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Regulation in the market for education and optimal choice of curriculum

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  • Eisenkopf, Gerald
  • Wohlschlegel, Ansgar

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 from student achievement to 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

  • Eisenkopf, Gerald & Wohlschlegel, Ansgar, 2012. "Regulation in the market for education and optimal choice of curriculum," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 53-65.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:juecon:v:71:y:2012:i:1:p:53-65
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2011.09.001
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    Cited by:

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    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. 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.
    5. Kaganovich, Michael & Sarpca, Sinan & Su, Xuejuan, 2020. "Competition in Higher Education," Working Papers 2020-3, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    6. 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.
    7. Michael Kaganovich & Sinan Sarpca & Xuejuan Su, 2020. "Competition in Higher Education: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 8220, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Local externalities; Product 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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