The State, Socialization, and Private Schooling: When Will Governments Support Alternative Producers?

Lant Pritchett and Martina Viarengo

No 50, Growth Lab Working Papers from Harvard's Growth Lab

Abstract: Understanding the institutional features that can improve learning outcomes and reduce inequality is a top priority for international and development organizations around the world. Economists appear to have a good case for support to non-governmental alternatives as suppliers of schooling. However, unlike other policy domains, freer international trade or privatization, economists have been remarkably unsuccessful in promoting the adoption of this idea. We develop a simple general positive model of why governments typically produce schooling which introduces the key notion of the lack of verifiability of socialization and instruction of beliefs, which makes third party contracting for socialization problematic. We use the model to explain variations around the world in levels of private schooling. We also predict the circumstances in which efforts to promote the different alternatives to government production – like charter, voucher, and scholarship - are likely to be successful.

Keywords: Development; Education; Government (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H50 I20 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-11
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Related works:
Journal Article: The State, Socialisation, and Private Schooling: When Will Governments Support Alternative Producers? (2015)
Working Paper: The State, Socialization, and Private Schooling: When Will Governments Support Alternative Producers? (2013)
Working Paper: The State, Socialization, and Private Schooling: When Will Governments Support Alternate Producers? (2013)
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