Allocative and Redistributive Aspects of Financing Higher Education with Special Regard to Italy

Abstract

The conviction that the expenditure on education may be evaluated solely as an ‘investment in human capital’ was enthusiastically supported during the 1960s by distinguished economists like Theodore Schultz. Since that time, however, it has steadily lost prestige while remaining a valid criterion of approach. The chief criticism is found in the far-reaching changes in the labour market which may arrive in the decades to come after the period of educating.

I wish to thank the Italian –Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche’ for its generous financial support of the work reported here.