The distributional effects of public higher education: A comment

✍ Scribed by Walter Miklius

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 231 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0018-1560
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00136901

✦ Synopsis

This paper argues that the evidence presented in the currently available studies does not allow any conclusions to be drawn regarding the distributional effects of public higher education. The source of the problem lies in the use of one year as a sampling frame. It is shown that valid inferences may not be drawn from such a sample. The evaluation of the distributional effects of public higher education must be based on lifetime income and tax streams.

Traditionally, the students of public institutions of higher learning do not pay the full cost of their education. The higher education subsidies are being received only by those who attend these institutions. However, the taxes to support public colleges and universities are collected from all taxpayers regardless of whether or not they have benefited from the subsidies. The result is an income transfer from those who do not attend any institution of higher learning or who attend private institutions to those who attend public colleges and universities.

The argument is not very profound and is not likely to elicit much of a controversy. However, the generalization of this argument to income redistribution among income classes and the attempts to measure the magnitude of these transfers have generated quite a controversy. The major contributions to this controversy include Hansen and Weisbrod (1969a, b), Pechman (1970), Windham (1970), and Hight and Pollock (1973).* It is the contention of this comment that the conclusions of these studies regarding the redistribution of income through higher education subsidies cannot be derived from the evidence presented. * The controversy also elicited comments from Cohn et al. (1970), andHartman (1970), a reply by Hansen and Weisbrod (1971), and a further comment from Pechman (1971).