Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This paper applies a political economy approach to the study of the endogenous determination of the size and composition of a public education budget. In this model, there are two education stages: the first is compulsory, while advanced education is optional. Parents decide on the education policy by a majority vote, children attend schools and then decide whether to get advanced education. This paper shows that even in a simple scenario where only public education is available, children's college-attendance decisions may lead the single-crossing condition to fail, which indicates that a majority voting equilibrium may not exist. In a scenario where individuals can opt for private education services, the model provides necessary and sufficient conditions for an equilibrium of the "ends-against-the-middle" type, where the poor are decisive. An implication of this result is that the opting-out feature of education may improve the welfare of the poor.

We study a model where individuals choose both the level of provision of a public good and the quota of low-skilled immigrants that are allowed into the country. Individuals can supplement the public good in the private market. Immigrants affect natives through three channels: (i) the labor market; (ii) tax collection; (iii) the quality of the public good. We find that the higher the political weight of the rich (highly skilled) is, the less tolerant the poor and the middle-class are toward immigration and the more demanding they are toward increasing public spending. The rich are the most favorable to immigration. As they have more weight, the political outcome is closer to their preferences and further from the preferences of the other groups. We use data from the European Social Survey to test the implications of our model. ; Gabriel Romero thanks CONICYT FONDECYT INICIACION (grant number 11121155) for financial support. Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe thanks financial support from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (ECO2012-34928), Generalitat Valenciana (Prometeo/2013/037) and from Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas (IVIE).