The Political Economy of Public Spending on Education, Inequality, and Growth

Gradstein, Mark

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: EDUCATIONAL FINANCE;    PUBLIC EXPENDITURES FOR EDUCATION;    INCOME INEQUALITIES;    SOCIAL ISOLATION;    SPILLOVER EFFECTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3162
RP-ID  :  WPS3162

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Public provision of education has oftenbeen perceived as universal and egalitarian, but in realityit is not. Political pressure typically results in incidencebias in favor of the rich. The author argues that the biasin political influence resulting from extreme incomeinequalities is particularly likely to generate an incidencebias, which we call social exclusion. This may then lead toa feedback mechanism whereby inequality in the incidence ofpublic spending on education breeds higher incomeinequality, thus generating multiple equilibria: with socialexclusion and high inequality; and with social inclusion andrelatively low inequality. The author also shows that thelatter equilibrium leads to higher long-run growth than theformer. An extension of the basic model reveals thatspillover effects among members of social groupsdifferentiated by race or ethnicity may reinforce thesupport for social exclusion.