Preferences for University Tuition

Public preferences for charging tuition are important for determining higher education finance. In a couple of papers, we show that the public’s preferences for charging tuition are partly based on beliefs about the university earnings premium and on the specific design of the payment scheme. 

In one paper, we devise survey experiments in representative samples of the German electorate (N>15,000) to test whether public support for tuition depends on earnings information. The electorate is divided, with a plurality opposing tuition. Providing information on the university earnings premium raises support for tuition by 7 percentage points, turning the plurality in favor. The opposition-reducing effect persists two weeks after treatment. While there is some evidence of information-based updating of biased beliefs, the effect seems to mainly work through increased salience which triggers reduced consideration of financial constraints when forming preferences for tuition. Information on fiscal costs and unequal access does not affect public preferences. We subject the baseline result to various experimental tests of replicability, robustness, heterogeneity, and consequentiality.  

In a companion paper, we show that the electorate’s preferences for using tuition to finance higher education strongly depend on the design of the payment scheme. In representative surveys of the German electorate (N>18,000), experimentally replacing regular upfront by deferred income-contingent payments increases public support for tuition by 18 percentage points. The treatment turns a plurality opposed to tuition into a strong majority of 62 percent in favor. Additional experiments reveal that the treatment effect similarly shows when framed as loan repayments, when answers carry political consequences, and in a survey of adolescents. Reduced fairness concerns and improved student situations act as strong mechanisms. 

Research papers:

Income Contingency and the Electorate’s Support for Tuition (with P. Lergetporer). CESifo Working Paper 9520 / IZA Discussion Paper 14991, January 2022 [tweet]

Earnings Information and Public Preferences for University Tuition: Evidence from Representative Experiments (with P. Lergetporer). Journal of Public Economics 226: 104968, 2023 [tweet]

Non-technical contribution: 

Section 4.3 in: 

Public Opinion and the Political Economy of Educational Reforms: A Survey (with M. Busemeyer and P. Lergetporer). European Journal of Political Economy 53: 161-185, 2018  

Material available only in German

Newspaper article:

Fürs Studium bezahlen? Aber richtig! (with P. Lergetporer). NOeG-Blog "Der ökonomische Blick" auf diepresse.com, 23.5.2022

Studium zum Nulltarif? Nicht für die Besserverdiener von morgen! (with P. Lergetporer). Wirtschaftswoche, 30.8.2019, p. 36

Interviews: 

Nichts ist gerechter (with A. Meyer auf der Heyde). Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29.1.2018, p. 16

500 Euro pro Semester – Wieso das Bezahlstudium gerecht ist. Die Zeit, 3.9.2015, No. 36, p. 66, 2015