Do Students Respond to Sticker-Price Reductions?: Evidence from the North Carolina Promise

Reduced
or free tuition policies are an increasingly popular policy tools for states
looking to increase postsecondary enrollment. However, sticker price reductions
are relatively rare in the four-year sector, so we do not know how they will
impact student enrollment decisions. Using IPEDS data and a synthetic control
approach, we investigate the impact of the North Carolina Promise on enrollment
and persistence. NC Promise is a state-level policy that reduced the price of
tuition for students enrolled at three public universities in North Carolina
starting in fall of 2018. We find that NC Promise did not increase enrollment
among first-year students. However, it attracted more transfer students and
increased enrollment of Hispanic students at one of the institutions.

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减免或免费学费政策正日益成为各州用以提升高等教育入学率的热门政策工具。然而，四年制高校阶段的学费标价减免政策相对少见，因此目前尚不明确此类政策会如何影响学生的入学决策。本研究依托高等教育综合数据系统（Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System，IPEDS）数据与合成控制法，探究了北卡罗来纳承诺计划（North Carolina Promise）对入学率与学业留存率的影响。该计划作为一项州级政策，自2018年秋季起，为北卡罗来纳州三所公立高校的在读学生减免学费。

研究结果显示，北卡罗来纳承诺计划并未提升一年级新生的入学人数，但却吸引了更多转学生，且使得其中一所高校的西班牙裔学生入学人数有所增加。