School reforms and school spending growth

Abstract

The evolution of school spending is related to legislative school reforms expanding the school system. This study addresses the determination of legislative reforms and primary school spending, using data for Norway 1880-1990. Reforms are the result of growth in demand for school services and economic and political conditions conducive to reform. 10 school reforms are identified, and they are shown to be systematically related to characteristics of the political structure. School spending is analyzed both as an aspect of reform and by assuming separability between legislative reform decisions and implementation of reform. When legislative reform is treated as an independent determinant of school spending, we find that reforms drive up teacher employment and that local governments react with a cost saving strategy increasing the class size.

Keywords:

• Legislative reform
• Political economy
• Economics of education