We test whether very high marginal tax rates affect taxpayer behaviour, using a unique policy. Under the Higher Education Contribution Scheme – an income-related university loans scheme in Australia – former students with a debt face a sharp discontinuity. At the first repayment threshold...

Currently there are significant challenges for the funding of Australian higher education teaching. Since the early 1980s successive Australian governments have shown an unwillingness to maintain academic conditions through public sector funding, and there is little doubt that this trend will...

Much of the debate surrounding the impact of immigration of the economy relates to the consequences of immigration for aggregate unemployment. In this paper we explore a related but more specific issue: the consequences of immigration on the probability of unemployed residents gaining a job....

It is opportune to esplore the conceptual basis of Higher Education Contribution Scheme, examine its revenue and practical implications, and ask if its institutionhas diminished the access of the disadvantaged to Australia's higher education system.

Several of the Youth Allowance eligibility criteria for independent status were subject to severe criticism in the recent Review of Australian Higher Education (2008). Specifically, it seems to be the case that many students are able to qualify for socalled “independent-at-home” financial...

Education and immigration are examined and affirmed as drivers of sustainable productivity growth. In education, individuals see continuing benefits to educational investment, a view supported by individual rates of return from education. Private sector expenditure on education has increased...

In Australia in 1989, for the first time in the world, a broadly-based income contingent loan policy for the payment of higher education charges was adopted, when the government introduced the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS). This can be seen to be a watershed in terms of the...

The relative costs of taking employment or receiving welfare are usually understood through comparisons of a person’s social security entitlements and their wage alternative, known as replacement rates. In some situations it appears that the additional income from working is negligible, and...

This paper presents analysis of the implicit subsidies and repayment hardships of Thailand’s Student Loan Fund (SLF). Comparisons are made between the current SLF with alternative similar schemes, assuming different rates of interest and loan repayment periods. We find that the implicit...

It is well known that higher education financing involves uncertainty and risk with respect to students’ future economic fortunes, and an unwillingness of banks to provide loans because of the absence of collateral. It follows that without government intervention there will be both socially...