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Colleges are not a monopoly. All that is needed is for students to say "The marginal cost of switch from college A to college B is to expensive for what it give

Colleges are not a monopoly. All that is needed is for students to say "The marginal cost of switch from college A to college B is to expensive for what it gives me, so I am going to stick with college A". At this point, we have free market dynamics to offer the most attractive cost/benifit ratio. The problem that the article identifies is that college is simply expensive, and has been subsidized by the state. As the state reduces its subsidy, the portion of tuition that the students see nessasarily increases. There is also a slight market distortion in that the state only subsidizes a portion of the market (public schools for in state students).

deleted 12y ago
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NotAtWork 12y ago
I mean, there are other substantial factors that make this not an ideal free market: - The time to set up certain kinds of facilities, eg, good physics labs or mechanical engineering labs, can be on the order of several years to a decade. - There is a limited ability to scale up, as it relies on its own out put to keep functional (eg, professors and TAs). - Non-responsive hiring managers whose cultural sense was normalized before many of these changes impacted colleges (eg, >20 years ago) haven't adjusted their hiring practices, and place an artificially high reward on college degrees.
PeterisP 12y ago
Umm, we're also not seeing actions consistent with "The marginal cost of switch from college A to college B is to expensive for what it gives me, so I am going to stick with college A". That marginal cost is often 'hidden' by student loans, and if I recall correctly, USA analysis shows that students making that decisions is even rarer than the decision "I believe that I can't afford college, so I won't even check how much it would cost for me" (which was a quite popular attitude for minority students).

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

NotAtWork 12y ago

I mean, there are other substantial factors that make this not an ideal free market: - The time to set up certain kinds of facilities, eg, good physics labs or mechanical engineering labs, can be on the order of several years to a decade. - There is a limited ability to scale up, as it relies on its own out put to keep functional (eg, professors and TAs). - Non-responsive hiring managers whose cultural sense was normalized before many of these changes impacted colleges (eg, >20 years ago) haven't adjusted their hiring practices, and place an artificially high reward on college degrees.

PeterisP 12y ago

Umm, we're also not seeing actions consistent with "The marginal cost of switch from college A to college B is to expensive for what it gives me, so I am going to stick with college A". That marginal cost is often 'hidden' by student loans, and if I recall correctly, USA analysis shows that students making that decisions is even rarer than the decision "I believe that I can't afford college, so I won't even check how much it would cost for me" (which was a quite popular attitude for minority students).