Expenditures and Postsecondary Graduation: An Investigation Using Individual-Level Data from the State of Ohio

Abstract

Using detailed individual-level data from public universities in the state of Ohio, I estimate the effect of various institutional expenditures on the probability of graduating from college. Using a competing risks regression framework, I find differential impacts of expenditure categories across student characteristics. I estimate that student service expenditures have a larger impact on students with low SAT/ACT scores, while instructional expenditures are more important for high test score students and those majoring in scientific/quantitative fields. The individual-level nature of these data allows me to address measurement error and endogeneity concerns the previous literature has been unable to deal with.