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Why is free education so popular? A political economy explanation

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  • Juan A. Correa
  • Yijia Lu
  • Francisco Parro
  • Mauricio Villena

Abstract

This paper analyzes the political support for different funding regimes of education in a one‐person, one‐vote democracy. We focus the analysis on four systems that have had a preponderant presence in the political debate on education: a private system, a public system that delivers the same resources to each student (universal‐free education), a public system that intends to equalize results, and a public system that aims to maximize the output of the economy. We show that a system of universal free education is the Condorcet winner. The level of income inequality and the degree to which income distribution is skewed to the right are key factors behind this conclusion. We also show that the voting outcome of public versus private funding for education depends crucially on the type of public funding under consideration.

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  • Juan A. Correa & Yijia Lu & Francisco Parro & Mauricio Villena, 2020. "Why is free education so popular? A political economy explanation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(4), pages 973-991, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jpbect:v:22:y:2020:i:4:p:973-991
    DOI: 10.1111/jpet.12396
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    1. Alessandro Balestrino & Lisa Grazzini & Annalisa Luporini, 2021. "On the political economy of compulsory education," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 134(1), pages 1-25, September.
    2. Rabah Amir & Helmuth Cremer & Rim Lahmandi‐Ayed, 2020. "Introduction to the thematic issue on government‐provided services," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(4), pages 839-844, August.
    3. Gabriel Asante, 2023. "The Politics of Social Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Configurational Approach to Fee-Free Policies at the High School Level," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    4. Mumuni Abdul Wahid, 2024. "Influence of Social Policy Intervention; An Analysis of Free Senior High School Policy in Ghana as a Tool to Improve Lives or a Tool to Gain Votes in Elections," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(4), pages 906-916, April.
    5. Rabah Amir & Evangelia Chalioti & Christine Halmenschlager, 2021. "University–firm competition in basic research: Simultaneous versus sequential moves," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(6), pages 1199-1219, December.

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