The response of public education spending to changes in student cohort sizes

Samuel Lüthi and Maria Zumbuehl

Education Economics, 2025, vol. 33, issue 6, 838-851

Abstract: In this paper, we study the elasticity of educational spending with respect to changing student numbers, in a system where educational spending is autonomously determined at a regional level. While many studies focus on the potential effect of an ageing society on educational spending, only a few explicitly analyse the direct effect of changing cohort sizes. We find that education expenditures respond rather loosely to changing student numbers and that the elasticity strongly depends on regional and institutional settings. In rural areas, for instance, educational spending tends to be completely inelastic, which raises questions regarding both, efficiency and equity concerns.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2024.2421980

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