Robert B. Archibald

Robert B. Archibald is Chancellor Professor of Economics at the College of William and Mary. He was born in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. At age two he tagged along with his family as they moved to Oklahoma, and at age ten he accompanied them to Arizona. He was graduated from the University of Arizona in 1968. After serving in the Army in Vietnam, he attended graduate school at Purdue University. He finished his doctoral work as a Baker-Weeks Fellow at the Brookings Institution in 1974. His first job was as an economist in the Research Division of the Office of Prices and Living Conditions at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1976 he took a position in the economics department of the College of William and Mary. At various times at William and Mary he has served as the chair of the economics department, director of the Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy, interim dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, president of the Faculty Assembly, and faculty representative on the Board of Visitors, the school’s governing board. Professor Archibald is married and has two adult children.

Professor Archibald’s current research focuses on the economics of higher education. His first book, Redesigning the Financial Aid System: Why Colleges and Universities Should Switch Roles with the Federal Government, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2002. In the last 10 years he and his colleague David Feldman have engaged in a long and fruitful collaboration. Together Professors Archibald and Feldman have published a number of research papers, policy analyses, and opinion articles on higher education issues. Their current book, Why Does College Cost So Much? published by Oxford University Press summarizes the findings of this research.

Unlike much of the work on higher education economics, Why Does College Cost So Much? focuses on factors higher education shares with other industries rather than suggesting that colleges and universities are somehow special or different. This explanation shows that economy-wide factors are largely responsible for what has happened to college costs and prices since World War II. It leaves little room for the dysfunctional behaviors at colleges and universities often highlighted in other accounts of rising higher education costs.

We designed Why Does College Cost So Much? for a general audience. The issues involved are too important for us to limit our discussion to academics specializing in higher education finance. Policy makers at the national, state, and institutional level must understand the forces driving up college costs and prices. And parents and students need to understand these forces as well. College costs are an important issue. We hope our analysis helps people understand what is going on.