OECD (2000)

Educational Expenditure Relative to Gross Domestic Product
loans to students for tuition fees and student living costs) as well as to other
private entities for education (for instance, subsidies to companies or labour
organisations that operate apprenticeship programmes).
In the majority of OECD countries, education that is funded from public
sources is also organised and delivered by public institutions, although, in
some countries the funding is finally transferred to government-dependent
private institutions (Indicator B6) or given directly to households to spend in
the institution of their choice. In the former case, the final spending and
delivery of education could be regarded as subcontracted by governments to
non-governmental institutions, whereas, in the latter instance, students and
their families are left to decide which type of institution best meets their
requirements.
Education that
is funded from public
sources is organised
and delivered primarily
by public institutions.
B1
In six out of the seven OECD countries with comparable trend data, the
proportion of public expenditure devoted to education increased
between 1990 and 1997, by between 0.3 percentage points in Australia and
2.9 percentage points in Norway. Only in Finland did the share of total public
expenditure devoted to education decline, by 2 percentage points.
The proportion of public
expenditure devoted to
education has increased
between 1990
and 1997.
The involvement of the public sector in the funding of the different levels
of education varies widely between OECD countries. In 1997, they spent
between 6.2 and 13.5 per cent of total public expenditure on primary and
secondary education and between 1.3 and 4.8 per cent on tertiary education.
Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Switzerland and the United States all
spend about 10 per cent or more of total government expenditure on primary,
secondary, and post-secondary non-tertiary education. By contrast, the
primary, secondary, and post-secondary non-tertiary proportion in Finland and
Germany is 7 per cent or less. Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and the
United States devote the largest proportion of public spending to tertiary
education (more than 4 per cent).
Between 6.2
and 13.5 per cent of
total public expenditure
in OECD countries is
allocated to primary,
secondary, and postsecondary
non-tertiary
education, and between
1.3 and 4.8 per cent
to tertiary education.
DEFINITIONS
In this indicator, expenditure on education is expressed as a percentage
of GDP and is presented by source of funds and by level of education. The
distinction by source of funds is based on the initial source of funds and does
not reflect subsequent public-to-private or private-to-public transfers.
Ideally, this indicator would cover both direct private costs (such as tuition
and other educational fees and the costs of textbooks, uniforms and transport)
as well as indirect private costs (lost output when employees participate in
on-the-job training). But many of these private costs are difficult to measure
and to compare internationally. The main focus of this indicator is therefore on
public and private expenditure on educational institutions.
Direct public expenditure on educational institutions (column 1 of
Tables B1.1a, b and c) can take the form either of purchases by a government
agency itself of educational resources to be used by educational institutions or
of payments by the government agency to educational institutions that have
responsibility for purchasing educational resources.
Data refer to
the financial year 1997
and are based on
the UOE data collection
on education statistics
administered in 1999
(for details see Annex 3).
© OECD 2000
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