The Curious Dawn of American Public Schools

Sun Go and Peter Lindert

No 13335, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Three factors help to explain why school enrollments in the Northern United States were higher than those in the South and in most of Europe by 1850. One was affordability: the northern states had higher real incomes, cheaper teachers, and greater local tax support. The second was the greater autonomy of local governments. The third was the greater diffusion of voting power among the citizenry in much of the North, especially in rural communities. The distribution of local political voice appears to be a robust predictor of tax support and enrollments, both within and between regions.

JEL-codes: H52 H75 I22 N11 N31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-his, nep-hrm and nep-ure
Note: DAE ED POL PE
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