Private and Public Schools: Theoretical Considerations

There is a long-standing debate on the relative merits of state and private education. In the UK, Tony Blair is the first prime minister ever to send his children to a state school; 1 in Italy, the issue has emerged as one of the main priorities of the conservative government elected in 2001. The debate is often emotional and rarely balanced. This chapter offers a survey of an economist’s view on the topic.

This chapter was first presented at the conference on ‘Education, Training and Labour Market Outcomes in Europe, held in Milan on 16–17 November 2001. I wish to thank the discussant, Andrea Ichino, the other participants at the conference for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Subscribe and save

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime

Buy Now

eBook EUR 85.59 Price includes VAT (France)

Softcover Book EUR 105.49 Price includes VAT (France)

Hardcover Book EUR 105.49 Price includes VAT (France)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Preview

Similar content being viewed by others

A Country on Its Way to Full Privatisation? Private Schools and School Choice in England

School autonomy reform and social justice: a policy overview of Australian public education (1970s to present)

Progress and challenges in achieving an evidence-based education policy in Latin America and the Caribbean

References

• Aghion, Philippe, Caroli, Eve and Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia (1999) ‘Inequality and economic growth: The perspective of the new growth theories’, Journal of Economic Literature, vol. 37, pp. 1615–60. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Allen, Robert F. and Shen, Jianshou (1999) ‘Some new evidence of the character of competition among higher education institutions’, Economics of Education Review, vol. 18, pp. 465–70. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Angrist, Joshua D. and Krueger, Alan B. (1991) ‘Does compulsory school attendance affect schooling and earnings?’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 106, pp. 979–1014. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Arnott, Richard and Rowse, John (1987) ‘Peer group effects and educational attainment’, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 32, pp. 287–305. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Arrow, Kenneth J. (1971) ‘A utilitarian approach to the concept of equality in public expenditures’, Quarterly Journal ofEconomics, vol. 38, pp. 175–208. Google Scholar
• Ashenfelter, Orley and Krueger, Alan B. (1994) ‘Estimates of the economic return to schooling from a new sample of twins’, American Economic Review, vol. 84, pp. 1157–73. Google Scholar
• Atkinson, Anthony B. (1997) ‘Bringing income distribution in from the cold’, Economic Journal, vol. 107, pp. 297–321. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Barr, Nicholas A. (1997) ‘Student loans: Towards a new public/private mix’, Public Money and Management, vol. 17. Google Scholar
• Barr, Nicholas A. (1998) The Economics of the Welfare State, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Google Scholar
• Barro, Robert J. and Sala-I-Martin, Xavier (1995) Economic Growth (New York: McGraw-Hill). Google Scholar
• Bearse, Peter, Glomm, Gerhard and Ravikumar, B. (2001) ‘Education finance in a dynamic Tiebout economy’, unpublished. Google Scholar
• Benhabib, Jess and Spiegel, Mark (1994) ‘The role of human capital in Economic development: evidence from aggregate cross-country data’, Journal of Monetary Economics, vol. 34, pp. 143–74. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Bertola, Giuseppe and Checchi, Daniele (2002) ‘Sorting and private education in Italy’, in the present volume. Google Scholar
• Besley, Timothy and Ghatak, Maitreesh ‘Government versus private ownership of public goods’ (London: Centre of Economic Policy Research). Google Scholar
• Boldrin, Michele (1996) ‘Public education and long-run capital accumulation’, Universidad Carlos III De Madrid unpublished. Google Scholar
• Bonjour, Dorothe, Cherkas, Lyn, Haskel, Jonathan, Hawkes, Denise and Spector, Tim (2000) Estimating Returns to Education Using a New Sample of UK Twins (London: Queen Mary and Westfield College). Google Scholar
• Brasington, D. W. (2000) ‘Demand and supply of public school quality in metropolitan areas: The role of private schools’, Journal of Regional Science, vol. 40, pp. 583–605. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Card, David (1998) ‘The causal effect of schooling on earning’, in Orley Ashenfelter and David Card (eds), Handbook of Labour Economics (Amsterdam: North-Holland), pp. 909–47. Google Scholar
• Chapman, Bruce (1997) ‘Conceptual Issues and the Australian Experience with Income Contingent Charges for Higher Education’, The Economic Journal, vol. 107, pp. 738–51. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Clotfelter, Charles T. (1999) ‘The Familiar but Curious Economics of Higher Education: Introduction to a Symposium,’ Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 13/1: pp. 3–12. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Coleman, James, Kilgmore, Sally and Hoffer, Thomas (1981) Public and Private High Schools (Washington, DC: National Center for Eduicational Statistics). Google Scholar
• Couch, J. F., Shughart, W. F. and Williams, A. L. (1993) ‘Private School Enrollment and Public School Performance’, Public Choice, vol. 76, pp. 301–12. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Dearden, Lorraine, Ferri, Javier and Meghir, Costas (2000) The Effect of School Quality on Educational Attainment and Wages (London: Institute for Fiscal Studies). Google Scholar
• Dearden, Lorraine, Machin, Steven and Reed, Howard (1997) ‘Intergenerational mobility in Britain’, Economic Journal, vol. 107, pp. 47–66. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Dearden, Lorraine, Mclntosh, Steven, Myck, Michal and Vignoles, Anna (2002) ‘The Returns to Academic and Vocational Qualifications in Britain’, Bulletin of Economic Research. Google Scholar
• de Bartolome, Charles (1990) ‘Equilibrium and inefficiency in a community model with peer group effects’, Journal ofPolitical Economy, vol. 98, pp. 110–33. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Dee, T. S. (1998) ‘Competition and the quality of public schools’, Economics of Education Review, vol. 17, pp. 419–27. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• De Fraja, Gianni (1997) ‘Review of Paul T. Hill, Lawrence C. Pierce, James W. Guthrie: Reinventing Public Education. How Contracting Can Transform America’s Schools, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1997’, Journal of Economics, vol. 66, pp. 214–17. Google Scholar
• De Fraja, Gianni (2002) ‘The Design of Optimal Education Policies’, Review of Economic Studies, vol. 69(2), pp. 437–466. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• De Fraja, Gianni and Delbono, Flavio (1989) ‘Alternative strategies of a public enterprise in oligopoly’, Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 41, pp. 302–11. Google Scholar
• De Fraja, Gianni and Iossa, Elisabetta (2002) ‘Competition among Institutions and the Emergence of the Elite University’, Bulletin of Economic Research, vol. 54(3) pp. 275–93. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Effinger, M. and Polborn, M. K. (1999) ‘A Model of Vertically Differentiated Education’, Journal of Economics, vol. 69, pp. 53–69. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Epple, Dennis, Figlio, David and Romano, Richard E. (2000) ‘Competition Between Private and Public Schools: Testing Stratification and Pricing Predictions’, NBER Working paper (Cambridge, Mass.: NBER). Google Scholar
• Epple, Dennis and Romano Richard E. (1996a) ‘Public Provision of Private Goods’, Journal ofPolitical Economy, vol. 104, pp. 57–84. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Epple, Dennis and Romano, Richard E. (1996b) ‘Ends against the middle: Determining public service provision when there are private alternatives’, Journal ofPublic Economics, vol. 62, pp. 297–325. Google Scholar
• Epple, Dennis and Romano, Richard E. (1998) ‘Competition between provate and public schools, vouchers and peer group effects’, American Economic Review, vol. 62, pp. 33–62. Google Scholar
• Epple, Dennis, Romano, Richard E. and Sieg, H. (2001) ‘Peer Effects, Financial Aid and Selection of Students to Colleges and Universities: An Empirical Analysis’, Journal of Applied Econometrics. Google Scholar
• Evans, William and Schwab, Robert (1995) ‘Finishing high school and starting college: Do catholic schools make a difference?’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 110, pp. 947–74. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Feinstein, L. and Symons, J. (1999) ‘Attainment in Secondary School’, Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 51, pp. 300–21. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Fernandez, Raquel and Rogerson, Richard (1995) ‘On the Political Economy of Education Subsidies’, Review of Economic Studies, vol. 62, pp. 249–62. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Filer, Randall K. and Munich, Daniel (2000) Responses of Private and Public Schools to Voucher Funding: The Czech and Hungarian Experience (Prague: CERGI-EI). Google Scholar
• Glomm, G. and Ravikumar, B. (1992) ‘Public versus Private Investment in Human Capital Endogenous Growth and Income Inequality’, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 100, pp. 818–34. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Goudriaan, R. and Degroot, H. (1993) ‘State Regulation and University Behavior’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 20, pp. 309–18. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Grout, Paul A. (1983) ‘Imperfect information, markets and public provision of education’, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 22, pp. 113–21. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Hanushek, Eric A. (1986) ‘The economics of schooling: Production and efficiency in public schools’, Journal ofEconomic Literature, vol. 23, pp. 1141–77. Google Scholar
• Hart, Oliver, Shleifer, Andrei and Vishny, R. W. (1997) ‘The proper scope of government: Theory and an application to prisons’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 112, pp. 1127–61. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Hill, Paul T., Pierce, Lawrence C. and Guthrie, James W. (1997) Reinventing Public Education. How Contracting Can Transform America’s Schools (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press). BookGoogle Scholar
• Ireland, Norman (1990) ‘The mix of social and private provision of goods and services’, Journal of PublicEconomics, vol. 43, pp. 201–19. Google Scholar
• Kenny, Lawrence W. (1978) ‘The collective allocation of commodities in a democratic society: A generalization’, Public Choice, vol. 33, pp. 117–20. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Krueger, Alan B. and Lindah, Mikael (1999) ‘Education for growth’, Swedish Economic Policy Review, vol. 6, pp. 291–339. Google Scholar
• Lawton, Denis (1992) Education and Politics in the 1990s: Conflict or Consensus? (London: Falmer). Google Scholar
• Lott, John R. (1987) ‘Why is Education Publicly Provided. A Critical Survey’, Cato Journal, vol. 7(2), pp. 475–501. Google Scholar
• Lucas, Robert J. (1988) ‘On the mechanics of economic development’, Journal of Monetary Economics, vol. 22(1), pp. 3–42. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Marchand, Maurice and Schroyen, Fred (2001) Markets for Public and Private Health Care: Redistribution Arguments for a Mixed System (Louvain, Belgium; Core). Google Scholar
• Marks, John, Burn, John, Pilkington, Peter and Thompson, Penny (2001) Faith in Education (London: Institute for the Study of Civil Society). Google Scholar
• McGee, Robert W. (1996) A Solution to the Education Crisis (Dumont, NJ: Dumont Institute for Public Policy Research). Google Scholar
• McPherson, Michael (1978) ‘The demand for Higher Education’, in D. W. Brennan and C. E. Flinn Jr (eds), Public Policy and Private Higher Education, (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution). Google Scholar
• Mirrlees, James A. (1971) ‘An exploration in the theory of optimum income taxation’, Review of Economic Studies, vol. 38, pp. 175–208. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Moreland, Richard L. and Levine, John M. (1992) ‘The composition of small groups’, in E. J. Lawler, B. Markovsky, C. Ridgeway and H. Walker (eds), Advances in Group Processes, vol. 9 (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press), pp. 237–80. Google Scholar
• Naylor, Robin, Smith, Jeremy and McKnight, Abigail (2002) ‘Why is there a graduate earnings premium for students from Independent schools?’, Bulletin of Economic Research, vol. 54(4), pp. 315–39. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Neal, Derek (1997) ‘The effect of Catholic secondary schooling on educational achievement’, Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 15, pp. 98–123. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Neal, Derek (1998) ‘The effect of Catholic secondary schooling on educational achievement. What have we learned about the benefits of private schooling’, Economic Policy Review, (Federal Reserve Bank of New York), vol. 4, pp. 79–86. Google Scholar
• Newmark, C. M. (1995) ‘Another look at whether private schools influence public-school quality — comment’, Public Choice, vol. 82, pp. 365–73. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Oliveira, Tania (2001) ‘How public and private universities compete for students’, University of York PhD dissertation, Economics Department. Google Scholar
• Peltzman, Sam (1993) ‘The political economy of the decline of American public education’, Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 36 pp. 331–70. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Psacharopoulos, George (1994) ‘Returns to investment in education: A global update’, World Development, vol. 22, pp. 1325–43. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Rothschild, Michael and White, Lawrence J. (1993) ‘The university in the marketplace: Some insights and some puzzles’, in Charles T. Clotfelter and Michael Rothschild (eds), Studies of Supplies and Demand in Higher Education (Chicago, III.: University of Chicago Press). Google Scholar
• Rothschild, Michael and White, Lawrence J. (1995) ‘The Analytics of Pricing in Higher Education and Other Services in Which Customers are Inputs’, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 103(3), pp. 573–86. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Rouse, Cecilia E. (1998) ‘Private school vouchers and student achievement: An evaluation of the Milwaukee parental choice program’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 113, pp. 553–602. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Rouse, Cecilia E. (1998b) ‘Schools and student achievement: More evidence from the Milwaukee parental choice program’, Economic Policy Review Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 4, pp. 61–76. Google Scholar
• Sander, William (1997) ‘Catholic high schools and rural academic achievement’, American Journal ofAgricultural Economics, vol. 79, pp. 1–12. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Scotchmer, Suzanne (1994) ‘Public goods and the invisible hand’, in John Quigley and E Smolensky (eds), Modern Public Finance (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press), pp. 98–119. Google Scholar
• Simon, C. A. and Lovrich, N. P. (1996) ‘Private school enrollment and public school performance: Assessing the effects of competition upon public school student achievement in Washington state’, Policy Study Journal, vol. 24, pp. 666–75. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Solon, Gary (1992) ‘Intergenerational income mobility in the US’, American Economic Review, vol. 82, pp. 393–409. Google Scholar
• Stiglitz, Joseph E. (1974) ‘The demand for education in public and private school systems’, Journal of Public Economics, vol. 3, pp. 349–85. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Summers, Anita A. and Wolfe, Barbara L. (1977) ‘Do schools make a difference?’, American Economic Review, vol. 67, pp. 639–52. Google Scholar
• Toma, Eugenia Froedge (1996) ‘Public funding and private schooling across countries’, Journal of Law and Economics, vol. 39, pp. 121–48. ArticleGoogle Scholar
• Walden, George (1996) We Should know Better (London: Fourth Estate). Google Scholar
• Wyckoff, James H. ‘The nonexcludable publicness of primary and secondary public education’, Journal ofPublic Economics, vol. 24, pp. 331–51. Google Scholar
• Zimmerman, David J. (1992) ‘Regression toward mediocrity in economic stature’, American Economic Review, vol. 82, pp. 409–29. Google Scholar

1. Gianni De Fraja

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

1. Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy Daniele Checchi
2. Università Cattolica, Milano, Italy Claudio Lucifora

Copyright information

© 2004 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

De Fraja, G. (2004). Private and Public Schools: Theoretical Considerations. In: Checchi, D., Lucifora, C. (eds) Education, Training and Labour Market Outcomes in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522657_3

Download citation

• .RIS
• .ENW
• .BIB

• DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522657_3
• Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, London
• Print ISBN : 978-1-349-51508-0
• Online ISBN : 978-0-230-52265-7
• eBook Packages : Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Get shareable link

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Copy to clipboard

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative