Should Education be Publicly Provided?

(Bulletin of Economic Research, 54(4), October 2002.  pp.373-391
© 2002 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd and the Board of Trustees of the Bulletin of Economic Research 2002)

Philip Trostel
Department of Economics and Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy
University of Maine

October 2002 

Abstract: This study suggests that a subsidy in the form of public provision has the potential to be the most efficient educational policy because it stimulates investment in human capital, which would otherwise be inefficiently low because of distortionary income taxation and possible external benefits. Moreover, it can potentially do this without grossly distorting the mix of investments in human capital. Other policies do not have the potential to achieve both these ends without introducing additional, perhaps overwhelming, problems. Thus public provision of education appears to provide incentives for human capital accumulation which are more efficient than any other feasible policy.

For a copy of this article, please visit the Bulletin of Economic Research Website at:
          http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/abstract.asp?ref=0307-3378&vid=54&iid=4&aid=157

  

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