IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jpbect/v16y2014i6p835-853.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Higher Education: Subsidizing Tuition versus Subsidizing Student Loans

Author

Listed:
  • BERNHARD ECKWERT
  • ITZHAK ZILCHA

Abstract

We use a simple two-period equilibrium framework to explore the effects of two different subsidization regimes for higher education on the formation of human capital and on the distribution of incomes. Individuals finance their investments in higher education through income-contingent education loans as well as subsidies from the government. The subsidy is tax-financed. We compare an egalitarian subsidy scheme, which reduces by a uniform amount the tuition charged to students, with a student loan subsidy which is proportional to the student's debt service obligation. We show that both types of subsidies reduce the economy-wide underinvestment in higher education and lead to a more equal income distribution. Furthermore, according to some social welfare criterion, the student loan subsidy regime dominates the tuition subsidy regime if the subsidy level is predetermined, while the converse is true if the subsidy level constitutes a choice variable of the government.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernhard Eckwert & Itzhak Zilcha, 2014. "Higher Education: Subsidizing Tuition versus Subsidizing Student Loans," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(6), pages 835-853, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:16:y:2014:i:6:p:835-853
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jpet.12082
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carmen Bevia & Inigo Iturbe–Ormaetxe, 2002. "Redistribution and Subsidies for Higher Education," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 104(2), pages 321-340, June.
    2. Bernhard Eckwert & Itzhak Zilcha, 2012. "Private Investment in Higher Education: Comparing Alternative Funding Schemes," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 79(313), pages 76-96, January.
    3. Blankenau, William, 2005. "Public schooling, college subsidies and growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 487-507, March.
    4. Hanushek, Eric A. & Leung, Charles Ka Yui & Yilmaz, Kuzey, 2003. "Redistribution through education and other transfer mechanisms," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(8), pages 1719-1750, November.
    5. Gianni de Fraja, 2002. "The Design of Optimal Education Policies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(2), pages 437-466.
    6. Pedro Carneiro & James J. Heckman, 2002. "The Evidence on Credit Constraints in Post--secondary Schooling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 705-734, October.
    7. Thomas J. Kane, 1995. "Rising Public College Tuition and College Entry: How Well Do Public Subsidies Promote Access to College?," NBER Working Papers 5164, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. repec:bla:econom:v:50:y:1983:i:197:p:3-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Diego Restuccia & Carlos Urrutia, 2004. "Intergenerational Persistence of Earnings: The Role of Early and College Education," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1354-1378, December.
    10. Nicholas Barr & Iain Crawford, 1998. "Funding Higher Education in an Age of Expansion," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 45-70.
    11. Chapman, Bruce, 1997. "Conceptual Issues and the Australian Experience with Income Contingent Charges for Higher Education," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(442), pages 738-751, May.
    12. Ramos, Hector M. & Ollero, Jorge & Sordo, Miguel A., 2000. "A Sufficient Condition for Generalized Lorenz Order," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 286-292, February.
    13. John Fender & Ping Wang, 2003. "Educational Policy in a Credit Constrained Economy with Skill Heterogeneity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(3), pages 939-964, August.
    14. repec:bla:scandj:v:104:y:2002:i:2:p:321-40 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Caucutt, Elizabeth M. & Kumar, Krishna B., 2003. "Higher education subsidies and heterogeneity: a dynamic analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1459-1502, June.
    16. Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia & Walde, Klaus, 2000. "Efficiency and Equity Effects of Subsidies to Higher Education," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 702-722, October.
    17. Johnson, George E, 1984. "Subsidies for Higher Education," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(3), pages 303-318, July.
    18. Hare, P G & Ulph, D T, 1979. "On Education and Distribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 193-212, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Koichi Miyazaki, 2023. "Comparison of Educational Subsidy Schemes in an Endogenous Growth Model," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 79(1), pages 32-63.
    2. Arbel, Yuval & Bar-El, Ronen & Tobol, Yossef, 2017. "Equal Opportunity through Higher Education: Theory and Evidence on Privilege and Ability," IZA Discussion Papers 10564, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Bernhard Eckwert & Itzhak Zilcha, 2020. "The role of colleges within the higher education sector," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(2), pages 315-336, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arbel, Yuval & Bar-El, Ronen & Tobol, Yossef, 2017. "Equal Opportunity through Higher Education: Theory and Evidence on Privilege and Ability," IZA Discussion Papers 10564, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Viaene, Jean-Marie & Zilcha, Itzhak, 2013. "Public funding of higher education," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 78-89.
    3. Bernhard Eckwert & Itzhak Zilcha, 2012. "Private Investment in Higher Education: Comparing Alternative Funding Schemes," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 79(313), pages 76-96, January.
    4. Eric A. Hanushek & Charles Ka Yui Leung & Kuzey Yilmaz, 2014. "Borrowing Constraints, College Aid, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 1-41.
    5. Kuzey Yilmaz, 2014. "On the Importance of Fertility Behavior in School Finance Policy Design," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1403, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    6. Yilmaz, Kuzey, 2018. "Quantity–quality trade-off of children and school finance," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 188-203.
    7. Robert J. Gary-Bobo & Alain Trannoy, 2015. "Optimal student loans and graduate tax under moral hazard and adverse selection," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 46(3), pages 546-576, September.
    8. Sascha Becker & Robert Fenge & Sascha O. Becker, 2005. "Gerechtigkeit und Effizienz nachgelagerter Studiengebühren," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 58(02), pages 16-22, January.
    9. Elizabeth M. Caucutt & Lance Lochner, 2020. "Early and Late Human Capital Investments, Borrowing Constraints, and the Family," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(3), pages 1065-1147.
    10. Limor Hatsor & Itzhak Zilcha, 2021. "Subsidizing heterogeneous higher education systems," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(2), pages 318-344, April.
    11. Alessandro Cigno & Annalisa Luporini, 2009. "Scholarships or Student Loans? Subsidizing Higher Education in the Presence of Moral Hazard," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 11(1), pages 55-87, February.
    12. Lance Lochner & Alexander Monge-Naranjo, 2012. "Credit Constraints in Education," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 225-256, July.
    13. Anderberg, Dan, 2013. "Post-compulsory education: Participation and politics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 134-150.
    14. Ana Balcão Reis, 2020. "Public funding of higher education: Who gains, who loses?," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 16(2), pages 196-215, June.
    15. Getachew, Yoseph, 2024. "Effects of higher education subsidies on equity and efficiency across developmental stages," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    16. Bernhard Eckwert & Itzhak Zilcha, 2017. "Student loans: When is risk sharing desirable?," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 13(2), pages 217-231, June.
    17. Felicia Ionescu, 2011. "Risky Human Capital and Alternative Bankruptcy Regimes for Student Loans," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(2), pages 153-206.
    18. Thakurata, Indrajit & D'Souza, Errol, 2018. "Child labour and human capital in developing countries - A multi-period stochastic model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 67-81.
    19. Lance J. Lochner & Alexander Monge-Naranjo, 2011. "The Nature of Credit Constraints and Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2487-2529, October.
    20. Schmidtchen, Dieter & Kirstein, Roland, 2005. "Mehr Markt im Hochschulbereich: Zur Effizienz und Gerechtigkeit von Studiengebühren," CSLE Discussion Paper Series 2005-01, Saarland University, CSLE - Center for the Study of Law and Economics.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:16:y:2014:i:6:p:835-853. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/apettea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.