Working Paper: NBER ID: w24818
Authors: Aaron K. Chatterji; Joowon Kim; Ryan C. McDevitt
Abstract: We explore a new mechanism to understand state funding for public colleges and universities by leveraging data on the educational experiences of state legislators, specifically if and where they received postsecondary education. Using novel, hand-collected data from 2002 through 2014, we provide comprehensive documentation for the first time in the literature on the educational backgrounds of state legislators. We find a statistically significant, positive association between the share of legislators who attended their states' public institutions and state funding for their entire public higher-education system. We also find a similar positive relationship between the share of state legislators who attended particular campuses of the state's public university system and funding for those campuses. This relationship is more pronounced among publicly educated legislators who represent legislative districts close to their alma mater's district, and becomes most consequential when the legislator's district contains his or her alma mater. We discuss the implications of our findings for academic studies on how politics and legislators' personal experiences in influence support for higher education.
Keywords: state funding; higher education; legislators; alumni loyalty
JEL Codes: H0; H3; H52; H75; I23; I28
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| share of state legislators with ties to in-state public colleges (I23) | level of state funding for higher education (I22) |
| share of state legislators with ties to in-state public colleges (I23) | average increase of $49 million annually in state funding for the entire public higher education system (I23) |
| legislators who attended in-state public institutions (H79) | increase in funding allocation (I24) |
| legislators representing districts containing their alma maters (I23) | notable increase in funding (I22) |
| one-standard-deviation increase in the share of legislators with ties to in-state public institutions (I23) | 48% increase in system state funding (H79) |
| alumni loyalty and traditional political incentives (D72) | amplify support for higher education funding (I23) |