"The Education of local politicians seems to be an ingredient core topic for the improvement of public service delivery in poor communities." So said Monica Martinez-Bravo, associate professor at the Center for Monetary and Financial programs of study (CEMFI), during a seminar organized by the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), the research center in Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Navarra.

In her presentation, entitled Educate to Lead? The Local Political Economy Effects of School Construction in IndonesiaD. at Economics presented her research on the impact of the construction of numerous schools in Indonesia on the improvement of local governments and the provision of public goods.

Human capital in the public sector

Between 1973 and 1979, the Indonesian government implemented a school construction program called Sekolah Dasar INPRES, which led to the construction of more than 61,000 schools. Monica Martinez-Bravo has analyzed the disposition of public assets during the period when the first class of young INPRES beneficiaries became old enough to join local governments.

"As result of INPRES school construction, the level of Education of village leaders increased by half a year," he concluded. In turn, he stressed that one more year of Education of the leaders increased by 3% the construction of primary schools and by 17% the issue of doctors in the village.

Mónica Martínez-Bravo stressed that work "emphasizes the role of human capital in the public sector as an important component of state capacity and public service delivery at the local level".