Examining Wyoming’s Endowment Challenge Program: A Synthetic Control Analysis

Public funding to higher education has declined over the years and many states have experimented with policies to encourage private sector donations to public universities. Building on research that examines the intersection of state policy and philanthropy, we examine the influence of a state polic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inResearch in higher education Vol. 64; no. 5; pp. 654 - 674
Main Authors Fernandez, Frank, Hu, Xiaodan, Umbricht, Mark
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.08.2023
Springer
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Education
Education policy
Educational Policy
Endowment
Endowment Funds
Higher Education
Philanthropy
Private Financial Support
State Aid
State Policy
Statistical Analysis
Wyoming
State policy
Private donation
Crowding theory
Endowment
Synthetic control methods
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Summary:Public funding to higher education has declined over the years and many states have experimented with policies to encourage private sector donations to public universities. Building on research that examines the intersection of state policy and philanthropy, we examine the influence of a state policy on endowment gifts to the University of Wyoming (UW). Wyoming sought to support institutional advancement efforts by matching private gifts that were at least $50,000 in value. We use synthetic control methods (SCM) to analyze data from the Integrated Postsecondary Data System (IPEDS) and test whether the policy increased endowment growth of the university between 2001 and 2018, relative to similar universities. We find limited evidence that the state policy led to long-term growth in UW’s endowment that was proportionally larger than a counterfactual synthetic control. We discuss implications for research, state policy, and higher education philanthropy.
ISSN:0361-0365
1573-188X
DOI:10.1007/s11162-022-09722-7