Kling and Alchian on the value of college
March 30, 2008
Arnold Kling has an interesting post on "the value of college is in assortative mating".
I first heard that theory in 1978 in Armen Alchian's class. As far as I know, Professor Alchian never developed the theory in a paper, but he does refer to it briefly in a talk he gave at a symposium in his honor:
It is my general premise that the university has two functions; I’m not sure which is the most important one. One is education, the other is a marriage market.
(Economic Inquiry, July 1996, p. 426.)