Does school autonomy make sense everywhere? Panel estimates from PISA

Eric Hanushek, Susanne Link and Ludger Woessmann

Journal of Development Economics, 2013, vol. 104, issue C, 212-232

Abstract: Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000–2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we estimate the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results suggest that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These estimates are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas.

Keywords: School autonomy; Decentralization; Developing countries; Educational production; International student achievement tests; Panel estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I20 I25 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (153)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Does school autonomy make sense everywhere? Panel estimates from PISA (2013)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2012)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2011)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2011)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:104:y:2013:i:c:p:212-232

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.08.002

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