The rise of public schooling in nineteenth-century Imperial Austria: Who gained and who paid?

Abstract

The rise of education features prominently in the debate on the sources of modern economic growth. Existing accounts stress the importance of popular demand for its public provision. We argue that such an explanation for the spread of schooling is a poor fit for many nations' schooling histories, such as Imperial Austria. We show that in the Austrian case, schooling and economic development had limited impact on each other; that the popular demand for schooling was weak and that the push for school expansion came mainly from the top of the political hierarchy.

Whither Education? The Long Shadow of Pre-Unification School Systems into Italy’s Liberal Age (1861–1911)

“…The last decade has witnessed a growing stream of literature on the determinants of educational levels in the past. Contributions have focused on institutions (Palma and Reis 2021), religion (Squicciarini 2020), economic activity (Diebolt, Chapelain, and Menard 2019;Montalbo 2020), demography (Becker, Cinnirella, and Woessmann 2010), and the political economy of schooling (Cinnirella and Hornung 2016;Cvrcek and Zajicek 2019).…”

Democracy and Primary Education Spending in Spain, 1902-22

“…More generally, the attitude of powerful local lobbies towards mass schooling has been the subject of widespread discussion. Recent empirical analyses have suggested that political elites, particularly landed elites, boosted the expansion of education in the 19th century in Sweden and Austria (Andersson and Berger, 2019;Cvrcek and Zajicek, 2019). Other studies, however, are less optimistic about the effect of strong landed elites.…”

The Historical Origins of Development: Railways, Agrarian Elites, and Economic Growth in Brazil

“…9 Although much of the evidence points to a negative relationship between the agrarian elites' political power and the spread of mass schooling, there are some exceptions. See, for example, Nafziger (2011), Cvrcek and Zajicek (2019), and Andersson and Berger (2019).…”

“…See, for example,Nafziger (2011),Andersson and Berger (2019), andCvrcek and Zajicek (2019).3 Few are the articles that directly measure the political power of landowners. For some exceptions see, for example,Becker and Hornung (2019) andAndersson and Berger (2019).4 In 1920 almost 78% of the total occupied workers were in the agriculture sector at the state of São Paulo.5 In 1905 only 3.5% of the total population had the right to vote at the state of São Paulo.PUC-Rio -Certificação Digital Nº 1612130/CA…”