Government expenditure on education, economic growth and long waves: the case of Portugal1

Recent case studies on European economies have analysed the evolution of aggregate series for government expenditure on education and its relation to the cyclical economic growth in the long run. These studies have depicted two different patterns of that relationship. In the case of highly developed economies, namely France, Germany and Great-Britain, the evolution of public expenditure on education shows a countercyclical behaviour until Second World War and a pro-cyclical movement since then. However, in the case of Spain a different pattern seems apparent once the post Second World War expansion phase did not change the counter-cyclical evolution of the Spanish government’s efforts to improve the level of education in Spain. In this preliminary approach the Portuguese case seems to fit the Spanish pattern, leaving room again for supporting the eventual existence of an Iberic (or Mediterranean) pattern against a northern European pattern (Preliminary version. Not to be quoted) ________________________ 1 A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 20 th Meeting of the Associação Portuguesa de História Economica e Social. I especially wish to thank Claude Diebolt and Sandrine Michel for helpful comments. Some of them were not yet taken into account. Obviuosly all mistakes and shortcomings remain mine. 2 Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão — Rua Miguel Lupi, no 20, P 1247-078 Lisboa, Portugal — e-mail: [email protected]