Elite-biased policies and public expenditures on education in Brazil, 1933-2010

Abstract

This paper presents a new dataset with estimates of expenditures on education and some indicators of elite bias in educational policies in Brazil between 1933 and 2010. Estimates of public expenditures on education as a proportion of GDP (total, pre-tertiary education and higher education) are similar to those presented by Maduro (2007). The novelty of this study is the series of expenditure estimates by schooling level (primary, lower secondary and upper secondary). Based on these estimates, we also present an indicator of elite bias: the ratio of expenditures per student in primary education (EF1) in relation to expenditures per student in higher education. These ratios were historically low, but there was an abrupt increase from the late 1960s onwards. Rather than a consequence of an increase in spending per primary school student, the elite bias indicator’s increase resulted mostly from the expansion of enrollment in higher education.