Institutional Responses to Tuition Controls: Evidence from Tennessee’s Tuition Ranges

To arrest declining affordability, many state policies directly target college prices through freezes and caps. We estimate the intended and unintended effects of a new type of tuition control, which sets a binding range around price growth. We leverage complementary difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods and document divergent responses across two-year and four-year sectors. Four-years raised in-state tuition to the range’s upper limit, surpassing estimated increases in the absence of regulation. Twoyears held in-state tuition increases constant with peers but raised out-of-state tuition and reduced institutional grants. These findings underscore the need for sector-specific, robust policy designs to advance affordability.