If a School Adds an Amenity and No One Knows, Does it Really Exist? - Dayna Catropa, Inside Higher Ed

The National Bureau of Economic Research published the “College as Country Club” paper last week. It has gotten a lot of coverage already by IHE, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Time, the Wall Street Journal, and Freakonomics. The paper states, “We find that students do appear to value college attributes which we categorize as ‘consumption’ because their benefits arguably accrue only while actually enrolled.” It goes on to report, “One important implication of our analysis is that for many institutions, demand-side market pressure may not compel investment in academic quality, but rather in consumption amenities.” http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/stratedgy/if-school-adds-amenity-and-no-one-knows-does-it-really-exist