In recent years, and under the pressure of increasing public deficits, a number of
countries have decided to increase university fees to compensate for reductions in
teaching subsidies financed by taxpayers. Perhaps the best known case is that of the
UK. In this paper we analyze a similar policy adopted in Catalonia, Spain. Tuition
fees increased 66 percent in the 2012-2013 academic year to compensate for the
reduction in public subsidies used to finance Catalan university teaching activities.
Interestingly, ...
In recent years, and under the pressure of increasing public deficits, a number of
countries have decided to increase university fees to compensate for reductions in
teaching subsidies financed by taxpayers. Perhaps the best known case is that of the
UK. In this paper we analyze a similar policy adopted in Catalonia, Spain. Tuition
fees increased 66 percent in the 2012-2013 academic year to compensate for the
reduction in public subsidies used to finance Catalan university teaching activities.
Interestingly, the increase in fees was progressive, meaning that there was a fee
waiver in function of family income. We analyze the distributional impact of this
policy change, showing that this progressive tuition fee does not have a differential
impact on the dropout rate of students of dierent socioeconomic status. Since
eligibility for the full tuition waiver is determined by a sharp cut-off on household
income, we use a regression discontinuity design to analyze the effect of the new
tuition fees around the full tuition waiver. We nd no evidence of any adverse
impact of the new fees on the drop out rates.
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