arXiv 17 Jan 2026 · Econometrics
arXiv:2601.11928 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text
This paper investigates the relationship between public education spending and income inequality across U.S. counties from 2010 to 2022 using quantile regression methods. The analysis shows that total per pupil education spending is consistently associated with a small increase in income inequality, with stronger effects in high inequality counties. In contrast, the composition of education spending plays a substantially more important role. Reallocating budgets toward instructional, support service, and other current expenditures significantly reduces income inequality, particularly at the upper quantiles of the Gini distribution. Capital outlays and interest payments exhibit weaker and mixed effects. Economic and demographic factors, especially poverty, median income, and educational attainment, remain dominant drivers of inequality. Overall, the results demonstrate that how education funds are allocated matters more than how much is spent, underscoring the importance of budget composition in using public education policy to promote equity.
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The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.
| Reference | Intensity | Mentions | Sections | Main text | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Artige, L. and Cavenaile, L (2023) Public education expenditures, growth and income inequality | 0.811 | 4 | 2 | 100% |
| 2 | Sylwester, K (2002) Can education expenditures reduce income inequality? | 0.737 | 3 | 2 | 100% |
| 3 | Glomm, G. and Ravikumar, B (1992) Public versus private investment in human capital: Endogenous growth and income inequality | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 4 | Glomm, G. and Ravikumar, B (2003) Public education and income inequality | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 5 | Goodspeed, T. J (2000) Education spending, inequality, and economic growth: Evidence from US states | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 6 | Schultz, T. W (1963) The economic value of education | 0.644 | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| 7 | Darvas, Z (2020) Economic growth and income distribution implications of public spending and tax decisions | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
| 8 | Sylwester, K (2000) Income inequality, education expenditures, and growth | 0.511 | 2 | 1 | 100% |
| 9 | de Mello, L. and Tiongson, E. R (2006) Income inequality and redistributive government spending | 0.405 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 10 | Jackson, C. K. and Johnson, R. C. and Persico, C (2015) The effects of school spending on educational and economic outcomes: Evidence from school finance reforms | 0.405 | 1 | 1 | 100% |
Showing the top 10 of 11 scored citations.