Is Enrollment into Graduate School Affected by the Business Cycle?

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: In the current economic climate, reports of increased enrollment at graduate school programs frequently appear in the media. This increased enrollment is generally attributed to the declining opportunity cost of education during times of economic weakness, and thus increased investments in education as opposed to employment. Another potential effect of economic weakness on educational attainment, often overlooked, is a decline in the ability to fund education, or the credit constraints effect. Evidence in the current economic literature documents the existence of both the opposing opportunity cost and credit constraints effects of the business cycle on educational attainment. However, the empirical relationship between educational attainment and the business cycle has been primarily studied only at the level of college and high school education. This study seeks to answer the question: Is enrollment into graduate school affected by the business cycle? Specifically, I use a modified Human Capital Theory Model, and enrollment data from 1976-2005, to examine the effects of key economic indicators (the unemployment rate, employment growth, GDP growth, personal income growth, and personal disposable income growth) on changes in graduate enrollment in the United States.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 2009

Author	Goh, Wendi
Primary advisor	Hoxby, Caroline
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Economics

Subject	Stanford Department of Economics
Subject	postgraduate education
Subject	graduate school
Subject	recession
Subject	human capital theory
Subject	graduate programs
Subject	unemployment
Subject	labor market
Subject	educational attainment
Subject	business cycle
Genre	Thesis

Related item	Title 2009 John G. Sobieski Award for Creative Thinking
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/xs391dq0818

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Preferred Citation: Goh, Wendi. (2009). Is Enrollment into Graduate School Affected by the Business Cycle?. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/xs391dq0818

Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses

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