Historical Origins of Schooling: The Role of Democracy and Political Decentralization

Francisco Gallego

No 342, Documentos de Trabajo from Instituto de Economia. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Abstract: Why does schooling attainment vary widely across countries? Why are differences in schooling attainment highly persistent? I show that cross-country differences in schooling are related to political institutions, such as democracy and local democracy (political decentralization), which are affected by colonial factors. By using the number of native cultures before colonization as an instrument for political decentralization, I show that, after controlling for the causal effect of income on schooling, the degree of democratization positively affects the development of primary education, whereas political decentralization has a positive and significant impact on more advanced levels of schooling.

Keywords: Schooling; political decentralization; democracy; institutions; colonialism; school decentralization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 N3 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-his, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-pbe and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Historical Origins of Schooling: The Role of Democracy and Political Decentralization (2010)
Working Paper: Historical Origins of Schooling: The Role of Democracy and Political Decentralization (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ioe:doctra:342

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