{"title":"Cities drifting apart: Heterogeneous outcomes of decentralizing public education","authors":"Zelda Brutti","doi":"10.2478/izajole-2020-0003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Looking at the decentralized provision of public education in a middle-income country, this paper estimates the impact of local autonomy on service quality, finding large heterogeneity in the effect across different levels of local development. In the year 2002, Colombian municipalities were entrusted with autonomous management of their local public education based solely on a population threshold. I estimate the impact that autonomy has had on education performance across the territory, using a municipality and time fixed-effects model. I find a quality gap arising between highly developed and low-developed autonomous municipalities, in a trend that reinforces over time: the reform has induced regional inequality in education quality. I am able to support the hypothesis that autonomous and nonautonomous municipalities were on similar performance trends before decentralization was implemented, even when looking within different local development ranges. Based on the analysis of detailed municipal balance sheet data and administration indicators, I argue that local administration capacity represents the most likely explanation of why the autonomy-related discrepancies have been arising.","PeriodicalId":37841,"journal":{"name":"IZA Journal of Labor Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2016-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"54","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IZA Journal of Labor Economics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2478/izajole-2020-0003","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Business, Management and Accounting","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 54
Abstract
Abstract Looking at the decentralized provision of public education in a middle-income country, this paper estimates the impact of local autonomy on service quality, finding large heterogeneity in the effect across different levels of local development. In the year 2002, Colombian municipalities were entrusted with autonomous management of their local public education based solely on a population threshold. I estimate the impact that autonomy has had on education performance across the territory, using a municipality and time fixed-effects model. I find a quality gap arising between highly developed and low-developed autonomous municipalities, in a trend that reinforces over time: the reform has induced regional inequality in education quality. I am able to support the hypothesis that autonomous and nonautonomous municipalities were on similar performance trends before decentralization was implemented, even when looking within different local development ranges. Based on the analysis of detailed municipal balance sheet data and administration indicators, I argue that local administration capacity represents the most likely explanation of why the autonomy-related discrepancies have been arising.
期刊介绍：
As of March 31, 2019, the IZA Open Access Journal Series will transfer to Sciendo. Please use the Springer Editorial Manager system for all submissions until February 28. During the transfer period in March 2019 you may direct your submissions to journals@iza.org. The IZA Journal of Labor Economics publishes scientific articles in all areas of labor economics. This refers to original high-quality theoretical and applied contributions on both microeconomic and macroeconomic labor-related topics. In particular, the IZA Journal of Labor Economics encourages submissions in subject areas that are closely linked to the various IZA Program Areas, ranging from education, family and environment to mobility, behavioral and personnel economics, and labor market institutions, among others. The IZA Journal of Labor Economics is part of IZA’s mission of contributing to social and economic discourse, enabling political decision-making to be based on the best available scientific knowledge. We want to stimulate research to close knowledge gaps. Hence, the IZA Journal of Labor Economics particularly welcomes contributions that provide scientifically sound answers to open and relevant questions of modern labor economics.
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
分享
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
扫码关注我们
