Valoración económica del servicio educativo gratuito de la fen-ESPOL y disponibilidad a pagar de los estudiantes para manterner el nivel de calidad de la educación: aplicación del método de valoración contingente

Abstract

The general goal of this study is to orientate policymaker’ decisions in the academic field and in the proper use of public funds that currently finance the activities of the Facultad de Economía y Negocios ESPOL (FEN). To fulllfil this goal, it is needed to know the students’ economic valuation toward gratuitous education offered by this Faculty. This study is developed using truncated variable models (Tobit model) between the level of willingness to pay (WTP) as the dependent variable and socioeconomic variables and related to the academic field as the independent variables. On the other hand, in order to contrast the results of the previous model, a probability model (Logit Model) is used to compute the probability of revealing a positive WTP; in this model, the dependent variable is a binary one that takes the value of one if the person accepted given policy or zero otherwise. The results show that variables such as professors’ discouragement perceived by students, are determinants of how worse is the education level in FEN. In addition, the results show evidence that the quality in the academic field has worsen, and this result is influenced the number of registered subjects and the students’ interest in FEN. Finally, the policy of starting a university press business was accepted by most of the students.