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Obstacles to Efficient Allocations of Public Education Spending

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  • Werner, Katharina

    (ifo Institute)

Abstract

Economic research suggests that investments in early education are generally more successful than investments at later ages. This paper presents a representative survey experiment on education spending in Germany, which exhibits low relative public spending on early education. Results are consistent with a model of misconceptions: informing randomly selected respondents about benefits of early education spending shifts majority support for public spending increases from later education levels to spending on early and primary education. Effects of information provision persist over a two-week period in a follow-up survey. By contrast, results do not suggest self-interested groups inefficiently allocate public education spending.

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  • Werner, Katharina, 2018. "Obstacles to Efficient Allocations of Public Education Spending," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 128, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    • Handle: RePEc:rco:dpaper:128
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    Cited by:

    1. Freundl Vera & Kugler Franziska & Wedel Katharina & Werner Katharina & Woessmann Ludger & Grewenig Elisabeth & Lergetporer Philipp & Schüler Ruth & Wirth Olivia, 2023. "The ifo Education Survey 2014–2021: A New Dataset on Public Preferences for Education Policy in Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 243(6), pages 699-710, December.
    2. Lergetporer, Philipp & Werner, Katharina & Woessmann, Ludger, 2020. "Educational inequality and public policy preferences: Evidence from representative survey experiments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Philipp Lergetporer & Katharina Werner & Ludger Woessmann, 2017. "Public Opinion on Education Policy in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 6602, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    misconceptions; public spending; education spending; information; survey experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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