Should we raise public expenditure on basic education and reduce expenditure at college?

This paper analyzes public intervention in education, taking into account the existence of two educational levels: basic education and college education. The government decides per capita expenditure at each level and the subsidy for college education. We explore the effect of transferring money from one level to the other on equity and efficiency. We find that there is always a policy reform that satisfies both the objectives of equity and efficiency, where efficiency refers to average productivity of college graduates. For developed countries, this policy consists of transferring resources from college education to basic education.