The Micro‐Level Design of Public Subsidies for Private Schools: A Typological Approach

Public subsidies for private schools (PSPSs) are a widespread policy instrument across Western European education systems. Despite considerable heterogeneity in their design, systematic classifications of their varying configurations remain lacking. This paper adopts a micro‐level approach to policy design to examine how PSPSs are calibrated. To this end, we develop a descriptive typology built around four context‐invariant constitutive dimensions and apply it to 11 Western European education systems. The exercise yields four distinct types of PSPSs, each capturing a particular relationship between public authorities and private educational providers. We argue that this design‐centric perspective offers analytical leverage to advance two persistent debates in the field: the impact of these policy instruments and the dynamics of policy change underpinning their evolution. More broadly, the typology illustrates the value of descriptive classification for bringing the analytical insights from the study of micro‐level policy design into empirical research.