In the first chapter, I analyze the growth patterns of postsecondary education costs in re-cent years. It shows the trends of college revenue, expenditure and other financial items using data drawn from the Delta Data Project between 1987 and 2010. Connections between various categories of revenue/spending and state-level macroeconomic indicators were analyzed using GLS models. College tuition had been growing rapidly over time, whereas total revenues and expenditures did not grow so much. The differences in the responses of public sector and private sector institutions to changes in state-level factors stem from differences in their main sources of revenue and the ways in which they used their money. The second chapter addresses two issues: how the college enrollment decision is formed after students graduate from high school; and how financial aid is decided in 4-year colleges. I use matched data from NLSY97 and IPEDS for the period of 1997 to 2010, primarily focusing on the impacts of "peer group" performance and college educational quality on college enrollment and financial awards. The estimates of multi-level Probit and Tobit Models showed that students' college enrollment decisions are motivated by their peer group's performance and favorable state higher educational resources. Positive relationship between the amount of financial rewards and student's ability is strengthened over institutional rank. The final chapter focuses on the incremental effects of attending high quality colleges on wages ten years after high school. It uses the latest data in NLSY97 and IPEDS databases to define high-ranked colleges in various ways. Treatment effects are measured using different methodologies such as OLS estimation, Heckit model, matching method and propensity score stratification method. I find that the average wage premium for attending high ranked college (based on US News ranking and composite ranking) was about 8%-10% using OLS regression or Matching Method. The wage premium doubled when high-ranked colleges were defined by faculty quality. Treatment effect rose to 40% when taking endogenous treatment choice into consideration. The wage compensation for attending high ranked colleges was higher for the respondents with advanced background when using stratification method which supported the argument of "positive selection". [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]