Government Expenditure on Education, Economic Growth and Long Waves: The Case of Portugal*

Recent case studies on European economies have analysed the evolution of aggregate series for government expenditure on education and its relation to cyclical economic growth in the long run. These studies have depicted two different patterns in that relationship. In the case of highly developed economies, namely France, Germany and Great Britain, the evolution of public expenditure on education shows a counter-cyclical behaviour until the Second World War and a pro-cyclical movement thereafter. However, in the case of Spain, a different pattern seems apparent since the expansion phase occurring after the Second World War 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, once again leaving room for defending the possible existence of an Iberian (or Mediterranean) pattern as opposed to a Northern European pattern.