Nº 163 (June, 2014). Mariana Marchionni & Javier Alejo.

Uses simulation exercises to measure the impact of demographic changes on the expenditure effort required to fund basic education in Argentina, which comprises the early childhood, primary, and secondary levels and encompasses children from age three to 17 years old. Policy objectives aimed at coverage expansion, increasing the efficiency of educational trajectories, and increasing per-student expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) per potential worker were incorporated. At the primary level, where enrollment rates are nearly perfect, the reduction of overage enrollment overshadows the effect of the expansion of coverage. In the other levels, the opposite occurs, and the effect that predominates in terms of total basic education enrollment is the expansion of coverage at the secondary level and in the first years of the early childhood level. If the expenditure effort earmarked to fund basic education maintains its 2010 levels, per-student expenditure will increase even as enrollment grows.

English version published as “Funding Basic Education Throughout the Demographic Transition in Argentina” (Chapter 8). In “As time goes by in Argentina. Opportunities and ChalLenges of the Demographic Transition”. Gragnolati, M., Rofman, R., Apella, I. y Troiano, S. (eds.). World Bank Group, Washington DC, pp. 203-234 (ISBN: 978-1-4648-0530-1) http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0530-1