Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021
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Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021
Is a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021mpetitive American higher education market, institutions seek to differentiate themselves to attract both students and tuition dollars. One understudied example of this differentiation is the increasing trend of "colleges" becoming "universities" by changing their names. Leveraging variation in the Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021timing of such conversions in an event study framework. I show that becoming a university increases enrollments, particularly at the graduate level, wActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
hich leads to a greater number of degrees produced and higher total revenues. These effects are robust to controlling for changes in institutions' degIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021ed.*1 think Kirsten Clinton. Lucie Schmidt. Sadia Priyanka. Jocelyn Wiklc. Tennecia Dacats. Cody On. and seminar participants st Miami Uni' tvrsity and the University of Memphis for many useful comments and suggestions on this project.1Introduction.Many colleges and universities across the United St Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021ates have faced significant challenges in recent years. A declining traditional college-age population has left institutions in the northcast and MidwActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
est competing for a smaller pool of potential students (Grawe. 2019). Meanwhile, public institutions have faced declining state support (Mitchell Ct aIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021ht new ways to differentiate themselves in hopes of attracting more students and more tuition dollars. Many have done so by investing in non-instructional amenities (Jacob ct al.. 2018). adding new programs of study (Cook. 2020). or increasing their advertising presence (Cellini and Chaudhary. 2020) Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021.However, some smaller colleges have taken an alternative approach: they have re-branded themselves as a "university." rather than a "college." IndeedActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
, between 2001 and 2016. over KM) four-year colleges typically ones that were already offering graduate education changed their names to forgo the worIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021 in Virginia announced that it would become the University of Lynchburg in the fall of 2018. their vice president and dean for academic affairs stated that "claiming our status as a university will... enable US to attract and recruit more students" (Gentry. 2017). Similarly, when Lasell College in M Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021assachusetts announced its plans to convert to Lasel I University, their president told The Atlantic that the change had "promotional value" and thatActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
the institution experienced an immediate bump in internet search activity following the announcement (Wong. 2019).While there is some research on factIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021er such conversions successfully attract students to institutions and affect institutions’ finances. In this paper. I leverage variation in the timing of institutions' conversions in an event study framework to estimate rhe effect of college-to-university conversions on a variety of institutional ou Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021tcomes. I first show that the conversions arc salient to the general public, with Google searcheslor the “college” decreasing and searches for the “unActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
iversity” increasing in the years following a conversion announcement. I then use rich, institution-level data from the U.S. Department of Education'sIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021nces. I find that converting to a university increases an institution s first-time undergraduate enrollment by 4% and total graduate enrollment by 18% within two years. These effects grow to 6.6% and 51%. respectively, live or more years following a conversion. Conversions further increase the numbe Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021r of awards institutions confer —particularly al the master’s and graduate certificate levels —by 11.5% and lead to 6-8% higher revenues. These resultActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
s arc robust to controlling for a variety of time-varying institutional characteristics, including degree offerings and physical capacity, suggesting Is a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021dy of empirical work on students’ college application and enrollment choices. The college application and admissions processes arc complicated and students often lack information and guidance regarding where to apply and where to attend. As a result, students often rely on rankings (Griffith and Ras Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021k. 2007; Alter and Reback. 2014; Hurwitz and Smith. 2018) and media coverage (Lindo et al.. 2019: Rooney and Smith. 2019) to make their decisions, andActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
relatively small changes in application costs can dramatically affect students' behavior (Smith el al.. 2014; Pallais. 2015; Knight and Schiff. 2019)Is a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021uality in the absence of reliable information and guidance about college attributes. Ulis finding is consistent with work by Clinton (2020). who finds that students enrolled in a college that converts to a university experience higher earnings in the labor markets, suggesting that employers also int Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021erpret a ‘ university'' as higher quality- than a "college."1My findings also complement a line of literature on how colleges behave strategically toActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
maximize their rankings, enrollments, and revenues. Conlin cl al. (2013) find that colleges strategically use test-optional admission policies to imprIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021e of the U.S. context. Eble and Hu (2020) find that Chinese colleges who change their names attract niece qualified applicants and that employers respond mtinnally to these changes.2students to appear higher-quality. Here. I show that colleges are likely behaving strategically when deciding to conve Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021rt to a university, as it leads to increased student demand and a more viable financial situation for the institution.Finally, these results relate toActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
a small literature in finance and industrial organization that estimates the impacts of firm name changes on profitability. Cooper et al. (2001) findIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021ments, while VVu (2010) documents that firms add or delete parts of their names to foreshadow a change in their business focus. McDevitt (2011) further shows that a record of complaints induces residential plumbing firms to change their names, particularly in small markets. I do not find substantial Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021 evidence of negative selection into name changes among U.S. colleges, but show that such changes can lead to financial gains for higher education insActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
titutions. This finding suggests that name changes may affect financial outcomes in other industries, which is a fruitful area for future research.2IdIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021ions’ names from IPEDS. I limit the sample to public and private, not-for-profit institutions that report awarding bachelor’s degrees every year from 2001 and 2016 and contained the word "college" in their name in 2001. 1 then identify all institutions that remove the word "college" from their names Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021 and add the word "university." Most instances of these deletions and additions are very straightforward and simply replace "college” with "universityActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
." For example. Bentley College became Bentley University and College of the Southwest became University of the Southwest. Others include a slight chaIs a Name Change a Game Change?The Impact of CoIlege-to-University ConversionsRiley K. Acton*Miami Universityactonr@miamioh.edu44256AbstractIn the com Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021rsiiy conversions but drop any institutions that substantially alter other words in their names, as these changes may have influenced student demand and institutional outcomes through other channels.Of the 489 colleges in my sample that did not experience substantial name changes over the3time frame Acton_CollegeNameChange_March2021 of my data. 114 (23%) converted to a university by 2016. Appendix Table A.l lists the pre- and post-conversion names of these institutions, along witActon_CollegeNameChange_March2021
h their state, sector, and year of their conversion. Institutions in 36 states converted to universities, with the most conversions occurring in PennsGọi ngay
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