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From Duty to Right: The Role of Public Education in the Transition to Aging Societies

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  • Yoshiaki Sugimoto
  • Masao Nakagawa

Abstract

This paper argues that currently advanced, aging economies experienced a qualitative change in the role of public education during the process of industrialization. In the early phases of the Industrial Revolution, public education was regarded as a duty that regulated child labor and thereby discouraged childbirth. As these economies developed and the population aged, younger generations came to view public education as a right, whereas older generations desirous of other public services became more politically in.uential. The eventual policy bias in favor of the elderly placed a heavier education burden on the young, inducing them to have fewer children. This vicious cycle between population aging and the undersupply of public education may have decelerated the growth of advanced economies in the last few decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Yoshiaki Sugimoto & Masao Nakagawa, 2007. "From Duty to Right: The Role of Public Education in the Transition to Aging Societies," ISER Discussion Paper 0700, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    • Handle: RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0700
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    Cited by:

    1. Sugimoto, Yoshiaki & Nakagawa, Masao, 2010. "From duty to right: The role of public education in the transition to aging societies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 140-154, January.
    2. Fumio Ohtake & Shinpei Sano, 2010. "The Effects of Demographic Change on Public Education in Japan," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic Consequences of Demographic Change in East Asia, pages 193-219, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Vogel, Edgar, 2011. "Human Capital and the Demographic Transition: Why Schooling Became Optimal," MEA discussion paper series 11247, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

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