78
                                    2018
      Education Economics from  
      a Historical Perspective 
      Ruth Schüler
         
                                             78
                                          2018
       Education Economics from  
       a Historical Perspective 
       Ruth Schüler 
       Herausgeber der Reihe: Clemens Fuest
       Schriftleitung: Chang Woon Nam
         
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        ISBN: 978-3-95942-044-0 
         
         
         
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                                                                                                                I 
                                                                 
                Preface 
                This study was prepared by Ruth Schüler while she was working at the Ifo Center for the 
                Economics of Education. It was completed in July 2016 and accepted as a doctoral thesis 
                by the  Department of Economics at the University of Munich in November 2016. It 
                consists of four distinct empirical analyses on educational economics from a historical 
                perspective, two chapters investigating the consequences of educational inputs and two 
                chapters  examining  the  determinants  of  educational  provision  and  performance  in 
                nineteenth-century  Prussia.  The  econometric  analyses  are  based  on  census  data, 
                originally collected by the Royal Statistical Office of Prussia and partly digitized for this 
                thesis.  
                The thesis analyzes how education funding emerges in a federal system and how it affects 
                prosperity and nation building in a setting of religious and ethno-linguistic heterogeneity. 
                Chapter 2 provides evidence that educational spending accelerated economic development 
                in the industrializing western regions of Prussia though not in Prussia’s agricultural East, 
                suggesting that primary education instilled knowledge that permitted a shift to higher-
                skilled and higher-paid occupations in those regions that faced a sectoral change of the 
                economy. Chapter 3 shows that a higher share of central state contributions in education 
                increased  pro-nationalist  attitudes  and  to  a  smaller  extent  voter  turnout.  This 
                indoctrination was especially successful in constituencies that were populated by a high 
                share of either religious or linguistic minorities.  
                Chapter  4  investigates  the  effects  of  linguistically  polarized  societies  on  educational 
                provision  in  decentralized  systems.  Evidence  for  a  negative  effect  of  polarization  on 
                educational spending is found. Further analysis exploiting increased centralization shows 
                that  centralization  can  increase  educational  provision  in  polarized  regions.  Chapter  5 
                makes use of a natural experiment introducing centralized school monitoring against the 
                background of the Kulturkampf, a cultural struggle between the Prussian state authorities 
                and  the  Catholic  Church.  While  the  reform  overall  increases  school  performance, 
                resistance from the targeted Catholic population is found.  
                 
                Keywords:  Education,  Public  Spending,  Prussian  Economic  History,  Human  Capital, 
                             Economic      Development,       Industrial    Revolution,     Nation    Building, 
                             Indoctrination,  Minorities,  Polarization,  Public  Goods,  Decentralization, 
                             Centralization, Resistance, Monitoring, Accountability  
                JEL-Codes: I21, I22, H41, H52, H75, N13, N33