IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/inecre/v59y2024i1d10.1007_s41775-024-00212-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A tale of declining public provision and burgeoning private supplements

Author

Listed:
  • Arijit Sen

    (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta)

Abstract

I study an economy, à la Epple and Romano (J Political Econ 104:57-87, 1996), where a private good (a necessity) is publicly provided (for free), while a supplement (close substitute) is sold in a competitive market. Majority voting determines the public provision level (and the associated tax rate), while unsatisfied private demand determines supplement purchases. I show that continual incremental decline in public-sector productivity (vis-à-vis private-sector productivity) initially keeps on reducing public provision by incremental amounts, but eventually causes a drastic scaling-down of public provision. Such changes lead to (1) a growth spurt in supplement purchases, (2) an increase in utility inequality among citizens, and (3) a discontinuous fall (respectively, rise) in the welfare of all below-median-income citizens (respectively, above-median-income citizens) when public provision is discretely scaled down. Specifically, utility of each below-median-income citizen is higher when the public provision regime is active, and when its scale is large. Both outcomes become less likely when public-sector productivity declines and/or private-sector productivity improves.

Suggested Citation

  • Arijit Sen, 2024. "A tale of declining public provision and burgeoning private supplements," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 287-308, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:inecre:v:59:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s41775-024-00212-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s41775-024-00212-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41775-024-00212-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41775-024-00212-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Stiglitz, J. E., 1974. "The demand for education in public and private school systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 349-385, November.
    2. Gerhard Glomm & B. Ravikumar, 1998. "Opting out of publicly provided services: A majority voting result," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 15(2), pages 187-199.
    3. Lülfesmann, Christoph & Myers, Gordon M., 2011. "Two-tier public provision: Comparing public systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1263-1271.
    4. Deborah Fletcher & Lawrence W. Kenny, 2008. "The Influence of the Elderly on School Spending in a Median Voter Framework," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 3(3), pages 283-315, July.
    5. Jana Friedrichsen & Tobias König & Tobias Lausen, 2021. "Social Status Concerns and the Political Economy of Publicly Provided Private Goods [Housing markets and structural policies in OECD countries]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(633), pages 220-246.
    6. Gouveia, Miguel, 1997. "Majority Rule and the Public Provision of a Private Good," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 93(3-4), pages 221-244, December.
    7. Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard E, 1996. "Public Provision of Private Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 57-84, February.
    8. Tugrul Gurgur, 2016. "Voice, exit and local capture in public provision of private goods," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 397-424, November.
    9. Buckley, Neil & Cuff, Katherine & Hurley, Jeremiah & Mestelman, Stuart & Thomas, Stephanie & Cameron, David, 2015. "Support for public provision of a private good with top-up and opt-out: A controlled laboratory experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 177-196.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Buckley, Neil & Cuff, Katherine & Hurley, Jeremiah & Mestelman, Stuart & Thomas, Stephanie & Cameron, David, 2015. "Support for public provision of a private good with top-up and opt-out: A controlled laboratory experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 177-196.
    2. Buckley, Neil & Cuff, Katherine & Hurley, Jeremiah & Mestelman, Stuart & Thomas, Stephanie & Cameron, David, 2016. "Should I stay or should I go? Exit options within mixed systems of public and private health care finance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PB), pages 62-77.
    3. Neil Buckley & Katherine Cuff & Jeremiah Hurley & Stuart Mestelman & Stephanie Thomas & David Cameron, 2013. "Support for Public Provision with Top-Up and Opt-Out: A Controlled Laboratory Experiment," Department of Economics Working Papers 2013-15, McMaster University.
    4. Zanola, Roberto, 2000. "Public goods versus publicly provided private goods in a two-class economy," POLIS Working Papers 12, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
    5. Kimura, Masako & Yasui, Daishin, 2009. "Public provision of private child goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 741-751, June.
    6. Yeşilırmak, Muharrem, 2016. "A quantitative analysis of Turkish Private Education Reform," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 76-88.
    7. Anderberg, Dan, 2013. "Post-compulsory education: Participation and politics," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 134-150.
    8. Cormac O'Dea & Ian Preston, 2012. "The distributional impact of public spending in the UK," IFS Working Papers W12/06, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    9. Lülfesmann, Christoph & Myers, Gordon M., 2011. "Two-tier public provision: Comparing public systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(11), pages 1263-1271.
    10. John Hall & Ian Preston, 1998. "Public and private choice in UK health insurance," IFS Working Papers W98/19, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    11. Dotti, Valerio, 2019. "The political economy of public education," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 35-52.
    12. Tetsuo Ono, 2015. "Public education and social security: a political economy approach," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 1-25, February.
    13. Masako Kimura & Daishin Yasui, 2012. "Public Policy and the Income-Fertility Relationship in Economic Development," Discussion Papers 1224, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    14. Rainald Borck, 2007. "Voting, Inequality And Redistribution," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 90-109, February.
    15. Amedeo Piolatto, 2011. "Financing public education: a political economy model with altruistic agents and retirement concerns," Working Papers. Serie AD 2011-12, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    16. Eric J. Brunner & Stephen L. Ross, 2009. "Is the Median Voter Decisive? Evidence of 'Ends Against the Middle' From Referenda Voting Patterns," Working papers 2009-02, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised May 2010.
    17. Yuki Uchida & Tetsuo Ono, 2020. "Inequality and education choice," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(4), pages 980-1018, August.
    18. Dennis Epple & Richard Romano, 2003. "Collective Choice and Voluntary Provision of Public Goods," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(2), pages 545-572, May.
    19. Levy, Gilat, 2004. "Public education for the minority, private education for the majority," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 3617, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Mark Gradstein & Moshe Justman, 1996. "The political economy of mixed public and private schooling: A dynamic analysis," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 3(3), pages 297-310, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public provision; Private supplement; Majority voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H - Public Economics
    • H - Public Economics
    • H - Public Economics

    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:spr:inecre:v:59:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s41775-024-00212-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.