World Politics · 2008 · 200 citations · 27 references
EducationEducation PolicyHigher EducationEducation ReformHigher Education FinanceHigher Education PolicyEducation Tax PolicyHigher Education FinancingHigher Education Policy HistoryHigher Education ReformTuition Fee PolicyTuition PolicyExpansion Of AccessHigher Education ExpenditureHigher Education Institutional ChangeHigher Education Policy ReformHigher Education SpendingPartisan PoliticsPartisan ReformPublic Higher Education Subsidies
Higher‑education policy in OECD countries has undergone extensive reform over the past two decades, ranging from tuition fee implementation to large public‑funding increases or the maintenance of pre‑war elitist models. The article argues that these reforms are driven by partisan choices within a trilemma balancing enrollment levels, subsidization depth, and overall public cost. A formal model linking partisan politics, existing enrollment, tax structure, and access explains movements within this trilemma, and the model is empirically tested on 22 OECD countries and case studies of England, Sweden, and Germany.
Higher education policy has been subject to considerable reform in OECD states over the past two decades. Some states have introduced tuition fees, others have massively increased public funding for higher education, and still others remain in stasis, retaining the elitist model with which they began the postwar era. This article develops the argument that higher education policy in the OECD is driven by a set of partisan choices within a trilemma between the level of enrollment, the degree of subsidization, and the overall public cost of higher education. The author develops a formal model of the micromechanisms underlying movements within this trilemma, noting the importance of partisan politics, existing enrollment, tax structure, and access. These propositions are tested statistically on a sample of twenty-two OECD countries and through case histories of higher education reform in England, Sweden, and Germany.
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A Rational Theory of the Size of Government
Allan H. Meltzer, Scott F. Richard · Journal of Political Economy · 1981 · 5.5K citations