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This paper uses longitudinal data from England to examine the medium-term impact of a means-tested conditional cash transfer programme, Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), on higher educational participation and attainment. Combining regression modelling with entropy balancing, this paper finds that two-year EMA recipients are more likely to participate in higher education than non-recipients. Moreover, the impact of EMA is more substantial for male students, those with higher prior academic attainment, and students whose parents have higher educational qualifications. These findings suggest that even though EMA is a costly programme, it will benefit young people over a longer time frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives aimed at increasing higher education productivity, for instance, measured by credits per student, have stimulated the use of performance-based funding (PBF) by higher education institutions (HEIs). On theoretical grounds, PBF is expected to speed-up study program capacity adjustments through (re)allocations of study places. We conclude from analyses of Norwegian data that study places are adjusted efficiently if there are binding capacity restrictions at the institution level, or competition for students. Strengthened PBF does not affect long-run adjustments. Instead, admissions seem to adjust to secure full enrollment. The results provide an explanation of why very few positive effects of PBF in higher education are found in the literature. Given continued use of PBF to enhance productivity, a likely policy implication is to impose tighter restrictions on the total number of study places allocated to HEIs, or to change the price structure of the PBF model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the US, the federal government grants colleges access to a student's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) which facilitates substantial price discrimination. This article is the first to estimate the consequences of allowing colleges to use the FAFSA in their pricing decisions. I build and estimate a structural model of college pricing and simulate counterfactuals wherein some or all of the FAFSA information is restricted. I find that if FAFSA information were restricted, 13 |$\%$| of students attending elite colleges would be inefficiently priced out of the elite market. Nevertheless, student welfare would rise as colleges charged the majority of students lower prices. Colleges do use the FAFSA to transfer resources from high- to low-income students on average, but this redistribution is highly imprecise: allowing colleges to use the FAFSA harms one-third of low-income students while one in seven high-income students actually benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate in which countries fiscal externalities provide a justification for increasing subsidies to higher education. First, we show that the marginal fiscal recovery rate, i.e. the ratio of the change in total net fiscal revenues and the change in total subsidy costs caused by a small change in tuition subsidies, is the key statistic: if larger than a well-specified threshold value, then a small increase in subsidies is desirable from a welfare point of view. We also show that the marginal fiscal recovery rate depends on three statistics: the elasticity of participation with respect to subsidies, the success probability of the marginal student, and the ratio of the net fiscal revenue gain and the subsidy level of a degree in higher education. Second, we use this formula to approximate the marginal fiscal recovery rate in twenty OECD countries. The average marginal fiscal recovery rate is equal to 0.94, meaning that, on average, 0.94 euro is recovered of an increase in subsidies by one euro. This average hides substantial heterogeneity between countries. In six countries, the marginal fiscal recovery rate is larger than one, implying that an increase in subsidies to higher education is unambiguously desirable (i.e. a Pareto improvement) in these countries. In the other 14 countries, the marginal fiscal recovery rate is below one. Yet, if the degree of inequality aversion is not extreme, then increasing subsidies is also desirable in 12 additional countries. Third, to check the quality of our approximation of the marginal fiscal recovery rate, we simulate it for Belgium (region of Flanders) on the basis of a more detailed model. This simulation provides a somewhat lower, yet fairly similar result compared to the approximation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we contribute to the scant literature covering quantitative studies on the determinants of the non-academic staff incidence in higher education institutions by analysing how the proportion of non-academic staff is related to key features such as size, prestige, year of foundation and financial structure of universities. We apply nonlinear regression analysis to compare HEIs across Europe and the USA, taking into account time and cross-country heterogeneity of the two balanced panel datasets concerning European and American universities over a period of 6 years (2011–2016 for Europe and 2012–2017 for the USA). Evidence suggests that in both Europe and the USA, public and larger (if sufficiently large) as well as more research-oriented units are characterised by a higher proportion of non-academic staff. In Europe, we observe an inverted U-shaped effect of the share of non-personnel expenditure and the foundation year on the proportion of non-academic staff, while the proportion of non-academic staff decreases with the share of core and third-party funding. For the USA, we obtain similar findings except that the share of core funding and third-party funding is characterised by a U-shaped effect, and the impact of the share of non-personnel expenditure has no empirical effect on the proportion of non-academic staff. Additionally, we discover that some factors that contribute to the proportion of non-academic staff may constitute indicators of performance, suggesting the need for further research to extend our knowledge on the complex issue of the role played by non-academic staff in university performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article was to estimate the total efficiency of teaching activity carried out in Polish higher education institutions in 2015. The study used the EBM model belonging to the nonparametric DEA method. The output of the education process was measured by the number of graduates of the first-cycle and second-cycle studies and long-cycle studies, the number of doctoral degrees awarded, the number of postgraduate studies certificates issued, and the number of academic teachers and the total value of teaching activity revenue, the total value of state budget subsidies along with fees for educational services and fixed assets. Efficiency measurement was made for two variants: M1 and M2. The obtained research results indicate that on average, the difference between the indicators of the total efficiency of teaching activity under the two empirical models is 0.00. This is due to the fact that the share of budget subsidies and fees paid by students of part-time studies, in the revenues from teaching activity is at the level of 87%. There is also a positive but weak correlation between the total efficiency ratios and financial results obtained from teaching activities.

This paper examines the propensity of African American students to graduate from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Using IPEDS data from 2004 to 2016, we take care in developing a control group of institutions from which to compare HBCU success. Results suggest that despite accepting more students who are at risk of not graduating, HBCUs have a higher graduation rate for African American students than their peers. We then show that gender nor major choice help explain this persistent difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students entering college have limited financial experience while making complex borrowing decisions. This paper examines a policy lever that may improve these decisions: high school personal finance graduation requirements. We use a difference‐in‐difference strategy to determine their effects on financial aid decisions of incoming freshmen at 4‐year institutions. Our results suggest financial education shifts students from high‐cost to low‐cost financing. The requirements increase aid applications and acceptance of federal loans, while decreasing the likelihood of holding credit card balances. Students from less affluent family backgrounds reduce their likelihoods of working and borrowers from more affluent backgrounds reduce private loan amounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how tuition discounting affects the financial decisions of universities, their student recruitment, and reputation. Using a large panel data of U.S. private and public four-year institutions, we find that tuition discounting helps institutions enhance their short-term operating surplus, increase admission yield, and reduce drop-out rate. However, it does not appear to improve the graduation rate or the quality of the incoming students. Institutions relying more on tuition discounting have more financial leverage, less equity, and experience lower liquidity and asset turnover—indicating greater financial risk. These results are stronger for private universities. Finally, out-of-sample tests show that tuition discounting may not help enhance the reputation of private universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We generate selection-adjusted NPV and IRR estimates for a bachelor’s degree in the U.S. which account for time-to-graduation, debt financing and tuition levels. We find that a college degree is generally worthwhile, but the private value of the investment is a declining function of time-to-graduation. Selection-adjustments show that for students at the lower end of the ability distribution and in some areas of study, a college degree may never be a good financial proposition; as such, we provide breakeven thresholds for tuition at which college remains viable. Debt financing generates higher returns but greater risk compared to self-financing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How and why does partisan affiliation impact policy? Using a regression discontinuity strategy and focusing on state education spending, we find that Democratic and Republican governors allocate spending differently. In particular, school districts with higher shares of minority students receive larger state transfers than other districts under Democratic governors. A similar pattern occurs in state transfers to higher education institutions. This is true regardless of whether the governor is eligible for reelection; we find no evidence that Democrat governors are simply sending money to areas with a larger share of Democrats. These results suggest that the observed policy divergence is driven by differences in preferences of elected candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the problem of the financial regulations' impact on the share of private financing in higher education institutions (HEIs). The authors postulate the trade-off between the size and stability of public financing and the regulations fostering stability of HEIs’ funds. If the public sources are insufficient then the regulations increasing the stability of financing are expected. Such a policy increases the private-source financing at the expense of public-source financing, and it can be tested econometrically. The predictions are tightly related to the portfolio theory of Markowitz, where risk-averse management of HEIs minimizes the variance of available funds. The econometric analysis covers the impact of selected financial regulations on the private financing of tertiary-level education. The components of financial regulations are distinguished on the basis of the legal comparative study. The authors identify four financial regulations whose prevalence affects the diversification of European universities’ financing and can improve their financial stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increased reliance on tuition revenue, universities must be cognizant of the impacts tuition changes have on enrolment. In economics, the law of demand indicates that price increases (tuition) cause quantity demanded (enrolments) to decrease. The impacts of tuition increases on revenue depend on the magnitude of these two changes. The contribution of this article is the methodology used to control for competitor pricing in enrolment elasticity models. For resident enrolment, we included other in-state, 4-year public universities. For non-resident enrolment, we used weighting schemes based on enrolment patterns by school and by state to incorporate competitors’ tuition rates and relevant economic and demographic information. We applied these methodologies to universities in the south-eastern U.S. from 2003 to 2010. We found that tuition elasticities of both resident and non-resident enrolments at 4-year public universities varied from inelastic resident enrolments to elastic non-resident enrolments at the state level. In some cases, competitor pricing significantly impacted enrolments; in other cases, it did not. Across the full sample, 1% increase in resident tuition rates decreased enrolments by 0.3%. The techniques developed in this article can be used by individual universities or university systems to inform their strategies in setting tuition rates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the effect of the introduction of an academic dismissal (AD) policy (i.e. an intervention, which can lead to compulsory student withdrawal) on student dropout, student graduation rates and satisfaction with the study program. Using a difference-in-differences type of estimator, we compare programs that introduced an AD policy with a control group of programs which did not employ an AD policy. The robustness of the results is tested by a propensity score matching. The outcomes suggest that the implementation of an AD policy results in a higher first-year dropout rate and a higher student graduation rate. The results also indicate that, on average, student satisfaction decreases due to the introduction of an AD policy, while student satisfaction regarding program feasibility increases when an AD policy is employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A two-stage setting for determining subsidies and tuitions in a public university context is developed where fixed costs introduce an efficiency-enhancing role for taxpayer-financed appropriations. The optimal subsidy per enrollment is shown to be proportional to students’ maximum net willingness to pay. This result extends a well-known result associated with Ramsey pricing to include endogenous appropriations to public higher education. Realistic restrictions are imposed on the subsidy structure, and scenarios for determining tuitions are addressed and illustrated numerically, using budget data for the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In higher education systems that are partly tax funded, a country might not be willing to subsidize the education of international students who might leave after graduation. This paper analyzes how student migration affects governmental decisions regarding the private funding share of higher education for 22 OECD countries for the period of 2000–2011. Based on fixed effects estimations, we find a significant positive correlation. This result is robust to changes in the specification, including estimations for country groups and for an expanded lag structure. The use of an instrumental variable approach supports a causal interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A stochastic cost frontier with inefficiency effects is estimated to investigate the impacts of decreases in state funding support on the operating efficiency of public colleges and universities in the U.S. Panel data for 378 institutions spanning 10 academic years, 2004 through 2013, captures the efficiency effects of declines in state funding from 32 % to 23 %. There are several improvements over early work of like kind that was, however, confined to four academic years, 2005 through 2008, and could not account for the accelerated effects of state funding decreases that followed the financial crisis. Inefficiency effects are extended to include both private giving as a substitute revenue source and federally funded Pell Grants. Empirical results are robust and support the notion that government does matter. Decreases in state funding create inefficiency in producing public higher education. Results also suggest the same for private giving and Pell Grant support, although the former was statistically weak at best. On the cost side, the results, not surprisingly, indicate that university administrators held costs down with hiring increases in non-tenure track faculty and staff relative to tenure track and tenured faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a natural experiment, a sharp rise in tuition fees in some of the programmes at the University of Paris 9-Dauphine, we study the impact of tuition fees on students’ pathways, and outcomes. We apply an optimal matching method to the national database of students’ registrations (SISE) to define a typology of pathways. We then use a nonordered multinomial logit model to evaluate the impact of the rise in tuition fees on the types of pathways selected by the university. We show that there is a significant impact on these pathways. The increase in tuition fees reduces geographic and social mobility, thereby accentuating the phenomena of social segregation. Furthermore, contrary to what some of the studies assert, the rise does not appear to encourage greater effort: we find no impact on the graduation success rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine the relationship between student loans and marital status among individuals considering or pursuing graduate management education. Using data from a panel survey of registrants for the Graduate Management Admission Test, I show that the amount of accumulated student debt is negatively related to the probability of first marriage. The strength of the relationship diminishes with age, more so for women than for men. At the median age for the sample (24 years at test registration), the estimated decrease over a seven-year period is between 3 and 4 percentage points per $10,000 in student debt for men and a percentage point lower in absolute value for women. I use information on reported marriage expectations to show evidence that education expenditures and the amount of debt are correlated with anticipated marital status, but borrowers may not have perfect foresight about the long-term consequences of accumulating student debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tests the existence of credit constraints on higher education access by estimating actual marginal returns in the context of unobserved heterogeneity. We estimate higher education returns for those who attended and compare them with those of individuals who are at the margin of attending. Following the (Carneiro and Heckman, 2002) reasoning, if the returns of the latter group are larger than those of the former one we could be in presence of unobservable barriers to higher education access, such as credit constraints. We use a rich administrative database composed of three sources: data of enrollment and graduation from the Chilean higher education system, test scores and labor market outcomes from the Chilean Unemployment Insurance database. Our results suggest that there is no evidence of credit constraints for enrolling into the Chilean Higher Education system. However, we do find some evidence of credit constraints in graduation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate the effect of receiving financial aid for a cohort of students who enrolled at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in the year 2007/2008, through a propensity score matching approach. Using administrative data about these students for four years, the impact of the financial aid on several dimensions of academic performance was evaluated: formative credits obtained after one year, dropout probability in the first and second year, graduation in the legal duration of the course, and graduation after four years. Overall, a positive and statistically significant effect of the grant is found and this finding is stable across several robustness checks. Exploring the heterogeneity of this effect, it is demonstrated that the effect is higher for immigrants, Italians who moved from another region for studying, and students attending an engineering course. Evidence that unobservable factors (such as students’ own intrinsic academic motivation) account for an important part of the estimated impact of the financial aid is also found. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When state appropriations decrease, public universities respond by raising tuition. Students borrow more in response to both tuition increases and appropriation cuts. This article investigates the feedback of how borrowing and tuition influence state appropriations. Using a panel data set of 450 four-year public universities from 1999 to 2012, we employ three-stage least squares techniques to control for the endogeneity between state appropriations, tuition and student borrowing. There is evidence that state policy-makers respond to increases in university tuition and student borrowing by decreasing future appropriation levels. After controlling for the effect of appropriations on tuition and borrowing, a one-dollar increase in student borrowing reduces state appropriations per student by $0.06, and a one-dollar increase in tuition results in a decrease of $0.45 in state appropriations per student. When universities increase tuition for reasons other than a reduction in state appropriations, policy-makers respond with a significant cut in future appropriations which could signal an incentive strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with the high school class of 2015, Tennessee Promise will provide college coaching and last-dollar aid to every high school graduate making a seamless transition to community college. We examine the program that preceded this effort and evaluate its potential effect on college-going and college persistence. Knox Achieves originated in Knox County, Tennessee with the class of 2009. Eligibility was neither need-based nor merit-based, negating some of the application hurdles that accompany other aid vehicles. We find that program participation is strongly associated with an increased likelihood of graduating from high school and enrolling directly in college, albeit with a modestly lower chance of starting in a four-year college. The evidence suggests that aid per se is not the only lever by which Knox Achieves worked: college enrollment and college credit gains are largest among lower-income students who likely saw little to no scholarship aid from the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the effect of outside university work on time to first degree at German universities. The database is the ‘Absolventenpanel' 2001, a panel study conducted by the ‘Hochschul-Informations-System'. Aiming to estimate the causal effect correctly, we apply a matching strategy based on the approach put forward by Rosenbaum and Rubin [(1983) “The Central Role of Propensity Score in Observational Studies for Causal Effects.”Biometrika70: 41–55]. The results of the matching approach reveal that simple prima facie results are upward biased but confirm that off-campus work has a prolonging effect on study duration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We employ new data to examine how public higher education institutions adjusted the salaries and composition of their business faculty during a financially challenging period. The data's multilevel structure allows us to describe changes in between-institution inequality, within-institution inequality, and their interaction. To examine the role of finances, we compare public and private institutions and employ difference and fixed-effects models to study the effect of state appropriations. Our results indicate that financially stressed publics almost matched the salary increases of their competitors between 1999 and 2006, but reductions in the number of professors especially full professors accompanied this salary growth. The salary gap across public institutions increased, while within institutions, salary compression and salary inequality within rank grew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2006 increase in university tuition in the UK was followed by a 3–4% reduction in the proportion of students choosing STEM degrees, due either to a change in the composition of students, or to similar students selecting away from STEM subjects. This article tests the latter hypothesis, estimating the effect of the fees for comparable students using propensity score matching on a rich set of covariates. Results suggest that the change was entirely driven by compositional changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study the impact of socio-economic status on enrollment and study decisions in higher education. We use a discrete choice approach to distinguish between three channels. First, students from disadvantaged backgrounds may be more sensitive to the costs of education. Second, they may have lower preferences for education. Third, they may have developed less academic ability during previous schooling and are therefore less likely to participate. We apply our analysis to Flanders, where tuition fees are low and all high school graduates have access to higher education. We control for unobserved heterogeneity and find that preferences and (acquired) ability are more important than cost sensitivity in explaining the lower enrollment of disadvantaged students. Finally, we use the cost sensitivity channel to simulate the impact of tuition fee increases. We find that a uniform tuition fee increase has a fairly small impact on total enrollment, but it especially reduces enrollment of socially disadvantaged students. An alternative discriminatory policy, which combines a higher tuition fee increase for advantaged students with a lower tuition fee increase for disadvantaged students, can be superior: it generates the same budgetary savings, has a lower impact on total enrollment and reduces the participation gap of disadvantaged students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers the impact of state-level guaranteed tuition programs on postsecondary tuition levels. The analytic framework argues that state-level laws requiring flat tuition rates for four years contain inflationary risk, which encourages institutions to set tuition higher than they otherwise would with annual adjustments. To empirically test this idea, this study uses a national panel dataset and a quasi-experimental difference-in-difference methodological approach, with Illinois’ Truth-in-Tuition law serving as the treatment condition. On average, institutions subject to this law increased annual tuition by approximately 26–30% and aggregate four-year tuition by approximately 6–7% in excess of the amount predicted by the trend for institutions not subject to the law. These findings are robust to multiple alternative specifications and support the idea that state-level guaranteed tuition programs encourage large institutional tuition increases. Implications of these findings for state policymakers, higher education institutional leaders, and college-age students and their families are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictive modelling is used to identify students at risk of failing their first-year courses and not returning to university in the second year. Our aim is twofold. Firstly, we want to understand the factors that lead to poor first-year experiences at university. Secondly, we want to develop simple, low-cost tools that would allow universities to identify and intervene on vulnerable students when they first arrive on campus. This is why we base our analysis on administrative data routinely collected as part of the enrollment process from a New Zealand university. We assess the 'target effectiveness' of our model from a number of perspectives. This approach is found to be substantially more predictive than a previously developed risk tool at this university. For example, observations from validation samples in the top decile of risk scores account for nearly 28 % of first-year course non-completions and 22 % of second-year student non-retentions at this university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to improve the efficiency of fiscal assistance programs for higher education by investigating those variables that influence college graduates’ employment rates. An empirical analysis of 2010–2011 higher education statistics shows that two variables – educational expenditure per student and the number of students per full-time faculty member – consistently and significantly affect college graduates’ employment rates, even after location and type of school are controlled. Although scholarship rates also affect employment rates positively, the number of students per industry–academe liaison officer does not have a statistically significant effect. Moreover, as educational expenditure per student or the student/faculty ratio increases beyond a certain level, graduate employment improves at an increasing rate. The two variables also affect the employment rate interactively. At a relatively higher level of per-student expenditure, employment rates increase even as the student/faculty ratio rises. However, at a relatively lower level of per-student expenditure, employment rates decline as the student/faculty ratio rises. The policy implication is that fiscal assistance programs for higher educational institutions should accord a much greater weight to these key variables when selecting and assessing institutional recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community colleges play a major role in postsecondary education, yet previous research has emphasized the impact of merit aid on four-year students rather than two-year students. Furthermore, researchers have focused on the impact of merit aid on enrollment and outcomes during college, but to my knowledge, none have yet considered the impact of aid on earnings after college. This paper utilizes discontinuities in eligibility criteria for a large merit scholarship to examine the local impact of aid on student outcomes both during college and after college. The findings suggest that reducing the cost of community college does not impact persistence, academic performance, degree completion, expected earnings, or short-term earnings after college for marginally eligible students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is generally agreed that the funding base for German universities is inadequate and perhaps the time has come for serious consideration of the imposition of nontrivial tuition charges. This article compares conventional and income contingent loans (ICLs) for financing tuition fees at German universities. Two aspects are considered: the size of repayment burdens associated with mortgage-style loans, and the time structure of revenue to the government from a hypothetical ICL. We find that tuition fees could increase considerably with the use of an ICL system similar to policy approaches used in Australia, England and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper develops a general methodology for measuring the value added of institutions of higher education using commonly available administrative data. Our approach recognizes the data limitations and selection problems inherent in higher education, and highlights the challenges these issues pose for education policy. Combining information from different administrative sources in the state of Texas, we follow the universe of Texas college applicants from the time of application (pre-enrollment) through public college and into the labor market. In specifications that do not control for selection, we find large, significant differences across colleges in terms of persistence, graduation, and earnings; however, these differences decrease substantially when we control for selection. In light of the growing interest in using value-added measures in higher education for both funding and incentivizing purposes, our methodology offers unique evidence and lessons for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, philanthropic giving to higher education institutions totaled $30.3 billion, an 8.2% increase over the previous year. Roughly, 26% of those funds came from alumni donations. This article builds upon existing economic models to create an econometric model to explain and predict the pattern of alumni giving. We test the model using data from over 27,000 alumni at a private liberal arts college, and report on the probable profiles for annual fund donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to improve the understanding of political budget cycles by first identifying a previously undocumented cycle in tuition and required fees at public four-year institutions of higher education in the United States. I find that tuition and fees are 1.5 % lower during gubernatorial election years than in non-election years. No similar cycle is found in private tuition and fees. Using a newly constructed dataset, I then explore the variation in electoral competition in gubernatorial and state legislative elections within states over time to uncover the underlying electoral incentives creating the cycle. The results suggest that the tuition cycle is not designed to increase the reelection prospects of governors as standard theories would predict. I find that tuition decreases during gubernatorial election years as the reelection prospects of the incumbent governor increases. Instead, the evidence suggests that popular governors use lower tuition as political pork to expand party power in the state by capturing swing districts in concurrent state legislative elections. I find that the magnitude of the cycle increases with the level of competition in state house elections and that the effect is concentrated among those districts held by the opposition party, particularly if those opposition districts are populated with voters likely to be responsive to tuition as a policy lever. These results reveal important dynamics about party competition within states in the United States and suggest that the electoral incentives driving political budget cycles can be complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]