The importance of education creates a need to better frame education issues for the public and policymakers. This thesis builds on framing theory to examine whether framing educational issues domestically or internationally affects support for increased educational spending. It tests straightforward hypotheses about one-sided frame exposure in a survey experiment conducted via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The findings have implications for approaches that may be effective for generating support for education funding in the U.S.. By determining the best frame to use to motivate educational support, policymakers can better tailor their strategies and platforms in the media and communication with the public.

O objetivo geral desta tese é analisar a relação entre a educação e a violência através de dois ensaios. Embora estes ensaios sejam independentes quanto à abordagem teórica e à metodologia empregada, são complementares ao responder o problema desta pesquisa que é analisar se a educação e a escola podem contribuir para reduzir o crime e a violência. No primeiro ensaio buscam-se evidências de que a atuação pública na área da educação pode contribuir para reduzir o crime no médio e longo prazo, uma vez que a educação é uma variável que compõe o modelo tradicional do crime e que pode ser afetada por políticas públicas. Dessa forma, para mensurar o impacto do gasto público em educação na redução da taxa de homicídios, foi estimado um modelo utilizando dados em painel dos estados brasileiros, nos anos de 2001 a 2009 e empregando a metodologia GMM-SYS, que permite introduzir defasagens aos regressores. Os resultados das estimativas mostraram uma elasticidade negativa de aproximadamente 0,1 entre o crime e os gastos públicos em educação, na primeira defasagem, indicando que políticas públicas educacionais podem contribuir para reduzir a criminalidade, porém é necessário um período para que os resultados sejam observados. Já no segundo ensaio, são analisados alguns fatores do ambiente escolar e do seu entorno que podem contribuir para a manifestação do comportamento violento dos alunos, com base na teoria da interação social que estabelece que as ações dos indivíduos são influenciadas tanto pelas redes sociais que eles formam quanto pelas ações de seus antecessores. Para isso, foi estimado um modelo logit de efeito fixo, utilizando dados da Prova Brasil, nos anos de 2007 e 2009. Os resultados mostraram que a possibilidade de observar um ato agressivo de um aluno é maior em ambientes escolares com traços da violência, onde foi observada uma ação violenta de um professor ou ocorreram crimes contra patrimônio, contra a pessoa, tráfico de drogas ou atuação de gangues. De forma geral, os resultados desta tese indicaram que políticas públicas na área de educação podem ser usadas como forma de combater a violência no médio e longo prazo e, para isso, é necessário que a escola funcione como um espaço para desenvolver conhecimento, habilidades e noções de moralidade e civilidade. / The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the relation between education and violence in two papers. Although these papers are independent concerning their theoretical approach and methodology, they are complementary to answer the research problem, which is to examine whether school education can contribute to reduce crime and violence. In the first paper we searched evidence that public action towards education can help reduce crime in the medium and long term, since education is a variable of the traditional crime model which may be affected by public policy. Thus, to measure the impact of public spending on education in reducing homicide rate, we estimated a Brazilian states panel data, from 2001 to 2009, using the GMM-SYS methodology, which allows introducing lags for regressors. The estimation results showed a negative elasticity of approximately 0.1 between crime and public spending on education in the first lag, indicating that educational policies can contribute to crime reduction, but a period is needed so that results can be observed. In the second paper we analyze some factors of the school environment and its surroundings that may contribute to student violent behavior, based on the social interaction theory which establishes that the actions of individuals are influenced by their social networks and the actions of their predecessors. For this, we estimated a fixed effect logit model, using Prova Brasil data, of 2007 and 2009. The results showed that the possibility of observing an aggressive student act is higher in school with traces of violence, where one could witness a teacher\'s violent action, crime against property, against a person, drug dealing or gang activity. Generally, the results of this thesis indicate that public policies in education can be used as a way to fight violence in the medium and long term and, thus, it is necessary that school works as a space to develop knowledge, skills and notions of morality and civility.

O objetivo geral desta tese é analisar a relação entre a educação e a violência através de dois ensaios. Embora estes ensaios sejam independentes quanto à abordagem teórica e à metodologia empregada, são complementares ao responder o problema desta pesquisa que é analisar se a educação e a escola podem contribuir para reduzir o crime e a violência. No primeiro ensaio buscam-se evidências de que a atuação pública na área da educação pode contribuir para reduzir o crime no médio e longo prazo, uma vez que a educação é uma variável que compõe o modelo tradicional do crime e que pode ser afetada por políticas públicas. Dessa forma, para mensurar o impacto do gasto público em educação na redução da taxa de homicídios, foi estimado um modelo utilizando dados em painel dos estados brasileiros, nos anos de 2001 a 2009 e empregando a metodologia GMM-SYS, que permite introduzir defasagens aos regressores. Os resultados das estimativas mostraram uma elasticidade negativa de aproximadamente 0,1 entre o crime e os gastos públicos em educação, na primeira defasagem, indicando que políticas públicas educacionais podem contribuir para reduzir a criminalidade, porém é necessário um período para que os resultados sejam observados. Já no segundo ensaio, são analisados alguns fatores do ambiente escolar e do seu entorno que podem contribuir para a manifestação do comportamento violento dos alunos, com base na teoria da interação social que estabelece que as ações dos indivíduos são influenciadas tanto pelas redes sociais que eles formam quanto pelas ações de seus antecessores. Para isso, foi estimado um modelo logit de efeito fixo, utilizando dados da Prova Brasil, nos anos de 2007 e 2009. Os resultados mostraram que a possibilidade de observar um ato agressivo de um aluno é maior em ambientes escolares com traços da violência, onde foi observada uma ação violenta de um professor ou ocorreram crimes contra patrimônio, contra a pessoa, tráfico de drogas ou atuação de gangues. De forma geral, os resultados desta tese indicaram que políticas públicas na área de educação podem ser usadas como forma de combater a violência no médio e longo prazo e, para isso, é necessário que a escola funcione como um espaço para desenvolver conhecimento, habilidades e noções de moralidade e civilidade. / The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the relation between education and violence in two papers. Although these papers are independent concerning their theoretical approach and methodology, they are complementary to answer the research problem, which is to examine whether school education can contribute to reduce crime and violence. In the first paper we searched evidence that public action towards education can help reduce crime in the medium and long term, since education is a variable of the traditional crime model which may be affected by public policy. Thus, to measure the impact of public spending on education in reducing homicide rate, we estimated a Brazilian states panel data, from 2001 to 2009, using the GMM-SYS methodology, which allows introducing lags for regressors. The estimation results showed a negative elasticity of approximately 0.1 between crime and public spending on education in the first lag, indicating that educational policies can contribute to crime reduction, but a period is needed so that results can be observed. In the second paper we analyze some factors of the school environment and its surroundings that may contribute to student violent behavior, based on the social interaction theory which establishes that the actions of individuals are influenced by their social networks and the actions of their predecessors. For this, we estimated a fixed effect logit model, using Prova Brasil data, of 2007 and 2009. The results showed that the possibility of observing an aggressive student act is higher in school with traces of violence, where one could witness a teacher\'s violent action, crime against property, against a person, drug dealing or gang activity. Generally, the results of this thesis indicate that public policies in education can be used as a way to fight violence in the medium and long term and, thus, it is necessary that school works as a space to develop knowledge, skills and notions of morality and civility.

<p>This dissertation examines the political determinants of government spending across different levels of education. What are the political motivations that drive budgetary decisions on primary, secondary, and tertiary education? Who are the beneficiaries of these appropriations? Why are they capable of influencing the decisions over appropriations?</p><p>I argue that the distribution of education spending across education levels depends on the capacity of organized groups active in this sector to make their demands heard and served by governments. Better organized groups have stronger capacity to take advantage of the electoral concerns of politicians and influence their decisions on educational budgets. I provide evidence to show that, with some exceptions, the teachers' unions in the primary and secondary schools are the most influential organized group in the education sector. By taking their demands out to the streets, by capturing key positions in the education ministries, and by using their mobilization capacity in the electoral arena, teachers have made governments cater to their economic interests, rather than direct resources in ways that would enhance access to and the quality of education.</p><p>I test the theoretical arguments using an original dataset incorporating a comprehensive account of all protests, strikes, and other disruptive actions by teachers, university workers, students, and parents in Mexico between 1992 and 2008. The statistical analysis reveals that 1) states with higher levels of teachers' protests receive larger federal education grants, and that 2) subnational authorities spend more on primary and lower secondary as a consequence of the larger disruptive behavior observed in these education levels. Complementary qualitative evidence shows how the teachers' union has captured the education ministries at the federal and the subnational levels, consolidating its influence over education policy. Finally, this study reveals the teachers' union capacity to leverage their participation in electoral politics in order to defend its economic interests.</p> / Dissertation

Submitted by Gustavo Gomes (gustavolascasas@gmail.com) on 2013-10-03T12:48:12Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Efici??ncia do gasto p??blico em educa????o fundamental nas prefeituras.pdf: 5681656 bytes, checksum: c9735accc47fabf905668986a6f131bf (MD5) license_rdf: 23599 bytes, checksum: 9e2b7f6edbd693264102b96ece20428a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Roger Guedes (roger.guedes@fjp.mg.gov.br) on 2013-10-04T14:02:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Efici??ncia do gasto p??blico em educa????o fundamental nas prefeituras.pdf: 5681656 bytes, checksum: c9735accc47fabf905668986a6f131bf (MD5) license_rdf: 23599 bytes, checksum: 9e2b7f6edbd693264102b96ece20428a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-10-04T14:02:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Efici??ncia do gasto p??blico em educa????o fundamental nas prefeituras.pdf: 5681656 bytes, checksum: c9735accc47fabf905668986a6f131bf (MD5) license_rdf: 23599 bytes, checksum: 9e2b7f6edbd693264102b96ece20428a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Funda????o Jo??o Pinheiro / O tema educa????o vem ganhando cada vez mais espa??o nas discuss??es acerca da sustentabilidade do crescimento e desenvolvimento econ??mico de longo prazo. A partir da d??cada de 50, diversas pesquisas sobre o tema v??m ganhando espa??o, tendo por objetivo avaliar a import??ncia do capital humano para o crescimento de longo prazo do produto. Al??m disso, os pesquisadores passaram a discutir tamb??m os determinantes do sucesso dos estudantes nos exames escolares. O presente trabalho levantou alguns pontos discutidos na literatura subjacente. Al??m disso, foi realizado um exerc??cio emp??rico atrav??s da t??cnica conhecida como an??lise envolt??ria de dados. Foram comparados 281 munic??pios com o objetivo de construir um modelo de otimiza????o da aloca????o dos gastos p??blicos municipais em educa????o fundamental. Os resultados obtidos mostram a exist??ncia de retornos decrescentes de escala a partir de determinado tamanho de munic??pio. Algumas das principais prefeituras mineiras apresentaram baixo escore nos exames de profici??ncia em matem??tica e em l??ngua portuguesa na oitava s??rie do ensino fundamental. Tais resultados foram ainda mais cr??ticos ao considerar o n??vel de insumos dos referidos munic??pios atrav??s do modelo de otimiza????o de insumos e produtos. / The theme of education is gaining more attention in discussions about the sustainability of economic growth and development of long-term. From the 50's, various studies on the topic are gaining ground, and to evaluate the importance of human capital for long-term growth of the product. In addition, researchers also began to discuss the determinants of success of students in school exams. This study raised some points discussed in the literature behind. Furthermore, it was an empirical exercise carried out by the technique known as data envelopment analysis. We compared 281 cities with the goal of building a model of optimizing the allocation of municipal spending in elementary education. The results show the existence of decreasing returns to scale from a given size of the municipality. Some of the major mining municipalities had low scores on proficiency exams in math and English in eighth grade of elementary school. These results were even more critical when considering the level of inputs of these municipalities through the optimization model of inputs and products. / Educa????o

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between resource allocation practices in specific categorical functions and student performance in reading and math. This study utilized quantitative research methods to study the effects of spending and performance over four years of analysis. Quantitative data was acquired utilizing information from the Texas Education Agency. The data was collected from 81 campuses and represented over 1,500 students. The study's outcomes reported that little or no correlation could be found between inputs (dollars spent in three categories) and outputs (student results in reading and math). However, subgroup analysis revealed that students from non- low socioeconomic (SES) households started out higher than their low SES counterparts, and low SES students performed worse over time in both reading and math. Math results decreased more dramatically than reading indicating a need for school-level training in data analysis to ensure that limited dollars are spent appropriately. The study recommends that principals and school administrators be especially knowledgeable in critical data analysis skills. The study further recommends that state policy-makers invest more heavily in early math instruction. In addition, the current study found that student achievement, in low-SES students, especially in mathematics is very alarming. Low SES students are starting out behind the non low-SES counterparts and perform progressively worse over time. State policy makers must address these concerns.

Corruption, militarism, and conflict are bedfellows, and their coexistence feeds a vicious circle of violence and instability. Every dollar spent on the military is a dollar not spent on welfare-generating services such as education and healthcare. Yet, military spending makes up a bulk of government spending in several countries, and it is often shrouded from public purview. Rent-seeking behavior fostered within corrupt practices incentivize public officials to accept bribes from military suppliers, while the secrecy surrounding defense procurements allows them to act with perceived impunity. In this paper, I conduct a quantitative study using panel data from 175 countries from 2000 to 2020 to argue that corruption causes a distortion in public expenditure distribution by diverting valuable resources from social spending to military spending. Highly corrupt countries tend to spend a higher percentage of their GDP on the military, freeing up less of the finite resources for investment in education and healthcare. I find that corruption drives up military spending causing a crowding out of social spending.

Cette thèse vise à étudier les liens entre les investissements publics, le mode definancement et la croissance économique, tout en mettant en exergue le rôle des conditionsstructurelles. Premièrement, dans un scenario d’amélioration des conditions structurelles(mesurées par l’efficience et la capacité d'absorption de l’économie) comparé à un scenario debase, nous montrons que le potentiel de croissance est supérieur comparé au scenario de base. Parconséquent, la stabilisation de la dette ne nécessite pas des ajustements budgétaires douloureux.Deuxièmement, à travers un scénario d'investissement agressif sur la base d’emprunts nonconcessionnelsen anticipation des revenus futurs du pétrole, nous constatons l’occurrence decontraintes liées à la capacité d'absorption et partant l’effet adverse du syndrome hollandais sur lacroissance du PIB hors pétrole. En outre, des réformes structurelles qui résorberaient lescontraintes liées à l’inefficience et à la capacité d'absorption se traduiraient par une augmentationimportante et durable du capital public. Cela entrainerait une croissance supplémentaire du PIBhors pétrole. Troisièmement, nous montrons que les délais d’exécution peuvent contrer l’effetclassique selon lequel une augmentation de l’investissement public entraine un effet richessenégatif dans le long terme. Aussi, une productivité élevée de l’investissement public peutsubstantiellement créer un effet richesse positif dans le long terme, stimuler la production etpermettre à la consommation et à l’investissement privé de baisser moins. Finalement, noussimulons l’impact des dépenses publiques d’éducation sur la pauvreté au Burkina Faso en utilisant2 mécanismes d’ajustement fiscal : la taxe directe et la taxe indirecte. Les simulations montrentqu’une augmentation uniforme de 40 pourcent des dépenses publiques dans l’éducation primairefiancée par les deux mécanismes de financement améliore non seulement le bien-être maiségalement entraine une baisse de la pauvreté chez tous les types de ménage. Toutefois, lefinancement par la taxe indirecte conduit à un résultat inférieur comparé au financement par lataxe directe. / This dissertation seeks to study the public investment-financing-growth linkages whileeliciting the role of structural economic conditions. First, through an alternative scenario ofimproved structural economic conditions (efficiency and absorptive capacity) and comparing witha baseline scenario, we find that the growth potential is higher than the baseline. Consequently,stabilizing debt does not require painful fiscal consolidation. Second, through an aggressiveinvestment scaling-up scenario that builds on commercial borrowing in anticipation of future oilrevenue, we find that the economy is subject to absorptive capacity constraints and ultimately toDutch disease effects that affect negatively the non-oil GDP growth in the short run. Moreover,we find that structural reforms that address absorptive capacity constraints and inefficienciestranslate into sizable and sustainable increase in public capital. This in turn has a positive spillovereffect in terms of additional growth in the non-resource GDP. Third, we find that implementationdelays can offset the standard negative wealth effect from an increase in government investmentspending in the long run. Also, high-yielding public investment can substantially create positivewealth effect in the long run, raise output and enable private consumption and investment to fallless. Finally, we simulate a 40-percent across-the-board increase in public spending for primaryeducation, financed by an increase in taxes on household income and indirect taxes. We find thatthe two financing mechanisms, not only leads to an increase in the welfare but also to a decline inthe incidence of poverty for all household types. However, the indirect tax-based financing leadsto smaller outcomes compared to the income tax-based financing.