Obstacles to efficient allocations of public education spending: Evidence from a representative survey experiment

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Economic research suggests that investments in early education are generally more successful than investments at later ages. This paper presents a representative survey experiment on education spending in Germany, which exhibits low relative public spending on early education. Results are consistent with a model of misconceptions: informing randomly selected respondents about benefits of early education spending shifts majority support for public spending increases from later education levels to spending on early and primary education. Effects of information provision persist over a two-week period in a follow-up survey. By contrast, results do not suggest self-interested groups inefficiently allocate public education spending.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Discussion Paper ; No. 128

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Educational Finance; Financial Aid ; Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness ; National Government Expenditures and Education ; Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
• Subject: misconceptions ; public spending ; education spending ; information ; survey experiment

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Werner, Katharina
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition
• (where): München und Berlin
• (when): 2018

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/194024