Title: Standard needs of Italian primary schools

Authors: Giuseppe Di Giacomo; Aline Pennisi; Agnese Sacchi

Addresses: Ministry of Economy and Finance, XX Settembre 97, 00187, Rome, Italy ' Ministry of Economy and Finance, XX Settembre 97, 00187, Rome, Italy ' Faculty of Economics, 'Universitas Mercatorum' University, Appia Pignatelli 62, 00178, Rome, Italy

Abstract: The education system in Italy is mainly public and highly centralised concerning both financial and regulatory aspects. However, there are significant disparities in school spending and students' performance across regions. The aim of the paper is to provide a first attempt for the Italian case to estimating the standard financial requirement based on the demand of service (e.g., the number of students, the type of school) for a sample of 1,000 primary schools for the year 2009/2010. This standard is then compared with the school current endowment to evaluate whether a better allocation of available resources can be obtained. Results suggest that the actual spending is quite far from the estimated standard for all schools; most of them should get a positive correction, receiving more resources to accomplish their tasks. Students' performance also seems to play a not negligible role in shaping school funding mechanisms mostly introducing incentive schemes.

Keywords: standard financial requirements; school spending; resource allocation; student performance; Italy; primary schools; primary education; service demand; incentive schemes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2013.057707

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2013 Vol.4 No.4, pp.334 - 356

Received: 03 Jul 2013
Accepted: 21 Jul 2013
Published online: 10 May 2014 *

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