Financing Higher Education in a Mobile World

This paper analyzes how integrated labor markets affect the financing of higher education. For this, we employ a general‐equilibrium model with overlapping generations and individuals who differ in their abilities. At the first stage, governments can choose the quality of education and the financing system. At the second stage, individuals make their education and migration decisions given the governmental framework for higher education and the mobility assumptions. In a closed economy and in the presence of imperfect credit markets, a mix of tax‐ and fee‐financing is optimal. In integrated labor markets, countries have an incentive to attract skilled workers and to free‐ride on education provided by other countries. When only skilled workers are mobile, there is a suboptimal shift from taxes to fees and the number of students is too low. When also students can migrate, there is a countervailing force such that maintaining the optimal financial mix becomes possible.     

THE EFFECT OF SERVICE QUALITY AND EXPECTATIONS ON CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS*

Customer complaints measure consumers' dissatisfaction with the quality of a product or service. If product quality is unobservable ex ante, customer complaints may be driven by expectations as well as by the actually experienced quality level. I test whether the level of quality that could be expected prior to consumption affects the number of customer complaints after controlling for–ex post observable–actual quality, using data from the U.S. airline industry. I find that there are fewer complaints when actual quality is higher. Controlling for actual quality, a higher level of expected quality leads to more complaints.     

Fruit: comparisons of consumption,attitudes, knowledge and preferences of primary school children in England and Germany

Primary school children's fruit consumption and attitudes, knowledge and preferences regarding fruit were investigated using interview techniques in schools in England (Nottinghamshire) and Germany (north east), and analysed on the bases of culture, sex and social class. Children from both countries had strong positive attitudes towards increasing fruit consumption and differed little in their ability to correctly identify five fruits (including tropical fruits). Fruit preferences also showed many similarities, with more than 95% of children from both Germany and England choosing apples as fruits they liked, followed closely by strawberries, oranges, pears, grapes and bananas. Fruit consumption by German children was, however, higher than English children both at breakfast and in school breaks. Strategies for increasing fruit consumption in English children are discussed in relation to the findings obtained.