Demographic Change and Public Education Spending: A Conflict between Young and Old?

Ueli Grob and Stefan Wolter

Education Economics, 2007, vol. 15, issue 3, 277-292

Abstract: Demographic change in industrial countries will influence educational spending in potentially two ways. On the one hand, the decline in the number of school-age children should alleviate the financial pressure. On the other hand, the theoretical/empirical literature has established that the concomitantly increasing proportion of elderly in the population can influence the propensity of politicians to spend on education. Using a panel of the Swiss Cantons for the period from 1990 to 2002, we find that the education system has exhibited little elasticity in adjusting to changes in the school-age population, and that the share of the elderly population has a significantly negative influence on the willingness to spend on public education.

Keywords: Public finance; education finance; demographics; panel estimates; Switzerland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

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Working Paper: Demographic Change and Public Education Spending a Conflict between Young and Old? (2006)
Working Paper: Demographic Change and Public Education Spending: A Conflict between Young and Old? (2005)
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DOI: 10.1080/09645290701273467

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