Does Decentralization Drive Territorial Inequality in Education? Evidence from Eight OECD Countries

There is a strong assumption in the literature on multilevel systems that decentralisation is a major driver of territorial inequality and that policy diversity is the causal mechanism. However, this relationship has not been systematically examined. This paper investigates the extent to which decentralization drives territorial inequality in education, a key policy area and source of individual and societal prosperity (Carstensen and Emmenegger, 2023). Specifically, it concentrates on the levels of education that affect the entire cohort: primary and secondary education. It compares eight OECD countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland) in the period 2004-2024. The paper uses data from two novel indices—the Index of Regional Powers in Education (IRPE) and the Index of Regional Policy Diversity in Education (IRDE)—which provide comprehensive measures of decentralization in education and regional policy diversity across a wide range of indicators. In the first step, the paper tests whether higher levels of decentralization explain greater policy diversity among regions within countries. In the second step, it tests whether greater policy diversity explains inequality in outcomes, which are operationalized as regional differences in pupil performance in standardized assessments, while controlling for alternative socio-economic structural explanations. Examining territorial inequality in education, the paper seeks to contribute to the debate on ‘left-behind regions’ and the ‘geography of discontent’ by focusing on a foundational policy domain through which regional disparities in opportunities and outcomes are reproduced.