It has become part of the conventional wisdom in the economics of education that subsidies to higher education have a regressive distributional effect. Given that relatively more children from wealthier families enroll in higher education, many economist assume that these subsidies to higher education have an unwanted distributional impact. This volume presents new empirical evidence for the cross-sectional point of view and provides an analytical framework for the longitudinal perspective. The present volume also analyzes the equity and efficiency effects of widely-discussed funding reforms and proposes a voluntary graduate tax.

From the reviews of the first edition:

"The author emphasizes the role of windfall gains that occur from subsidizing higher education. the main goal of this book is to assess the widely used tax-financed subsidy systems and understand the impact of different degrees and kinds of subsidization on both efficiency and equity. On the other side, there we can find a nice example of applied mathematics." (Krzysztof Piasecki, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1086, 2006)

Inhalt
Outline of the Book.- The Distributional Impact of Subsidies to Higher Education in the Cross-Sectional Perspective.- Previous Studies.- Empirical Evidence Using GSOEP Data.- The Distributional Impact of Subsidies to Higher Education in the Long Run.- Previous Related Literature.- The CreedyFrançois Model of Higher-Education Economics as the Basic Framework for our Analysis.- The Distributional Effect of Public Subsidization Among Graduates and Non-GraduatesThe Life-Cycle Perspective.- Alternative Options for Funding.- The Role of Progressive Taxation.- Offsetting Subsidies and Progressive Taxation.- Limits of Distortion-Offsetting Subsidies.- Summary and Conclusion.