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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Subsidization of higher education versus expansion of primary enrollments : what can a shift of resources achieve in Sub-Saharan Africa ?

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International audience; In many LDCs today, the distribution of public resources for education tends to be inefficient and inequitable in that subsidization often increases rather than decreases with the level of education. To improve efficiency and equity, a shift of resources from higher to primary education should therefore be considered. Such a shift would obviously imply an increase in the private cost of higher education, but its effect could be mitigated through a loan scheme. In this paper, our main purpose is to show what a cut in subsidies to higher education can achieve in terms of expanding primary enrollments. The results show that although the outcome differs from country to country, such a cut would permit a sizable increase in primary enrollments in Sub-Saharan Africa, and especially in Francophone countries. Despite its effectiveness, however, reduction in higher education subsidies alone is unlikely to overcome all the obstacles faced by the poorest countries to attaining universal primary education. Our results only argue that it should be considered as part of the policy package directed towards this goal.