418 research outputs found
Aim High or Go Low? Pricing Strategies and Enrollment Effects when the Net Price Elasticity Varies with Need and Ability
Detailed data on individual applicants to a large public university are used to demonstrate
that net price responsiveness decreases with need and ability. Enrollment effects are
simulated and show a movement towards a high tuition/high aid (low tuition/low aid) policy significantly lowers (raises) tuition revenue with a modest increase (decrease) in the number of aid-eligible students
Updating the Farm Bill Safety Net in an Expanding Sea of Risk
Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, H10,
Money for Nothing? The Impact of Changes in the Pell Grant Program on Institutional Revenues and the Placement of Needy Students
Using new institutional-level data, we assess the impact of changing federal aid levels on institutional-level Pell revenues. Using various policy instruments associated with Pell generosity, we quantify the sensitivity of institutional Pell revenues to the generosity of the Pell Grant program. In general, we find an elastic response of institutional Pell revenues with respect to the maximum Pell award, where other policy instruments associated with Pell generosity are found to have an inelastic or zero impact. We also document significant asymmetries across institutional selectivity, both in magnitude and in terms of which channel accounts for the measured sensitivity—award values directly or institutional enrollment. In the end, exogenous changes in the federal
Pell Grant program are found to correlate strongly with changes in the distribution of needy students and revenues across institutional quality
HOPE for the Pell? Institutional Effects in the Intersection of Merit-Based and Need-Based Aid
Prior empirical evidence finds that general enrollment effects of merit-aid programs such as the Georgia Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally (HOPE) scholarship are large and significant, while the effects of need-based aid programs such as the Pell grant are modest and often insignificant. This paper uses new panel data on Pell awards to examine the influence of the Georgia HOPE scholarship on needy-student enrollments. We demonstrate that the introduction of merit aid in Georgia generally improves the college access of needy students and has been leveraged into greater
federal Pell assistance. While institution-specific increases in both Pell enrollment and funding are largest at two-year and less selective four-year institutions, the results suggest that Pell students are not crowded out of more selective schools by HOPE's intent to retain the best Georgia high school students, as might have been anticipated
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 Summary and Possible Consequences
The primary purpose of this article is to provide a summary and briefly comment on key provisions of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (PL 110-246) and discuss possible consequences of the selected provisions. As passed by the House and Senate, the act contains 15 titles (the pdf version covering 683 pages). While most provisions will be at least briefly discussed, more attention will be devoted to the production-related provisions, especially substantive changes from the 2002 act. The general title of any new farm bill is telling in both what is significant in the bill and in what the authors want you to think is significant. The Conference report was titled as the Food, Conservation and Energy Act. “Food” refers to the importance of the consumers; “Conservation” calls attention to the importance of the environment and “Energy” calls attention to concerns over current high gas and food prices. As well as building coalitions for passage of the bill, concentration on these three issues also signify that farm prices and the farm safety net are not accorded as high a priority as in past farm bills. It is our opinion that opposition to commodity provisions had much to do with the focus of the bill
The Luminosity Function at z~8 from 97 Y-band dropouts: Inferences About Reionization
[Abbreviated] We present the largest search to date for Lyman break
galaxies (LBGs) based on 350 arcmin of HST observations in the V-, Y-, J-
and H-bands from the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) survey. The BoRG
dataset includes 50 arcmin of new data and deeper observations of two
previous BoRG pointings, from which we present 9 new LBG candidates,
bringing the total number of BoRG LBGs to 38 with (AB system). We introduce a new Bayesian formalism for
estimating the galaxy luminosity function (LF), which does not require binning
(and thus smearing) of the data and includes a likelihood based on the formally
correct binomial distribution as opposed to the often used approximate Poisson
distribution. We demonstrate the utility of the new method on a sample of
LBGs that combines the bright BoRG galaxies with the fainter sources published
in Bouwens et al. (2012) from the HUDF and ERS programs. We show that the
LF is well described by a Schechter function with a characteristic
magnitude , a faint-end slope of , and a number density of . Integrated down to this
LF yields a luminosity density, . Our LF analysis
is consistent with previously published determinations within 1. We
discuss the implication of our study for the physics of reionization. By
assuming theoretically motivated priors on the clumping factor and the photon
escape fraction we show that the UV LF from galaxy samples down to
can ionize only 10-50% of the neutral hydrogen at . Full reionization
would require extending the LF down to .Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 22 pages, 15 figure
Measurement errors in body size of sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus) and their effect on stock assessment models
Body-size measurement errors are usually ignored in stock
assessments, but may be important when body-size data (e.g., from visual sur veys) are imprecise. We used
experiments and models to quantify measurement errors and their effects on assessment models for sea scallops
(Placopecten magellanicus). Errors in size data obscured modes from strong year classes and increased frequency
and size of the largest and smallest sizes, potentially biasing growth, mortality, and biomass estimates. Modeling
techniques for errors in age data proved useful for errors in size data. In terms of a goodness of model fit to the assessment data, it was more important to accommodate variance than bias. Models that accommodated size errors fitted size data substantially better. We recommend experimental quantification of errors along with a modeling approach that accommodates measurement errors because a direct algebraic approach was not robust and because error parameters were diff icult to estimate in our assessment model. The importance of measurement errors depends on
many factors and should be evaluated on a case by case basis
Correcting the z~8 Galaxy Luminosity Function for Gravitational Lensing Magnification Bias
We present a Bayesian framework to account for the magnification bias from
both strong and weak gravitational lensing in estimates of high-redshift galaxy
luminosity functions. We illustrate our method by estimating the UV
luminosity function using a sample of 97 Y-band dropouts (Lyman break galaxies)
found in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) survey and from the
literature. We find the luminosity function is well described by a Schechter
function with characteristic magnitude of ,
faint-end slope of , and number density of
. These
parameters are consistent within the uncertainties with those inferred from the
same sample without accounting for the magnification bias, demonstrating that
the effect is small for current surveys at , and cannot account for the
apparent overdensity of bright galaxies compared to a Schechter function found
recently by Bowler et al. (2014a,b) and Finkelstein et al. (2014). We estimate
that the probability of finding a strongly lensed source in our sample
is in the range depending on limiting magnitude. We identify one
strongly-lensed candidate and three cases of intermediate lensing in BoRG
(estimated magnification ) in addition to the previously known
candidate group-scale strong lens. Using a range of theoretical luminosity
functions we conclude that magnification bias will dominate wide field surveys
-- such as those planned for the Euclid and WFIRST missions -- especially at
. Magnification bias will need to be accounted for in order to derive
accurate estimates of high-redshift luminosity functions in these surveys and
to distinguish between galaxy formation models.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 20 pages, 13 figure
Characteristics Contributing to Nebraska Farm and Ranch Financial Stress
Significant financial changes have been underway in the U.S. agricultural system. After a decade of increases in crop and livestock prices mirrored by corresponding increases in expenses, prices began declining dramatically in 2014 (USDA-NASS, 2017). Figure 1 shows yearly net farm income for Nebraska crop and livestock producers from 2000 to 2015 (USDA, ERS). A survey in July 2016 indicated that 52 percent of Nebraska farmers and ranchers were financially stressed
Characteristics Contributing to Nebraska Farm and Ranch Financial Stress
Significant financial changes have been underway in the U.S. agricultural system. After a decade of increases in crop and livestock prices mirrored by corresponding increases in expenses, prices began declining dramatically in 2014 (USDA-NASS, 2017). Figure 1 shows yearly net farm income for Nebraska crop and livestock producers from 2000 to 2015 (USDA, ERS). A survey in July 2016 indicated that 52 percent of Nebraska farmers and ranchers were financially stressed
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