On the Efficiency Costs of De-tracking Secondary Schools

Kenn Ariga (), Giorgio Brunello, Roki Iwahashi () and Lorenzo Rocco
Additional contact information
Kenn Ariga: Kyoto University
Roki Iwahashi: University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa

No 2534, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: During the postwar period, many countries have de-tracked their secondary schools, based on the view that early tracking was unfair. What are the efficiency costs, if any, of de-tracking schools? To answer this question, we develop a two skills - two jobs model with a frictional labour market, where new school graduates need to actively search for their best match. We compute optimal tracking length and the output gain/loss associated to the gap between actual and optimal tracking length. Using a sample of 18 countries, we find that: a) actual tracking length is often longer than optimal, which might call for some efficient de-tracking; b) the output loss of having a tracking length longer or shorter than optimal is sizeable, and close to 2 percent of total net output.

Keywords: mismatch; school tracking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 J6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2006-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eff, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Working Paper: On the Efficiency Costs of Detracking Secondary Schools (2006)
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