Although public appropriations to higher education and tuition rates are set under alternative arrangements, the optimal allocation is readily achievable. The decentralized linear-subsidy case produces an externality that reduces joint welfare below the centralized (first-best) case, but when...

Purpose – Tightened government budgets are forcing public universities to confront a new economic reality as the traditional low tuition‐high subsidy model of public higher education becomes increasingly unsustainable. The shift toward reliance on tuition relative to taxpayer support...