Sweden has undertaken major national reforms of its schooling sector which, consequently, has been classified as one of the most decentralized ones in the OECD. This paper investigates the extent to which local tax base, grants, preferences and structural characteristics affected local schooling resources as decentralization took place. We use municipal data for the period 1989–95 which covers the key reform years without confounding decentralization with institutional changes after 1995. The main arguments against decentralization are not supported by our findings. First, school spending as well as teacher density is found to be more equally distributed across municipalities following decentralization. Second, local tax capacity does not influence schooling resources more in the decentralized regime than in the centralized regime. We also find that the form in which grants are distributed matter: Targeted grants have a significant positive impact on resources while general grants have not.
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Paper provided by IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation in its series Working Paper Series with number
2005:5.
Length: 50 pages Date of creation: 12 Feb 2005 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2005_005
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Find related papers by JEL classification: H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General
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