One of the standard labor practices of research universities is to hire, pay, and promote faculty members on the basis of the research they produce. In the humanities, professors write books and articles and universities reward them accordingly. The system amounts to a considerable expenditure for the institution and a significant portion of…

Cost functions are estimated, using random effects and stochastic frontier methods, for English higher education institutions. The article advances on existing literature by employing finer disaggregation by subject, institution type and location, and by introducing consideration of quality effects. Estimates are provided of average incremental…

The CATO Institute's Policy Analysis "They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools" contends that the figures most commonly associated with spending on K-12 public education do not include all relevant expenditures. It also cites survey evidence suggesting that voters underestimate the cost of education and, when presented with a higher…

Econometric cost functions have begun to appear in education adequacy cases with greater frequency. Cost functions are superficially attractive because they give the impression of objectivity, holding out the promise of scientifically estimating the cost of achieving specified levels of performance from actual data on spending. By contrast, the…

Funders and program planners want to know: What does it cost to operate a high-quality after-school or summer program? This study answers that question, discovering that there is no "right" number. Cost varies substantially, depending on the characteristics of the participants, the goals of the program, who operates it and where it is located.…

This paper presents a standard costing model appropriate for determining real costs of programs which are not entirely self-contained. Central to the model is the concept of allocation pools involving resources which are not attributable to a single program or program component, but whose costs must be shared by any given program which is part of…

This paper offers an analytical framework to evaluate the cost and potential economic benefits of industrial day care. The principal objectives of this analysis are to: define the inputs (goods and services) required to provide a given day care program; develop cost factors which can be used to estimate a range of costs for any particular type of…

This report presents the findings of the data collected from 29 day care centers (in the Chicago area and downstate Illinois) during the field test of the Day Care Cost Analysis Manual. The test had two aims: (1) to determine whether the manual's procedures are feasible for conducting a cost analysis, and (2) to collect data on the income and…

Indirect costs of sponsored research projects and educational programs are as necessary as are the direct costs. This report demonstrates that they are real costs and that sponsors such as the Federal Government receive more than equitable treatment in the computation and application of indirect costs. The areas discussed include: the computation…

Cost-income studies are designed to serve two functions in instructional program evaluation. First, they act as the indicator of the economic value of a program. This economic value in conjunction with the other educational values needed in program evaluation allow for the most realistic appraisal of program worth. Second, if the studies show a…

The Response to Educational Needs Project (RENP) focuses on training teachers as a vehicle for promoting student achievement in a compensatory education program. This document supplements a report on RENP replication and provides information on cost analysis, methodology, and sample and data collection. In Appendix A the following questions are…

A cost analysis of day care in Denmark was initiated to determine what day care services cost, who pays for them, and how these costs relate to the quality of day care services. Some of the findings are: (1) group day care is considerably more expensive for children 0-3 years of age than for children 3-7 years of age; (2) group day care centers…

An ACE-sponsored task force investigated the impact of federal social and environmental programs on colleges and universities. Major findings are reviewed and implications discussed, such as: (1) the cost of federal regulation, (2) who pays the costs, (3) the right of higher education to special consideration, and (4) how higher education should…

Data from two studies of evaluation budgeting practices are presented to determine how resources are typically allocated across budget categories in evaluation studies. A common pattern showed these allocations: (1) 61 percent to personnel; (2) 13 to 14 percent to overhead; and (3) 15 percent to all other categories. (Author/LMO)