TY - JOUR
T1 - The costs of unpaid higher education contribution scheme debts of graduates working abroad
AU - Chapman, Bruce
AU - Higgins, Tim
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - The Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) is an income-contingent loan designed to collect tuition from Australian university students. The debt is collected on the basis of recorded incomes and, as a consequence, debtors living overseas will not repay. Using various data sources and assumptions, multiple scenarios are considered in order to estimate the extent of uncollected overseas debt. A conservative estimate of the amount of foregone HECS revenue for the 1989-2011 graduate cohorts working overseas is over $400 million, but it is shown that, under other plausible assumptions, the foregone revenue may be close to double this amount.
AB - The Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) is an income-contingent loan designed to collect tuition from Australian university students. The debt is collected on the basis of recorded incomes and, as a consequence, debtors living overseas will not repay. Using various data sources and assumptions, multiple scenarios are considered in order to estimate the extent of uncollected overseas debt. A conservative estimate of the amount of foregone HECS revenue for the 1989-2011 graduate cohorts working overseas is over $400 million, but it is shown that, under other plausible assumptions, the foregone revenue may be close to double this amount.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84883393955&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-8462.2013.12014.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-8462.2013.12014.x
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-9018
VL - 46
SP - 286
EP - 299
JO - Australian Economic Review
JF - Australian Economic Review
IS - 3
ER -