THE EFFECTS OF SCHOOL COMPETITION ON THE ACHIEVEMENT OF ITALIAN STUDENTS

Michela Ponzo

No 200920, Working Papers from Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF

Abstract: In this paper we study the impact of the degree of school competition on achievement of Italian students. Specifically, competition is measured as the number of schools available to students in a given area. The aim is to evaluate whether an increase in school choice improves the quality of education. Using the third cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2006) we investigate with simple Least Squares regression models, controlling for a range of individual and schools characteristics, if secondary school students with a wider range of schools choices perform better than those students whose choice is more limited. We find a significant positive correlation between students’ academic performance and the degree of local schools competition. Moreover, we show that students achieve much better outcomes if schools operating in more competitive environments also experience a higher pressure on academic standards coming from parents.

Keywords: Educational Production Function; School Competition; Students Achievement; PISA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H72 I2 I21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-ure
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http://www.ecostat.unical.it/RePEc/WorkingPapers/WP20_2009.pdf First version, 2009-12 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The effects of school competition on the achievement of Italian students (2011)
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