LEAD Research Group
This is my core research area: how resources are allocated to schools - and what that means for both improvement and equity in educational outcomes. My applied research group working on this, LEAD, sits at the bridge between Competitiveness (STAC) and Cohesiveness (EDS).
Key concepts in my work
- Redistribution & allocation mechanisms - resource allocation mechanisms and funding formulae, analyzed through networks and causal data-science models
- EGini & Lorenz curves - Gini-based indices I developed to measure equity in educational outcomes, not just inputs
- IEAD (Improvement in Educational Achievement Distribution) - reconceptualizing the relationship between level of performance and achievement gaps, so that policy doesn't have to trade off improvement against equity
- EEO (Equality of Educational Opportunity) - equity in inputs (central vs. local funding), horizontal equity, vertical equity, fiscal neutrality, and adequacy
The central question I keep returning to: can we finance education for improvement - designing allocation mechanisms that raise outcomes and narrow gaps, rather than treating the two as a trade-off?
See LEAD, my research group and the ISF-funded international workshop built on this work →
Key papers
- Gilead, T., & BenDavid-Hadar, I. (2025). Educational justice and formula funding: A complex adaptive systems perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 57(12), 1078-1089.
- Meoded, R., & BenDavid-Hadar, I. (2025). Fiscal decentralization of education: A social network analysis of values underlying local decision-making processes. International Journal of Educational Development, 119, 103444.
- Meoded, R., & BenDavid-Hadar, I. (2025). Does fiscal decentralization in education funding affect equity? State and Local Government Review.
- Betser-Nahum, Y., & BenDavid-Hadar, I. (2025). The municipalities' efficiency in Israel: The case of the provision of educational services. International Journal of Educational Development, 117, 103370.
- Dadon-Golan, Z., BenDavid-Hadar, I., & Klein, J. (2019). Revisiting educational (in)equity: Measuring educational Gini coefficients for Israeli high schools during the years 2001-2011. International Journal of Educational Development, 70, 102091.
- BenDavid-Hadar, I. (2018). Funding education: Developing a method of allocation for improvement. International Journal of Educational Management, 32(1), 2-26.
- BenDavid-Hadar, I., Case, S., & Smith, R. (2018). School funding formulae: Designed to create a learning society? Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 48(4), 553-570.
- BenDavid-Hadar, I. (2016). School finance policy and social justice. International Journal of Educational Development, 46, 166-174.
- BenDavid-Hadar, I., & Ziderman, A. (2011). A new model for equitable and efficient resource allocation to schools: The Israeli case. Education Economics, 19(4), 341-362.