Further Evidence Against the Laissez Faire Origins of American Higher Education Hypothesis

Bennett (2014) provides a critical challenge to a common view held by education scholars that American higher education was governed by a free market during the post-Revolution antebellum, suggesting that the state was more involved in shaping the sector than has traditionally been recognized. This paper provides further evidence against the laissez faire origins of higher education. Protectionist regulatory regimes in Michigan and New York hindered competition in these states. Distortionary subsidies in many other states such as Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia gave successful rent-seeking institutions an advantage over unsuccessful ones