Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity

Gabriela Schütz (), Heinrich Ursprung and Ludger Woessmann
Additional contact information
Gabriela Schütz: CESifo

No 1906, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We provide a measure of equality of educational opportunity in 54 countries, estimated as the effect of family background on student performance in two international TIMSS tests. We then show how organizational features of the education system affect equality of educational opportunity. Our model predicts that late tracking and a long pre-school cycle are beneficial for equality, while pre-school enrollment is detrimental at low levels of enrollment and beneficial at higher levels. Using cross-country variations in education policies and their interaction with family background at the student level, we provide empirical evidence supportive of these predictions.

Keywords: tracking; efficiency-equity tradeoff; student performance; family background; educational production; equality of opportunity; pre-school (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2005-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm and nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (72)

Published - published in: Kyklos, 2008, 61 (2), 279-308

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Related works:
Journal Article: Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity (2008)
Working Paper: Education policy and equality of opportunity (2008)
Working Paper: Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity (2005)
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