公私立大學學費差異之影響

Abstract

本文探討在存在借貸限制的情況下，公私立大學學費差異與財務補助政策如何影響學生與學校之間的配對結果與個體福利。研究動機源自台灣高等教育的制度背景：公立大學通常提供較高品質且收費較低的教育，而政府亦開始推動補助私立大學學費的政策，以期減輕其學生的經濟負擔。本文透過納入學費，延伸 Fernández and Galí (1999) 的競爭式配對模型（tournament-based matching model），用以精確地呈現台灣的大學體系並加以分析。

我們使用一組微分方程系統進行數值模擬，比較兩種政策情境：(1) 僅私立大學收取學費；(2) 透過提高公立學費與降低私立學費，使所有學校學費逐步趨於一致，並維持整體學費收入不變。此設計可用以隔離並分析縮小學費差距所產生的再分配效果。

模擬結果顯示，縮小公私立學費差異可提升整體社會福利，尤其有利於能力高但財力不足的學生。本研究指出，若能精確調整學費結構，將有助於提升階層化教育體系中的公平性與效率。

This paper examines how tuition gaps between public and private universities, along with financial aid policies, affect student-school matching and individual welfare under borrowing constraints. Motivated by Taiwan's higher education context—where public universities offer higher quality at lower cost, and where the government has recently begun promoting tuition subsidies for private institutions—we extend the Fernández and Galí (1999) matching model by integrating tuition, to more accurately represent the Taiwanese university system.

We simulate two policy scenarios using a system of differential equations: (1) only private universities charge tuition; and (2) tuition is gradually equalized across institutions by increasing public college tuition and decreasing private college tuition, with total tuition revenue held constant. This design allows us to isolate the redistributive effects of narrowing the tuition gap.

The results show that reducing tuition disparities improves overall welfare, especially for high-ability, low-wealth students. Our findings highlight the importance of carefully calibrated tuition structures in enhancing both access and efficiency in stratified education systems.