The Bennett Hypothesis: When and Why, Not True or False

Andrew Gillen:

My last post on the Bennett Hypothesis (the idea that federal financial aid can lead to higher tuition) elicited a comment from "Craigie" which is worth addressing. After acknowledging that aid (GradPLUS loans) does lead to higher tuition for law schools, Craigie declares that it is "the exception that proves the rule: the Bennett hypothesis is false." This tendency to discount mixed evidence is a common mistake. Whenever evidence in support of the Bennett Hypothesis is put forward, evidence against the hypothesis is quickly brought up (and vice versa). While annoying from a sound bite perspective, this mixed evidence is a bit of a blessing from a scientific standpoint because it allows for a deeper investigation into the relationship between aid and tuition to try and answer why the hypothesis seems to hold in some cases but not others. In other words, with mixed evidence, "Is the Bennett Hypothesis true?" is the wrong question as it has no consistent answer. The better question is "When does the Bennett Hypothesis hold/not hold and why."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 1, 2012 3:10 AM
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