The purpose of the article is to examine financial models for higher education. The economic governance of universities during different time periods is an under-explored area. Three models have been tested in Sweden: “universitetsautomatiken” (1958–1976), “sektorsanslag” (1977–1992) and “grundbulten” (1993–). The models are described, compared and related to overarching savings models for central govern-ment administration. During the first financial model, which was particularly gener-ous, there were no such savings models. However, the less generous funding models implemented after the structural crisis in the mid-1970s interacted with increasingly severer saving models that makes annual deduction of appropriations: “tvåprocen-taren” (1978–1992) and “produktivitetsavdraget” (1993–). A mechanism for resource erosion has been built into the financing system since 1977 according to the main result of the study.