Program duplication in higher education is not necessarily bad

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kelchtermans, Stijn; Verboven, Frank
• 署名单位: Universite Catholique Louvain; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.02.002
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 397-409
• 关键词: product diversity; Program duplication; Higher education

摘要

Public systems of higher education have recently attempted to cut costs by providing financial incentives to cut duplicated programs, i.e. programs that are offered at different institutions. We study the profit and welfare effects of reducing program duplication, against the background of a funding system reform in Flanders (Belgium). We find that dropping duplicated programs at individual institutions tends to be socially undesirable, due to the students' low willingness to travel to other institutions and to the limited fixed cost and variable cost savings. Furthermore, we find that the financial incentives offered to drop programs may be very ineffective, leading to both undesirable reform and undesirable status quo. These findings emphasize the complexities in regulating product diversity in higher education, and serve as a word of caution towards the various decentralized financial incentive schemes that have recently been introduced. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.