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Education Politics, Schooling Choice and Public School Quality: The Impact of Income Polarisation

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  • Majda Benzidia

    (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Michel Lubrano

    (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, JUFE - Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics)

  • Paolo Melindi-Ghidi

    (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

What is the role of income polarisation for explaining differentials in public funding of education? To answer this question, we provide a new theoretical modelling for the income distribution that can directly monitor income polarisation. It leads to a new income polarisation index where the middle class is represented by an interval. We implement this distribution in a political economy model with endogenous fertility and public/private educational choices. We show that when households vote on public schooling expenditures, polarisation matters for explaining disparities in public education funding across communities. Using micro-data covering two groups of school districts, we find that both income polarisation and income inequality affect public school funding with opposite signs whether there exist a Tax Limitation Expenditure (TLE) or not.

Suggested Citation

  • Majda Benzidia & Michel Lubrano & Paolo Melindi-Ghidi, 2022. "Education Politics, Schooling Choice and Public School Quality: The Impact of Income Polarisation," Working Papers hal-03887401, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03887401
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://amu.hal.science/hal-03887401
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Paolo Melindi‐Ghidi, 2018. "Inequality, educational choice, and public school quality in income‐mixing communities," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 20(6), pages 914-943, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education Politics; Schooling Choice; Income polarisation; Probabilistic Voting; Bayesian Inference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education
    • C11 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Bayesian Analysis: General

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