For many years, Brazil lagged behind other middle-income countries in terms of school enrolment rates. But since 1998 policies have aimed at bridging this gap, in particular, with the implementation of FUNDEF, a fund for financing sub-national spending on primary and lower-secondary education. Using state- and municipality-level data during…

Lays out a framework in which microeconomic decision theory and elements of information/communication theory drawn from human geography and sociology are joined in an integrated approach to the analysis of the spread of schooling among the less developed countries. Tests the model on area variations in India, Brazil, and Mexico. (BRR)