A Value-Added Estimate of Higher Education Quality of U.S. States

32 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2006 Last revised: 6 Aug 2011

See all articles by Lei Zhang

Lei Zhang

Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Date Written: November 2007

Abstract

States differ substantially in higher education policies. Little is known about the effects of state policies on the performance of public colleges and universities, largely because no clear measures of college quality exist. In this paper, I estimate the average quality of public colleges of U.S. states based on the value-added to individuals’ early career earnings. I explicitly deal with the problem of self-selection in both where to go to college and where to work. I find considerable variation in the quality of states’ public college systems. Using this quality measure, I then explore how various aspects of state higher education policy are associated with college outcomes. I find that states with better faculty quality and with more diversity among public colleges tend to have higher value-added to student earnings.

Keywords: College quality; Value-added; Individual earnings; Self-selection; State higher education policies

JEL Classification: H4, I2, H7

Suggested Citation

Zhang, Lei, A Value-Added Estimate of Higher Education Quality of U.S. States (November 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=948534 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.948534

Lei Zhang (Contact Author)

Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University ( email )

HOME PAGE: http://www.acem.sjtu.edu.cn/en/faculty/zhanglei.html

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