A Natural Experiment in Education Reform: The Case of Upper‐Secondary Curriculum Compression

Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdóttir, Gisli Gylfason and Gylfi Zoega

Manchester School, 2025, vol. 93, issue 4, 319-367

Abstract: We use a change in Iceland's education system as a natural experiment to measure the effect of years spent in upper‐secondary school on subsequent first‐year outcomes at university. The duration of Iceland's upper‐secondary education was shortened by 1 year through compression of the curriculum. We find that shorter upper‐secondary education, 3 years instead of the previous four, leads to first‐year university students completing fewer credits, getting a lower average grade in completed courses, and being more likely to drop out. We find that this negative effect of the reform disproportionately affected the academic performance of male students and those who previously demonstrated weaker academic abilities, thus increasing academic disparities.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/manc.12504

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:bla:manchs:v:93:y:2025:i:4:p:319-367

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1463-6786

Access Statistics for this article

Manchester School is currently edited by Keith Blackburn

More articles in Manchester School from University of Manchester Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().