Demographic Structure and the Political Economy of Education Subsidies

This paper investigates the politico-economic impact of a society's age structure on the extent of public funding of education. Education subsidies serve to internalize positive spillovers of human capital investment, but redistribute resources from the working old to the non-working young, thus creating a conflict of interest between the two generations. The political process is characterized by a representative democracy. In the steady state, high rates of population growth lead to oversubsidization, while low rates lead to undersubsidization, relative to a lifetime income maximizing situation. Population aging leads to higher educational subsidies in the politico-economic equilibrium. Starting from a situation of undersubsidization, this raises lifetime incomes.     

Studentische Hilfskräfte im deutschen Bildungswesen

The article takes a critical look at the situation of graduate assistants at German universities. For this purpose the paper is based on two sociological perspectives. On the one hand, being employed as a student assistant can be regarded as an important individual strategy to gather privileges in the German higher educational system. On the other hand, working as a student assistant is a paradigmatic example of labor conditions in modern society due to the fact that higher qualified persons need to be profoundly flexible and have to work under precarious employment conditions. The analysis highlights that the problematic working conditions of student assistants are caused by the specific structures of the German education system. It is the difference between individual prospects and objective possibilities which makes these precarious labor conditions possible.     

Counter-Reform in the American Welfare State: Ideas,Institutions, and Progressive Taxation

The Nixon/Ford years were a pivotal period when severe fiscal problems emerged whose resolutions constrained the ambit of social policy afterward. A shared diagnosis of economic challenges produced divergent effects in the electoral fortunes of the major political parties and set the stage for an upward redistribution of wealth. Horizontal equity became synonymous with overall tax equity. This article examines how economic ideas acquire political traction.