Well, for non-STEM majors at least the value of going to a top college is 70% being able to say you were good enough to get in. So you've got a positional good and thanks to the government lots of people who've been loaned the money to bid it up. And since most of these places are non-profit you won't see high returns to investors, meaning the one place for the money to go is to superfluous staff.
There's an element of Baumol's cost disease[1] too, but according to a paper I read recently (I'm too lazy to dig it up, sorry), that only accounts for >20% of the rising costs of tuition.
There's an element of Baumol's cost disease[1] too, but according to a paper I read recently (I'm too lazy to dig it up, sorry), that only accounts for >20% of the rising costs of tuition.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease