ILRLE 3480 - Economic Analysis of the University

(crosslisted) ECON 3410

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: ILRLE 2400 or ECON 3030, or permission of the instructor. Co-meets with ILRLE 6480.

R. Ehrenberg.

Seeks to illustrate the complexity of decision making in a nonprofit organization and to show how microeconomic analysis in general, and labor-market analysis in particular, can usefully be applied to analyze resource allocation decisions at universities. Topics include financial aid, tuition, admissions policies, endowment policies, faculty salary determination, the tenure system, mandatory retirement policies, merit pay, affirmative action, comparable worth, collective bargaining, resource allocation across and within departments, undergraduate versus graduate education, research costs, libraries, athletics, and “socially responsible” policies. Lectures and discussions of the extensive readings are supplemented by presentations by Cornell administrators and outside speakers who have been engaged in university resource-allocation decisions or have done research on the subject.