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  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. March 2017
  5. Parties or Problem Sets: Review Article on How College Works and Paying for the Party

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

Parties or Problem Sets: Review Article on How College Works and Paying for the Party

  • William R. Johnson
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 55, no. 1, March 2017
(pp. 136–47)
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Abstract

The potential of Internet-enabled distance learning to transform higher education focuses attention on exactly what residential higher-education institutions do for and to their students. Two recent books marshal detailed quantitative and subjective data on individual student outcomes to document the effects of two institutions and how these outcomes might be improved. Paying for the Party concludes that a Midwestern state university reinforces existing economic inequalities rather than fostering upward mobility. How College Works finds that a northeastern liberal-arts college generally serves its students well and suggests low-cost improvements. These claims are evaluated.

Citation

Johnson, William R. 2017. "Parties or Problem Sets: Review Article on How College Works and Paying for the Party." Journal of Economic Literature, 55 (1): 136–47. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20151320

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D63 Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
  • I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
  • I24 Education and Inequality