College enrollment and the Alchian-Allen theorem

The Alchian-Allen "relative price theorem" holds that a fixed cost levied on a good of varying quality causes the consumer to prefer the category considered of higher quality to the lower. This study applies the theorem to public and private higher education enrollment and finds a relationship between the ratio of public to private enrollment and unemployment, the opportunity cost of education, as the theory predicts. Moreover, when the data is separated by gender, the relationship seems to hold significantly for women, but not for men.