Earnings information and public preferences for university tuition: Evidence from representative experiments
中文摘要
高等教育财政取决于公众对收取学费的偏好，而这种偏好可能部分基于公众对大学收入溢价的信念与认知。为检验公众对学费的支持是否取决于收入信息，我们在具有代表性的德国选民样本中设计了调查实验（N > 15,000）。选民意见存在分歧，反对收取学费者占相对多数。提供大学收入溢价的信息使学费支持率提高了7个百分点，从而使支持者转为相对多数。这一降低反对程度的效应在处理两周后依然持续。虽然有一些证据表明信息促使受访者修正了存在偏误的信念，但该效应似乎主要通过提高显著性发挥作用，从而使人们在形成学费偏好时减少对经济约束的考量。有关财政成本和入学机会不平等的信息并不影响公众偏好。我们通过多种实验检验考察了基准结果的可复制性、稳健性、异质性和后果相关性。
Abstract
Higher education finance depends on the public’s preferences for charging tuition, which may be partly based on beliefs and awareness about the university earnings premium. To test whether public support for tuition depends on earnings information, we devise survey experiments in representative samples of the German electorate (N > 15,000). The electorate is divided, with a plurality opposing tuition. Providing information on the university earnings premium raises support for tuition by 7 percentage points, turning the plurality in favor. The opposition-reducing effect persists two weeks after treatment. While there is some evidence of information-based updating of biased beliefs, the effect seems to mainly work through increased salience which triggers reduced consideration of financial constraints when forming preferences for tuition. Information on fiscal costs and unequal access does not affect public preferences. We subject the baseline result to various experimental tests of replicability, robustness, heterogeneity, and consequentiality.