Price Regulation, Price Discrimination, and Equality of Opportunity in Higher Education: Evidence from Texas
研究了2003年德克萨斯州将学费定价权从州立法机构下放给公立大学后，价格管制放松对低收入学生入学机会的影响，发现低收入学生反而更多转向高收入专业。
We assess the importance of price regulation and price discrimination to low-income students’ access to opportunities in public higher education. In 2003, Texas shifted tuition-setting authority away from the state legislature to public universities themselves. In response, most institutions raised sticker prices and many began charging more for high-earning majors, such as business and engineering. We find that poor students actually shifted toward higher earning programs following deregulation, relative to non-poor students. Deregulation facilitated more price discrimination through increased grant aid and enabled supply-side enhancements, which may have partially shielded poor students from higher sticker prices.