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Regulation in the Market for Education and Optimal Choice of Curriculum

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  • Gerald Eisenkopf
  • Ansgar Wohlschlegel

Abstract

We analyze educational institutions incentives to set up demanding or lax curricula in duopolistic markets for education with endogenous enrolment of students. We assume that there is a positive externality of student achievement on the local economy. Comparing the case of regulated tuition fees with an unregulated market, we identify the following inefficiencies: Under regulated tuition fees schools will set up inefficiently lax curricula in an attempt to please low-quality students even if schools internalize some of the externality. On the other hand, unregulated schools set up excessively differentiated curricula in order to relax competition in tuition fees. Deregulation gets more attractive if a larger fraction of the externality is internalized.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerald Eisenkopf & Ansgar Wohlschlegel, 2011. "Regulation in the Market for Education and Optimal Choice of Curriculum," TWI Research Paper Series 64, Thurgauer Wirtschaftsinstitut, Universität Konstanz.
    • Handle: RePEc:twi:respas:0064
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Su, Xuejuan & Kaganovich, Michael, 2012. "College Expansion and Curriculum Choice," Working Papers 2012-25, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 01 Apr 2015.
    2. Vincenzo Andrietti & Xuejuan Su, 2019. "Education curriculum and student achievement: theory and evidence," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 4-19, January.
    3. Xefteris, Dimitrios, 2013. "Equilibria in unidirectional spatial models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 146-149.
    4. Kaganovich, Michael & Sarpca, Sinan & Su, Xuejuan, 2020. "Competition in Higher Education," Working Papers 2020-3, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    5. Fridman, A. & Verbetskaia, M., 2020. "Government regulation of the market for higher education," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 12-43.
    6. Michael Kaganovich & Sinan Sarpca & Xuejuan Su, 2020. "Competition in Higher Education: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 8220, CESifo.
    7. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Local Externalities; Produkt Differentiation; Price Competition; Vouchers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

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