Summary This paper examines the distributional effects of public higher education financing in a lifetime perspective. The benefits that university graduates obtain in terms of their tertiary education are compared to the graduates’ education-related (tax) burden. To calculate the...

We propose an argument for fiscal restraints that is based on the premise that the services of politicians are credence goods. Politicians are experts who specialize in observing the true state of the economy. Budget maximizing politicians are better informed than the electorate about the level...

This paper studies whether the introduction of tuition fees at public universities in some German states had a negative effect on enrollment, i.e., on the transition of high school graduates to public universities in Germany. In contrast to recent studies, we do not find a significant effect on...