Blomquist, William

Continuing a current line of research on philanthropic giving as a type of common-pool resource (Bushouse, Christensen, and Never, forthcoming), this paper will examine (a) the prospective impacts on the so-called “demographic cliff” on giving to higher education institutions in the US and (b) how those institutions might try to mitigate or offset the impacts. In previous work (Blomquist and Shaker, forthcoming) we have focused on the “provision side” challenges of the philanthropic commons using the terminology introduced by Gardner, Ostrom, and Walker (1990). As in our previous work, we propose here that attention to the provision side of a commons dilemma helps to illuminate the nature of the problem and identify how it could be addressed. In this paper we extend that provision-side focus to the challenges presented by declining enrollments and thus a diminishing stream of future alumni. We combine the most recent data on enrollment trends (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center 2024) with the most recent data on philanthropic giving to higher education in the US (TIAA Institute 2024) for a joint assessment of both trends. Our previous work did not incorporate the enrollment dimension of the current US higher education landscape, which is a vital consideration. Additionally, we will review how giving trends and enrollment trends vary across institutional type (e.g. public and private institutions, 2-year and 4-year institutions), which sheds additional light on the future challenges and opportunities for meeting them.

In the 1990s several counties in California adopted policies prohibiting the export of groundwater outside the county. County policymakers’ declared rationale was protecting local water resources – and local water users – from water speculators and water marketers who might seek financial gains from moving water to other locations where it might command a higher price. Looking back at this period of local policy-making, we pursue three goals in this paper. First, we examine how these local ordinances came about and spread across the state, using the analytical tools of the IAD framework plus Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for sustained management of common-pool resources. Second, we reexamine those ordinances in light of the groundwater policy changes in California over the past ten years – the enactment of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), the formation of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies and the development of Groundwater Sustainability Plans – and assess whether and in what ways the export-restriction ordinances will aid or hinder basin-scale efforts to attain groundwater sustainability as defined in SGMA. Third, we compare the California experience with county water export bans with an effort newly underway in Indiana to block the extraction and transfer of groundwater outside a county there. The overall aim of the paper is to offer insights and analysis about the intentions and effects of these types of policies on the management of groundwater as a common-pool resource.