We examine the evolution of educational assistance in Indonesia, following two decades of government decentralization, and its effect on education quality. Using Indonesia Family Life Survey data, we exploit as exogenous rule the variation in the implementation of government decentralization to compute difference-in-difference estimators. Indicative evidence suggests decentralization has facilitated collusion between village authorities and marginalized private schools, with substantial increases in educational assistance and financial resources, especially to religious schools. Despite dominant rent-seeking behaviour and self-interest motives, increased public resource allocation to private schools impacted positively on student achievement. Our results also emphasize the role of social norms in undermining efficient public goods allocation after decentralization.

中文翻译：

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印度尼西亚的教育援助和教育质量：权力下放的作用

我们研究了印度尼西亚政府权力下放二十年之后教育援助的演变及其对教育质量的影响。使用印度尼西亚家庭生活调查数据，我们利用政府权力下放实施的变化作为外生规则来计算差异中的差异估计量。指示性证据表明，权力下放促进了村当局与边缘化私立学校之间的勾结，教育援助和财政资源大幅增加，尤其是对宗教学校的援助。尽管存在占主导地位的寻租行为和自利动机，但增加对私立学校的公共资源分配对学生的成绩产生了积极影响。