Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/147357 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6103
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
It is generally argued that, in the context of Imperial Germany, public primary education was used to form “loyal citizens” and to build a nation. In this paper we analyze to what extent central spending on primary education affected participation at general elections and votes for pro-nationalist parties. We combine census data on the sources of school funding with federal elec-tion data at the level of 199 constituencies in five-year intervals from 1886 to 1911. Panel esti-mates of models with constituency and time-fixed effects show that an increase in the share of central spending is positively related to the vote share of pro-nationalist parties and voter turnout. Results from models with lagged central spending by category of expenditure are consistent with the role of indoctrination of public primary education.
Subjects: 
nation building
primary education
indoctrination
Prussian economic history
JEL: 
N33
N43
H72
I28
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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