Are Universities Becoming More Unequal? / Yan Lau, Harvey S. Rosen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lau, Yan.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Rosen, Harvey S.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21432.

NBER working paper series no. w21432

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.

Summary:

Observers have expressed concern about growing inequality in resources across universities. But are universities really becoming more unequal? We argue that the typical approach of examining endowment growth alone is not sensible. In line with the literature on household inequality, we focus instead on a comprehensive income measure. We find that although there is considerable inequality among institutions, concerns about the inexorable growth of inequality are overblown. Whether one looks at income, endowment wealth, or expenditure, inequality has been high but stable, exhibiting only negligible increases in recent years. Furthermore, there has been little mobility within the higher education sector.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2015.