Income Contingency and the Electorate's Support for Tuition
CESifo, Munich, 2022
CESifo Working Paper No. 9520
![](https://www.cesifo.org/DocImg/cesifo1_wp9520.jpg?c=1689236966)
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 mediators.
Public Finance
Economics of Education