Constitutional rights and education: An international comparative study

Sebastian Edwards and Alvaro Garcia Marin
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alvaro F. Garcia-Marin

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2015, vol. 43, issue 4, 938-955

Abstract: We investigate whether the inclusion of educational rights in political constitutions affects the quality of education. We rely on data for 61 countries that participated in the 2012 PISA tests. Our results are strong and robust to the estimation technique (least squares or instrumental variables): there is no evidence that including the right to education in the constitution has been associated with higher test scores. The quality of education depends on socioeconomic, structural, and policy variables, such as expenditure per student, the teacher-pupil ratio, and families’ background. These results are important for emerging countries that are discussing the adoption of new constitutions, such as Thailand and Chile.

Keywords: Education; PISA test; Constitutional rights; Constitutional reform; Positive rights (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I25 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Working Paper: Constitutional Rights and Education: An International Comparative Study (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:43:y:2015:i:4:p:938-955

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2015.05.002

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