Needs-based school funding - a path to improving student achievement and reducing educational inequalities?

The project will study the effects of needs-based school funding on students’ educational paths, using hand-collected data from all Swedish municipalities and comprehensive, high-quality data for Sweden´s entire population (2004-2021).

In many countries, including Sweden, a substantial portion of students lack essential skills for later economic success, and skill gaps by socioeconomic background are growing.

A promising way to address these issues is needs-based school funding, that is, directing more financial support to schools with a higher proportion of disadvantaged students.Using causal estimation strategies (difference-in-difference models), the project explores whether needs-based school funding benefits disadvantaged and migrant students, whether there are unintended consequences for students in advantaged schools, and identifies the schooling levels where funding has the highest impact.

Examining the mechanisms behind these effects, the project focuses on the role of teacher labor markets, including salaries and teacher turnover.The research team, consisting of one sociologist and two economists, has long experience in analyzing register data and education policies.

The budget mainly covers research time for three years as data will be readily available at the project start.The project aims to shed light on the role of public financial resources for learning and contributes to debates on educational policies addressing social and economic disadvantage.