The Production and Cost Behavior of Higher Education

This report is an empirical analysis of the "frontier " production and cost relationships between the number of students enrolled and the labor and capital inputs observed over a wide cross-section of four-year higher education institutions in the United States. In the analysis, students are differentiated as to type and as to part-time versus full-time..It is assumed that the production and cost relationships are dependent on other measurable characteristics of the institutions; therefore, several additional variables, such as institutional quality and program mix, are included in the model. Also, separate analyses are performed for each type of institution (public and private universities, public and private comprehensive colleges, and private liberal arts colleges). The empirical results generated by this study indicate that the frontier average and marginal relationships between the institutiona