Public-Private Partnerships and Corporate Social Responsibility as Mechanisms for Financing Basic Education in Developing Economies: A CrossNational Analysis

Abstract

The global financing gap for basic education in developing economies remains one of the most consequential obstacles to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) quality education for all. UNESCO estimates that low- and middleincome countries require an additional USD 97 billion annually to achieve universal basic education by 2030, a shortfall that public budgets and official development assistance (ODA) cannot plausibly close without transformative changes in the education financing architecture. Public-private partnerships (PPPs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives have emerged as central mechanisms for mobilising private capital, management expertise, and technological innovation to supplement constrained public education budgets in developing economies. Yet the evidence base on their effectiveness across different PPP model types, governance contexts, and country income levels remains fragmented, contested, and methodologically uneven. This article provides a comprehensive cross-national analysis of PPP and CSR mechanisms for financing basic education in developing economies, drawing on a panel dataset of 1,842 country-year observations from 78 developing economies over the period 2010 to 2023. Integrating six theoretical frameworks public goods theory, principalagent theory, stakeholder theory, fiscal federalism theory, social investment theory, and institutional theory the article develops a conceptual framework linking PPP and CSR financing intensity to four education outcome dimensions: primary enrolment, lower secondary enrolment, composite learning outcomes, and gender parity. Panel regression results confirm that PPP financing share (beta = 0.264, p < 0.001), CSR education investment (beta = 0.188, p < 0.001), and ODA disbursements (beta = 0.142, p < 0.01) exert independent positive effects on primary enrolment, with governance effectiveness as a significant positive moderator. The article identifies seven critical implementation challenges including monitoring capacity deficits, cream-skimming risks, and dispute resolution failures and provides an evidence-based policyframework for optimising PPP and CSR education financing governance.