To segregate or to integrate
Subtitle: education politics and democracy
By: David de la Croix, Matthias Doepke.
Contributors: Doepke, Matthias.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- no. 13319.; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research) -- working paper no. 13319.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 54
Subjects: Education and state -- Mathematical models; Educational equalization -- Mathematical models; Public schools -- Economic aspects; Private schools -- Economic aspects
Description: 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.
Notes: "August 2007"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-46).

Also available in PDF from the NBER World Wide Web site (www.nber.org).