Liquidity Constraints, Fiscal Externalities, and Optimal Tuition Subsidies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lawson, Nicholas
• 署名单位: University of Quebec; University of Quebec Montreal
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150079
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 313-343
• 关键词: general equilibrium-model; higher-education; borrowing constraints; LABOR; PRODUCTIVITY; earnings; policies; returns; income; LEVEL

摘要

A large literature focuses on two important rationales for government subsidies to college students: positive fiscal externalities from a larger tax base, and liquidity constraints. This paper provides a first attempt to gauge the relative importance of these mechanisms. I use US data in combination with two modeling approaches: calibration of a simple structural model of human capital accumulation, and a sufficient statistics approach. The resulting optimal subsidies are larger than median public tuition by about $3,000 per year. This finding is driven by fiscal externalities; optimal tuition subsidy policy is not sensitive to the extent of liquidity constraints.