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Risky higher education and subsidies

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  • Ahmet Akyol
  • Kartik Artheya

Abstract

Tertiary education in the U.S. requires large investments that are risky, lumpy, and well-timed. Tertiary education is also heavily subsidized. By making the risk of human capital investment more acceptable, especially to low wealth households, subsidies may increase investment in human capital, lower long-run inequality, and reduce aggregate precautionary savings. However, subsidies also encourage more poorly prepared students to attend and are usually financed via distortionary taxes. In this paper, we find that observed collegiate subsidies improve welfare substantially relative to the fully decentralized (zero subsidy) outcome. We show that subsidies help smooth consumption, lower skill premia, increase interest rates as precautionary savings fall, lower the inequality of both consumption and wealth, increase intergenerational income mobility and raise welfare, even when financed by distortionary taxes.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in its series Working Paper with number 03-02.

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Date of creation: 2003
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedrwp:03-02

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Keywords: Macroeconomics ; Education ; Human capital;

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Cited by:
  1. Viktar Fedaseyeu & Vitaliy Strohush, 2012. "Loans from the Government, Overinvestment by Households, and Asset Bubbles," Working Papers 443, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
  2. Matthew T. Johnson, 2010. "Borrowing Constraints, College Enrollment, and Delayed Entry," Working Papers 2011-006, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group, revised Sep 2012.
  3. Christoph Winter, 2009. "Accounting for the changing role of family income in determining college entry," IEW - Working Papers 402, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich, revised Dec 2011.
  4. Satyajit Chatterjee & Felicia Ionescu, 2010. "Insuring college failure risk," Working Papers 10-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
  5. Carlos Garriga & Mark P. Keightley, 2007. "A general equilibrium theory of college with education subsidies, in-school labor supply, and borrowing constraints," Working Papers 2007-051, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
  6. John Bailey Jones & Fang (Annie) Yang, 2011. "Skill-Biased Technical Change and the Cost of Higher Education: An Exploratory Model," Discussion Papers 11-02, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
  7. Satyajit Chatterjee & Felicia Ionescu, 2012. "Insuring student loans against the financial risk of failing to complete college," Working Papers 12-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
  8. John Bailey Jones & Fang Yang, 2012. "Skill-Biased Technical Change and the Cost of Higher Education," Discussion Papers 12-08, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
  9. Christoph Winter, 2007. "Accounting for the Changing Role of Family Income in Determining College Entry," Economics Working Papers ECO2007/49, European University Institute.
  10. William Blankenau & Steven Cassou & Beth Ingram, 2007. "Allocating Government Education Expenditures Across K-12 and College Education," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 85-112, April.

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