Education politics, schooling choice and public school quality: the impact of income polarization

What is the role of income polarization for explaining differentials in public funding of education? To answer this question, we provide a new theoretical modelling for the income distribution that can directly monitor income polarization. It leads to a new income polarization index where the middle...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International tax and public finance 2024-12, Vol.31 (6), p.1640-1668
Main Authors: Benzidia, Majda, Lubrano, Michel, Melindi-Ghidi, Paolo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business Taxation/Tax Law
Economics
Economics and Finance
Education
Endogenous
Expenditures
Fertility
Funding
Households
Humanities and Social Sciences
Income distribution
Income inequality
Income redistribution
Lorenz Curve
Middle class
Polarization
Political economy
Politics
Private schools
Public Finance
Public schools
School districts
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:What is the role of income polarization for explaining differentials in public funding of education? To answer this question, we provide a new theoretical modelling for the income distribution that can directly monitor income polarization. It leads to a new income polarization index where the middle class is represented by an interval. We implement this distribution in a political economy model with endogenous fertility and public/private educational choices. We show that when households vote on public schooling expenditures, polarization matters for explaining disparities in public education funding across communities. Using micro-data covering two groups of school districts, we find that both income polarization and income inequality affect public school funding with opposite signs whether there exist a Tax Limitation Expenditure (TLE) or not.
ISSN:0927-5940
1573-6970
DOI:10.1007/s10797-023-09815-8