Education finance in Germany from a lifecycle perspective: An efficiency-equity trade-off? [Die bildungsfinanzierung in Deutschland im licht der lebenszyklusperspektive: Gerechtigkeit im widerstreit mit effizienz?]

Ludger Wößmann
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ludger Woessmann

Munich Reprints in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics

Abstract: Both theory and empirical evidence suggest that there is a lifecycle of educational finance in which the returns to educational investments tend to decrease with age. Returns tend to be highest for disadvantaged children in the early stages and for those who have already acquired high-quality education in the late stages. As a consequence, there is a complementarity between equity and efficiency in early stages and a trade-off in late stages of the educational lifecycle. In opposition to the pattern suggested by the lifecycle perspective, public educational investments in Germany are relatively low in an international comparison in early childhood and primary education and relatively high in tertiary education. Shifting public educational expenditure from late to early stages of the educational lifecycle would make German educational finance both more equitable and more efficient.

Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 2 11(2008): pp. 214-233

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lmu:muenar:19666

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Munich Reprints in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics Ludwigstr. 28, 80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tamilla Benkelberg ().