Education and selective vouchers

Piolatto, Amedeo (2009): Education and selective vouchers.

Abstract

The literature on vouchers often concludes that a voucher-based system cannot be the outcome of a majority vote. This paper shows that it is possible to propose selective vouchers (of exogenous value) such that the majority of voters are in favour of selective vouchers. As long as the introduction of vouchers does not undermine the existence of public schools, introducing selective vouchers induces a Pareto improvement. Some agents use vouchers in equilibrium to buy private education, while the poorest agents continue attending public schools and enjoy an increase in per-capita expenditure.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: public economics; education; vouchers; voting
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H4 - Publicly Provided Goods > H42 - Publicly Provided Private Goods; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions; D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D70 - General

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