The Educational--Industrial Complex in Comparative Perspective.

Prior work has defined the Educational-Industrial Complex (EIC) as an interlocking set of public and private institutions which operate mainly to serve children and taxpayers, but also in part as budget maximizers. We test hypotheses about EIC growth using (mainly) cross-sectional data from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. Findings indicate that, as per capita wealth and unionization grow, nations spend relatively more on education and schools have a higher staff to student ratio (lower class size). Time series data indicate that cross-nationally, class size falls over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]