Politics as a determinant of primary school provision The case of Uruguay, 1914-1954

Paola Azar (paola.azar@fcea.edu.uy)
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Paola Azar: Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y de Administración. Instituto de Economía

No 20-07, Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) from Instituto de Economía - IECON

Abstract: This paper analyses the relationship between school provision and the political power of the president in Uruguay between 1914 and 1954. The empirical test relies on panel fixed effects models based on newly compiled information about the partisan orientation of legislative members, the electoral competition and the schooling diffusion at the department-level. The estimates suggest the use of school provision as a pork barrel good. Ceteris paribus, school provision was lower in districts where government did not need to capture votes or to obtain legislative support. The direction of the influence shifted over time as an answer to increasing political fragmentation. Against the traditional historical narrative, these findings suggest that political interests did influence the provision of basic schooling over the territory.

Keywords: public schooling; distributive politics; pork barrel; Uruguay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 H75 I28 N36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2020-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-his, nep-pol and nep-ure
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/24911

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