The role of industrialisation in education expenditure: municipal budgets in Biscay, 1860-1910.

This paper presents a unique database that explores how industrialisation affected municipalities' incomes, expenditures and education spending. Using the importance of the mines and steelworks in Biscay in northern Spain between 1860 and 1910 as indicators of industrialisation, the findings show that there was a positive relationship between these dimensions and towns' incomes, which was indirectly transmitted to municipalities' expenditures, showing that municipalities were able to benefit from industrialisation. However, the thriving mining and metallurgy sectors did not support an increase in education spending. The lack of short-term results from spending on education may have led town councils to divert the revenues of industrialisation into more urgent areas, or those that could deliver faster results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este artículo presenta una base de datos que explora cómo la industrialización afectó los ingresos y gastos municipales, con un especial énfasis en el gasto educativo. Usando la importancia de las minas y la siderurgia en Vizcaya entre 1860 y 1910 como indicador de industrialización, los resultados muestran que había una relación positiva entre estas industrias y los ingresos municipales. Este efecto positivo se transmitía indirectamente a los gastos municipales, mostrando que los ayuntamientos eran capaces de beneficiarse de la industrialización. Sin embargo, los boyantes sectores mineros y siderúrgicos vizcaínos no llevaron a un mayor gasto en educación. La ausencia de resultados claros a corto plazo de una inversión en educación pudo llevar a que los ayuntamientos prefirieran localizar los beneficios de la industrialización en gastos más urgentes o con resultados más a corto plazo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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