Jeff Summers, the Dave Hansen Endowed Chair in Economics at Linfield College, will present “The Economics of Higher Education” on Wednesday, March 16, at 7 p.m. in 201 Riley Hall at Linfield.

Summers will discuss three main topics related to the economics of higher education. The first topic will be the fundamental characteristics of the economics of higher education, in which Summers will consider institutional heterogeneity, market fragmentation and the wealth hierarchy. The demand for higher education will be the second topic, exploring the economic return of a college education, its nonmonetary benefits and student responsiveness to tuition and financial aid. The last topic Summers will cover is affordability, disruption and public policy. He will talk about the causes of tuition and cost inflation, student loans and debt, the forces of disruption sweeping over higher education and recent public policy proposals.

Summers, a member of the Linfield faculty since 1992, holds a bachelor’s degree from Wabash College, a master’s from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from Purdue University. Before teaching at Linfield, Summers taught at Wabash College and Reed College. From 2001-2008 Summers served as the associate dean of faculty at Linfield. Summers is the first Dave Hansen Endowed Chair in Economics to be awarded by Linfield.

The lecture is free and open to the public. The Linfield College faculty lecture series offers one presentation each month by a member of the Linfield faculty. For more information, call 503-883-2409.