PRIVATE EDUCATION EXPENDITURE IN A FREE EDUCATION COUNTRY - THE CASE OF GREECE

This paper uses data from the 1988 Family Expenditure Survey to estima te and analyze the private expenditure on education in Greece. Such ex penditure amounts to 111,624 million drs per year or 2.1% of total hou sehold expenditure. The aggregate expenditure of households is roughly half of what the state is spending on education. The dominant type of expenditure is for foreign languages and private crammer schools (fro ntisteria). There are sharp differences in private expenditure on educ ation depending on the location of the household (spending in Athens i s two-and-a-half times that of small towns and villages), the househol d's total expenditure, as well as the occupation and educational level of the head of the household. The findings are discussed in the conte xt of the equity and efficiency of current education provision and fin ancing policies. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd