CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 16Game Theory and Voting SystemsSchool Choice and PerformanceHigher Education Research Studies

Why Don’t Elite Colleges Expand Supply?

Open access
Blair, Peter, Smetters, Kent·2021·National Bureau of Economic Research
DOI 10.3386/w29309
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

While college enrollment has more-than doubled since 1970, elite colleges have barely increased supply, instead reducing admit rates.We show that straightforward reasons cannot explain this behavior.We propose a model where colleges compete on prestige, measured using relative selectivity or relative admit rates.A key comparative static of the model is that higher demand decreases [increases] the admit rate when the weight on prestige is above [below] a critical value, consistent with experience in elite [non-elite] colleges.A calibrated version of the model closely replicates the pattern in the data of declining admit rates at elite colleges while counter-factual simulations without prestige fail.Prestige competition is inefficient.Allowing elite colleges to collude on admissions strategy internalizes the non-pecuniary prestige externality and is Pareto improving.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3386/w29309

Cites

38 of 38 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • This outcome reflects an inefficient competition among colleges for prestige, with the end result being that few students get to attend a top institution.

    “They argue that this outcome reflects an inefficient competition among colleges for prestige, with the end result being that few students get to attend a top institution.”

    From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Blair and Smetters (2021)

  • Even though the total number of students in college more than doubled in recent decades in the United States, elite schools have not expanded enrollment, choosing instead to admit a smaller fraction of applicants.

    “Blair and Smetters (2021) document that even though the total number of students in college more than doubled in recent decades in the United States, elite schools have not expanded enrollment, choosing instead to admit a smaller fraction of applicants.”

    From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Blair and Smetters (2021)

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

5 of the 43 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Blair, P., & Smetters, K.
Affiliations
National Bureau of Economic Research (US)
Corresponding author
Blair, Peter
ORCID
Blair, Peter
Venue
National Bureau of Economic Research
Publisher
National Bureau of Economic Research
Published
2021-09
DOI
10.3386/w29309
OpenAlex
W3095989935
Cited by
16
References
43
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2
Type
report
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • National Bureau of Economic Research (publishedVersion)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Game Theory and Voting Systems
  • Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
  • Social Sciences › Education › Higher Education Research Studies
Keywords
elite universities, university admission, university enrollment growth, higher education supply

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review