Education decentralization, school resources, and student outcomes in Korea

Government decentralization is in worldwide use for education reforms. It takes different forms across countries from political and fiscal perspectives. It is a unique feature that the governance of Korea is politically decentralized, but it remains fiscally federalized. In this article, we utilized both political and fiscal perspectives to evaluate her decentralization by school resources and student outcomes. After analyzing the panel data, we find that fiscal decentralization is positively related to student outcomes. In contrast, we find little evidence on any relationship between political decentralization, school resources, and student outcomes. Lastly, we draw useful policy implications for developing countries whose decentralization moves like Korea.