Citation

Discussion Paper Details

Please find the details for DP5799 in an easy to copy and paste format below:

Full Details   |   Bibliographic Reference

Full Details

Title: To Segregate or to Integrate: Education Politics and Democracy

Author(s): David de la Croix and Matthias Doepke

Publication Date: August 2006

Keyword(s): democracy, private education, probabilistic voting and public education

Programme Area(s): Public Economics

Abstract: The governments of nearly all countries are major providers of primary and secondary education to their citizens. In some countries, however, public schools coexist with private schools, while in others the government is the sole provider of education. In this study, we ask why different societies make different choices regarding the mix of private and public schooling. We develop a theory which integrates private education and fertility decisions with voting on public schooling expenditures. In a given political environment, high income inequality leads to more private education, as rich people opt out of the public system. More private education, in turn, results in an improved quality of public education, because public spending can be concentrated on fewer students. Comparing across political systems, we find that concentration of political power can lead to multiple equilibria in the determination of public education spending. The main predictions of the theory are consistent with state-level and micro data from the United States as well as cross-country evidence from the PISA study.

For full details and related downloads, please visit: https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=5799

Bibliographic Reference

de la Croix, D and Doepke, M. 2006. 'To Segregate or to Integrate: Education Politics and Democracy'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=5799