Economists agreeing: student loans edition

Richard Meadows at Fairfax canvassed economist opinion on New Zealand's zero percent student loan policy. And economist opinion on this one seems pretty one-sided: get rid of zero percent loans and find more effective means of assisting with access to tertiary education.

Who did they survey?

• Me (academic)
• Tim Hazledine (academic)
• Sholeh Manni (academic)
• Benje Patterson (Infometrics)
• Jean-Pierre de Raad (NZIER)

A pretty broad spectrum of academic and consulting economists seem to agree on this one. We'd probably differ a bit on what would be the ideal replacement, but there's a pretty broad range of policies that would be preferable to the current system. 

Previously:

• Obvious points on student loans
• The 2011 budget breakdown and per capita expenditures on the student loan programme.
• Politically unsustainable?
• What should we think of a Prime Minister who says something is good economics but bad policy?
• Seamus on one distortion consequent to zero-percent loan rules
• Against forgiving student loans