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Many financially distressed students who qualify for federal assistance plans with interest moratorium and principal forgiveness instead accrue interest over long periods of nonpayment. This loan mismanagement is associated with higher delinquency. Mismanagement varies significantly across student gender and race: it is more prominent among male and non-white students. Mismanagement also varies across loan servicers, depending on proxies for student-adverse servicer policies. We consider explanations based on student selection and servicer treatment for loan mismanagement. Student financial literacy plays an important role but variation in treatment on the part of loan servicers appears more important. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the optimal design of a pension system together with publicly provided individualized financial education. Agents can invest in both a risky and a non-risky asset and can either under- or over-estimate the expected return of the risky asset. We show that, under perfect information on the misperception biases, it is optimal for the government to impose a uniform level of pension contributions equal to the optimal level of investment in the riskless asset and a U-shaped level of mandatory education. Under asymmetric information, we show that the level of education is always distorted upward for agents with important misperception biases (who either under- or over-estimate financial returns), but can be distorted upward or downward for agents with mild misperception biases. Whether we end up in one or the other situation depends on the size of the public and private costs of education as well as on the shape of the distribution of the misperception biases in the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the elasticity of educational spending with respect to changing student numbers, in a system where educational spending is autonomously determined at a regional level. While many studies focus on the potential effect of an ageing society on educational spending, only a few explicitly analyse the direct effect of changing cohort sizes. We find that education expenditures respond rather loosely to changing student numbers and that the elasticity strongly depends on regional and institutional settings. In rural areas, for instance, educational spending tends to be completely inelastic, which raises questions regarding both, efficiency and equity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does household exposure to a natural disaster affect higher education investments? Using variation in flooding from Hurricane Harvey (2017), we find that college-aged adults from flooded blocks in Houston are 7% less likely than counterparts to have student loans after Harvey, with larger effects in areas with more potential first-generation students. We find a similar relative decline in enrollment at more exposed Texas universities and colleges and a shift toward majors with higher expected earnings. Our results highlight a decrease in the quantity but an increase in the intensity of investments in human capital after the storm. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much do students benefit from student loan subsidies? We investigate this question, exploiting a natural experiment: a demand shock due to the 2011 tightening of credit standards in the PLUS program. We first establish that the Bennett hypothesis is best explained by colleges charging large markups over their marginal costs, rather than by advantageous selection. Then we use our results to estimate that students plausibly capture less than 60 cents of each dollar of resources expended on loan subsidies. We discuss alternative approaches that would more directly benefit students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses longitudinal data from England to examine the medium-term impact of a means-tested conditional cash transfer programme, Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), on higher educational participation and attainment. Combining regression modelling with entropy balancing, this paper finds that two-year EMA recipients are more likely to participate in higher education than non-recipients. Moreover, the impact of EMA is more substantial for male students, those with higher prior academic attainment, and students whose parents have higher educational qualifications. These findings suggest that even though EMA is a costly programme, it will benefit young people over a longer time frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives aimed at increasing higher education productivity, for instance, measured by credits per student, have stimulated the use of performance-based funding (PBF) by higher education institutions (HEIs). On theoretical grounds, PBF is expected to speed-up study program capacity adjustments through (re)allocations of study places. We conclude from analyses of Norwegian data that study places are adjusted efficiently if there are binding capacity restrictions at the institution level, or competition for students. Strengthened PBF does not affect long-run adjustments. Instead, admissions seem to adjust to secure full enrollment. The results provide an explanation of why very few positive effects of PBF in higher education are found in the literature. Given continued use of PBF to enhance productivity, a likely policy implication is to impose tighter restrictions on the total number of study places allocated to HEIs, or to change the price structure of the PBF model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether parents' entry into unemployment affects investment in children's education through their decision to provide public or private education for their children. The empirical approach makes use of longitudinal data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios Contínua–PNAD contínua) and propensity-score matching with difference-in-difference methods. According to estimates, parents' unemployment reduces the probability of children's enrollment in the private educational system, which usually has better quality but high costs, instead of in the public educational system, which is offered for free but typically has poor quality. Thus, evidence suggests that reductions in household income as a consequence of unemployment can have impacts on the quality of human capital accumulated by children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important financial decisions that pension participants make concerns how they access their pension assets when they terminate employment with their plan sponsor. Their choices depend both on own preferences and the options offered by their retirement plan. This paper examines both past and future pension withdrawal choices for those with defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pensions, separately. Our data are drawn from a set of pension distribution questions we fielded in the Understanding American Study. Results show significant differences in distribution choices based on the type of retirement plan, with individuals covered by DB plans significantly more likely to select annuities compared to similar employees covered by DC plans. We also find differences in how higher annual income affects annuity choices based on coverage by DB plans. Individuals with lower levels of financial literacy and lower annual income have less knowledge of basic pension characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has significantly changed the shape and organization of education in the State Forests, hence the purpose of this study is to assess its impact on the course, financing, forms and participation of youth and adults in forest education in Poland.

Efficiency of education expenditure is the ability to maximize the educational achievement given the resources invested. Although public education expenditure tends to increase, yet this does not necessarily guarantee high quality of education services. This study aims to assess public education expenditure efficiency of Lithuanian municipalities and to identify the factors explaining its variations. The study used data for 2013-2019 from 60 Lithuanian municipalities. Corrected Ordinary Least Squares method was employed for public education expenditure efficiency assessment and regression analysis was used to determine its influencing factors. Inputs included financial (public expenditure for education and maintenance) and nonfinancial (composition of teachers, occupied area, etc.) variables. Passing ratio of Lithuanian (national) language and math exams were used as efficiency outputs. The context variables represented environmental factors of educational achievements, such as number of business entities, users of social housing, libraries, and culture centres as well as municipalities’ overall financial autonomy. Results of the research are ambiguous. When assessed by the overall passing of the exams, the efficiency was high, scoring 86-90%. But when evaluated by passing exams with the highest scores, it did not even reach 40%. Two types of public expenditure were identified as the most influential factors - public expenditure for education with the negative trend, and municipality own financing with the positive influence on the public education expenditure efficiency. Such results support the decentralization of public education expenditure management and call for alternative output measures in the Lithuanian public education system.

The purpose of the study is to identify the level of public spending on education in the Visegrad Group countries in 2011–2021. The source material was data from the European Statistical Office for Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, collected in accordance with the International Classification of Government Functions (COFOG) based on the European System of National Accounts. As a result of the analysis, it was found that in the above-mentioned countries, in the perspective of 10 years, Poland was the country that allocated the most funds to education, which also translated into the average share of government and local government expenditure in percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011–2021. In the countries of the Visegrad Group, an increase in the level of public spending on education, expressed in million euros, was recorded. In relation to GDP in 2011 and 2021, a downward trend was observed only in Poland (by 0.6 p.p.). Poland is one of the few European Union countries where there was a significant reduction in spending on education. This is an unfavorable phenomenon, as investments in human capital testify to the competitiveness of the state.

The nonprofit sector's ability to absorb increases in labor costs differs from the private sector in a number of ways. We analyse how nonprofits are affected by changes in the minimum wage utilizing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Internal Revenue Service, linked to state minimum wages. We examine changes in reported employment and volunteering, as well as other financial statements such as revenues and expenses. The results from both datasets show a negative impact on employment for states with large statutory minimum wage increases. We observe some evidence for a reduction in the number of nonprofit establishments, fundraising expenses, and revenues from contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education, innovation, the labour force, and new businesses are considered the key important sectors (factors) for developed and emerging economies. The paper analyses are performed by using the Cobb Douglas production function for analysing the impact and correlation of these factors (variables) on the economic growth of Kosova during the period 2013 - 2021. The variables of public expenditures on education as a percentage of GDP and the labour force have shown a negative impact on growth and they have operated under decreasing returns to scale (based on the Cobb-Douglas function), while the variables of information, computer and telecommunication services (which refer to innovation technology) and new business creation have indicated a positive impact on growth and they have operated under increasing returns to scale (based on the Cobb-Douglas function). In addition, this paper summarized a few useful conclusions: first, public expenditure on education should provide an important contribution on growth; second, enhancing the role of education to improve and develop new knowledge for the labour force in Kosova, and at the same time, to adapt with new labour market demand; third, information, computer and telecommunication is one of the leading export sectors and this sector should provide higher potential and contributions on the economic growth of Kosova; fourth, new businesses creation should provide a significant contribution to increase economic growth. These variables in many countries have made a key value contribution to the economy by driving it toward sustainability, development, and growth.

The development of crowdfunding widened the inventory of the available funding methods for scientific and extracurricular projects and boosted the interest of those entities that have not used this form of creative funding until now. American universities are both pioneers in this field and the most successful in this type of fundraising. At universities in Poland, crowdfunding is in the phase of initial development, therefore this paper is aimed at introducing and evaluating the first crowdfunding platform launched at Poznań University of Economics and Business — GOuep.pl. The experience gained and conclusions drawn from the first fundraisings organised for the implementation of selected projects provide interesting, practical implications for the parties potentially interested in this method of project funding. University fundraisings usually do not reach beyond a given university’s community, making them rather small, local projects with moderate financial goals. Crowdfunding is still so fresh and unexplored at universities in Poland, that significant resources, both financial and in the form of expert knowledge, need to be spent in order to take full advantage of it. It is also a lesson for the entire academic community on how to use the potential of engagement in university projects, understood as events that integrate particular groups and affect the development of the potential and attractiveness of a university. The paper contributes towards recognising predictors of successful crowdfunding at Polish universities and indicates the possibility to use crowdfunding platforms as tools in building the university image and strengthening the integration of academic communities.

Coal mining has a deep history in the Appalachian region, where some local economies have heavily relied on coal production. While coal employment in the region has generally been in a long-term decline, there is variation across counties, with coal employment still representing a large share of total employment for some counties. This paper explores how coal activity—measured by coal employment, coal employment as a share of total employment, coal production, and the number of coal mines—impacts locally provided funding for K-12 education. Using county-level data that spans from 1995 to 2016, results indicate that increases in coal activity have a positive and significant impact on local revenues per student though effects are modest. The findings are robust across different specifications. The implication is that declines in coal activity can hamper school funding, in turn affecting adequate investments in education that are essential for economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the US, the federal government grants colleges access to a student's Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) which facilitates substantial price discrimination. This article is the first to estimate the consequences of allowing colleges to use the FAFSA in their pricing decisions. I build and estimate a structural model of college pricing and simulate counterfactuals wherein some or all of the FAFSA information is restricted. I find that if FAFSA information were restricted, 13 |$\%$| of students attending elite colleges would be inefficiently priced out of the elite market. Nevertheless, student welfare would rise as colleges charged the majority of students lower prices. Colleges do use the FAFSA to transfer resources from high- to low-income students on average, but this redistribution is highly imprecise: allowing colleges to use the FAFSA harms one-third of low-income students while one in seven high-income students actually benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverse local labor market shocks such as those generated by exposure of local industries to international trade have impacts on high school enrollment and completion that are theoretically ambiguous. Incentives to stay in school increase when employment prospects are weak, yet public resources for local schools may also shrink. This work demonstrates that, while high school enrollment rates increase significantly, high school degree attainment does not show commensurate growth. "Outmigration" of young adults and changes in the timing of degree receipt reconcile these measures. In addition, high school attainment effects are likely attenuated by declines in local resources per student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate in which countries fiscal externalities provide a justification for increasing subsidies to higher education. First, we show that the marginal fiscal recovery rate, i.e. the ratio of the change in total net fiscal revenues and the change in total subsidy costs caused by a small change in tuition subsidies, is the key statistic: if larger than a well-specified threshold value, then a small increase in subsidies is desirable from a welfare point of view. We also show that the marginal fiscal recovery rate depends on three statistics: the elasticity of participation with respect to subsidies, the success probability of the marginal student, and the ratio of the net fiscal revenue gain and the subsidy level of a degree in higher education. Second, we use this formula to approximate the marginal fiscal recovery rate in twenty OECD countries. The average marginal fiscal recovery rate is equal to 0.94, meaning that, on average, 0.94 euro is recovered of an increase in subsidies by one euro. This average hides substantial heterogeneity between countries. In six countries, the marginal fiscal recovery rate is larger than one, implying that an increase in subsidies to higher education is unambiguously desirable (i.e. a Pareto improvement) in these countries. In the other 14 countries, the marginal fiscal recovery rate is below one. Yet, if the degree of inequality aversion is not extreme, then increasing subsidies is also desirable in 12 additional countries. Third, to check the quality of our approximation of the marginal fiscal recovery rate, we simulate it for Belgium (region of Flanders) on the basis of a more detailed model. This simulation provides a somewhat lower, yet fairly similar result compared to the approximation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to analyze the effects of mixed financing policies from the incorporation of cost-free education in Chilean higher education in the processes of student access and retention (trajectory) and social mobility.Two methods were applied to achieve this aim: monographic research and longitudinal comparative statistical analysis between 2016 and 2021. Different databases were analyzed to evaluate coverage, retention, and social mobility rates. The research used multivariate techniques and the Gini index to measure social mobility.The results showed the transformations that Chilean higher education has experienced in increasing financing, demand, and coverage rates, especially in vulnerable quintiles. The current financing system has positively impacted social mobility and the trajectory of students from the poorest quintiles.This study seeks to contribute to the reflection on the urgency of implementing effective public policies for social progress, safeguarding quality assurance indicators in education as an accurate way of developing a country.

In this article, we contribute to the scant literature covering quantitative studies on the determinants of the non-academic staff incidence in higher education institutions by analysing how the proportion of non-academic staff is related to key features such as size, prestige, year of foundation and financial structure of universities. We apply nonlinear regression analysis to compare HEIs across Europe and the USA, taking into account time and cross-country heterogeneity of the two balanced panel datasets concerning European and American universities over a period of 6 years (2011–2016 for Europe and 2012–2017 for the USA). Evidence suggests that in both Europe and the USA, public and larger (if sufficiently large) as well as more research-oriented units are characterised by a higher proportion of non-academic staff. In Europe, we observe an inverted U-shaped effect of the share of non-personnel expenditure and the foundation year on the proportion of non-academic staff, while the proportion of non-academic staff decreases with the share of core and third-party funding. For the USA, we obtain similar findings except that the share of core funding and third-party funding is characterised by a U-shaped effect, and the impact of the share of non-personnel expenditure has no empirical effect on the proportion of non-academic staff. Additionally, we discover that some factors that contribute to the proportion of non-academic staff may constitute indicators of performance, suggesting the need for further research to extend our knowledge on the complex issue of the role played by non-academic staff in university performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]