Economies of Scale in Private and Charter Spanish Schools Under an Ownership and Management Perspective

Abstract

This paper investigates economies of scale in primary and secondary Spanish schools, distinguishing between ownership (private/charter school) and management (nonreligious/religious). We have used the Survey of Private Education Funding and considered both the number of students per school unit (class) and the total number of students enrolled at the school. The overall results show that unit cost per student in smaller centres is around 45% higher than the average and nearly 20% lower than the average in schools with between 1,000 and 1,400 students enrolled. These larger schools had the lowest overal cost per student. As far as ownership is concerned, private schools show an average cost per pupil around 20% higher than charter schools, due to their higher average cost per teacher and lower student unit/teacher ratio. In both private and charter schools, size also influences a school’s economic performance, private schools being more greatly affected. The possible influence of school size and class size on Spanish student performance in PISA 2009 is also studied.

Keywords

• economies of scale
• cost
• efficiency
• school organisation