Inequality of educational opportunity in a cross-section of countries. Empirical analysis of 2009 PISA data

Timur Natkhov () and Natalia Kozina ()
Additional contact information
Timur Natkhov: National Research University Higher School of Economics. Center for Institutional Studies, Associate Professor.
Natalia Kozina: National Research University Higher School of Economics. Center for Institutional Studies, Researcher.

HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics

Abstract: We provide a measure of inequality of educational opportunity for 72 countries, estimated as a share of the variation in the 2009 PISA test scores that is explained by pre-determined family characteristics. Inequality of opportunity accounts for up to 40 percent of the variation in educational achievement and different measures (for example in math, science, and reading) are highly correlated. Cross-country variation in the inequality of educational opportunity is unrelated to financial indicators, such as expenditure per student or public spending on education as a share of GDP, but depends on pre-school enrollment, overall economic inequality, and the availability of basic medical services. We also document the negative relationship between the inequality of educational opportunity and educational achievement: average educational achievement is lower in countries where family background plays a major role in determining individual progress.

Keywords: equality of opportunity; student performance; family background; equity-efficiency trade-off (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published in WP BRP Series: Education / EDU, November 2012, pages 1-21

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.hse.ru/data/2012/11/23/1301707439/07EDU2012.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hig:wpaper:07edu2012

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in HSE Working papers from National Research University Higher School of Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Shamil Abdulaev () and Shamil Abdulaev ().