly equal amount of legislative spending that he can influence plus an additional amount that depends on his skill and experience as a committee member.

Evaluating college campus closings for the 1980s: A case application of an optimization model

Institutional administrators, faculty, state planners, and legislatures have little analytical basis available to help them cope with the expected excess higher education capacity of the 1980s. Without objective criteria, state planners and legislatures are likely to propose across-the-board reductions even if it were preferable to close some institutions and expand others. This study is a case application of an optimization model to two community colleges in northern Minnesota. Using estimated enrollment demand functions and readily available data on size, quality, and costs, this model is designed to assist policymakers in identifying overbuilt institutions and programs that should be closed. The states objective in the model is to satisfy specified proportions of enrollment demand with a minimum expenditure of state funds.