Nation Building: The Role of Central Spending in Education

Francesco Cinnirella and Schüler, Ruth M.

No 11621, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: It is generally argued that, in the context of Imperial Germany, public primary education was used to form “loyal citizens†and to build a nation. In this paper we analyze to what extent central spending on primary education affected participation at general elections and votes for pro-nationalist parties. We combine census data on the sources of school funding with federal election data at the level of 199 constituencies in five-year intervals from 1886 to 1911. Panel estimates of models with constituency and time-fixed effects show that an increase in the share of central spending is positively related to the vote share of pro-nationalist parties and voter turnout. Results from models with lagged central spending by category of expenditure are consistent with the role of indoctrination of public primary education.

Keywords: Nation building; Primary education; Indoctrination; Prussian economic history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H72 I28 N33 N43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-edu
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Nation building: The role of central spending in education (2018)
Working Paper: Nation building: The role of central spending in education (2018)
Working Paper: Nation Building: The Role of Central Spending in Education (2016)
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