Higher education funding in Germany: A distributional lifetime perspective

Arbeitspapier

This paper analyzes higher education funding in Germany from a distributional perspective. For this, I first compare the quantitative importance of different funding instruments, from free tuition to subsidized health insurance for students. I show that free tuition is, by far, the most important instrument. Then, I take a lifetime perspective and assess how individuals of different expected lifetime incomes benefit from higher education funding. I distinguish between different fields of study as there are large differences in both the expected lifetime earnings of graduating from a specific field and the social cost of tuition associated with each field. Finally, I focus exclusively on the instrument of subsidized tuition and simulate the introduction of different tuition fee schemes with income-contingent loans. While the distributional effects would be sizable in absolute terms, I estimate that they would cause few individuals to change their educational decisions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Discussion Paper ; No. 2021/1

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Forecasting Models; Simulation Methods ; Educational Finance; Financial Aid ; Higher Education; Research Institutions
• Subject: Higher education ; Education finance ; Dynamic microsimulation

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Hügle, Dominik
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Freie Universität Berlin, School of Business & Economics
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.17169/refubium-28932
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/228538
• URN: urn:nbn:de:kobv:188-refubium-29186-4
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET