Econ 421: Economics of Reed College
Fall 2007
Final Exam
Due electronically by midnight, Thursday, December 13

The final exam consists of one essay question. To comply with college requirements, your answers must reach us by the end of final exams, which is the end of the day on Thursday, December 13. Faculty are not allowed to accept work submitted after that time, so don't be late!

In her November 23, 2007 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Elizabeth Farrell describes the rationale behind recent decisions by Stanford, Princeton, and Yale, among other institutions, to expand undergraduate enrollment. What effects will these changes have on Reed admissions or other aspects of Reed's operations? How would we try to find out?

You are to write a short essay (no more than two pages) (1) outlining what effects you would expect in general and (2) designing a study to be undertaken by the Office of Institutional Research to try to gather quantitative evidence about the effects. In describing your study, be specific about what data would be needed (be realistic here), how they would be analyzed, and how you would draw conclusions based on the results.