American Universities in a Global Market

In higher education, the United States is the preeminent global leader, dominating the list of the world’s top research universities. But there are signs that America’s position of global leadership will face challenges in the future, as it has in other realms of international competition. American Universities in a Global Market addresses the variety of issues crucial to understanding this preeminence and this challenge. The book examines the various factors that contributed to America’s success in higher education, including openness to people and ideas, generous governmental support, and a tradition of decentralized friendly competition. It also explores the advantages of holding a dominant position in this marketplace and examines the current state of American higher education in a comparative context, placing particular emphasis on how market forces affect universities. By discussing the differences in quality among students and institutions around the world, this volume sheds light on the singular aspects of American higher education.

Charles T. Clotfelter is the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics and law at Duke University. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the former convener of the NBER Working Group on Higher Education.

"What would happen if you took a collection of rock-star economists . . . and turned them loose on the hot topic of university globalization? You’d get the closest thing to beach reading for higher ed wonks likely to come out of the National Bureau of Economic Research for some time, a rigorous, wide-ranging, and deeply impressive new volume."