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Public funding of higher education: Who gains, who loses?
Author(s) -
Reis Ana Balcão
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of economic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.351
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1742-7363
pISSN - 1742-7355
DOI - 10.1111/ijet.12176
Subject(s) - public education , welfare , economics , public economics , higher education , complement (music) , public spending , labour economics , private education , public funding , access to higher education , public administration , economic growth , political science , law , market economy , biochemistry , chemistry , complementation , politics , gene , phenotype
This paper analyses the effects of public funding of higher education on individuals’ welfare, taking into account the hierarchical nature of the education system and the fact that parents may complement basic public education with private tutoring. Although public funding financed by a proportional income tax increases access to higher education, some of the agents who gain access lose in welfare terms. Moreover, it is shown that the marginal agent regarding access to higher education would always prefer a pure private funding system in which he would not send his offspring to higher education but would also not pay tuition fees or pay taxes.