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Education and Redistribution

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  • Gianni De Fraja

    (University of Leicester and CEPR, Londra)

Abstract

Education is a very expensive way of carrying out redistributive policies. This is because those who have been more favoured by nature/luck are also those who benefit most from the investment in education: if educational resources are distributed according to the ability to benefit, as efficiency would require, the better off should receive more, which is clearly inequitable. Some counterintuitive features of the provision of education can be understood in terms of this conflict between equity and efficiency: electoral preferences for the provision of university subsidies, the distributive consequences of admission tests, and the interaction between house prices and the quality of schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Gianni De Fraja, 2004. "Education and Redistribution," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 94(3), pages 3-44, May-June.
    • Handle: RePEc:rpo:ripoec:v:94:y:2004:i:3:p:3-44
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Debora Di Gioacchino & Laura Sabani & Stefano Usai, 2023. "Why does education expenditure differ across countries? The role of income inequality, human capital and the inclusiveness of education systems," Working Papers in Public Economics 236, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.
    2. Debora Di Gioacchino & Laura Sabani & Simone Tedeschi, 2016. "Differences in education systems across OECD countries: the role ofeducation policy preferences in a hierarchical system," Working Papers in Public Economics 177, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.
    3. Di Gioacchino, Debora & Ginebri, Sergio & Sabani, Laura, 2005. "Inequality, redistribution and the allocation of public spending in education. A political-economy approach," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp05024, University of Molise, Department of Economics.
    4. Vincenzo Prete & Claudio Zoli, 2019. "The political economy of educational policies and inequality of opportunity," Working Papers 2019:14, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    5. Di Gioacchino, Debora & Sabani, Laura, 2009. "Education policy and inequality: A political economy approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 463-478, December.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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