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We study the role of denominational competition in the expansion of higher education in the nineteenth-century United States. We document that nearly all colleges established in this period were affiliated with a Christian denomination. Empirical analysis reveals a robust positive relationship between the denominational fragmentation of the county and the number of colleges established. We take several steps to rule out competing explanations and also highlight the causal channel by utilizing two historical case studies. We conclude by estimating a model of school choice and showing that students exhibited strong preferences to attend same-denominational colleges in terms of willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-travel. Therefore, we argue that religious diversity softened the extent of tuition competition between institutions and precipitated an "excess" entry of schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, an estimated 8 to 12 million Americans started an online fundraising campaign to cover the cost of healthcare. In this paper, we study the causes and consequences of medical crowdfunding using data from GoFundMe, one of the largest online fundraising platforms. First, we show that the ACA Medicaid expansion had a statistically meaningful effect in reducing the number of health-related GoFundMe campaigns. This suggests that the demand for crowdfunded medical care could be driven, in part, by lack of health insurance coverage. Next, we show that the growth of medical crowdfunding can exacerbate group-level inequality by reinforcing existing disparities in health access. Specifically, we document that GoFundMe campaigns organized by individuals with distinctively African-American or Hispanic surnames and first-names are significantly less likely to meet their fundraising target and raise less funds overall than those organized by individuals with neutral or distinctively White names. We conclude by investigating the channels underlying these racial disparities in crowdfunding success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]