Fewer school days, more inequality

Daiji Kawaguchi

Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2016, vol. 39, issue C, 35-52

Abstract: This paper examines how the intensity of compulsory education affects the time use and academic achievement of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The impact is identified off the school-day reduction of Japan in 2002 that resulted when all Saturdays were set as public-school holidays. An analysis of time diaries and test scores reveals that the socioeconomic gradient of 9th graders’ study time becomes 110% steeper and the socioeconomic gradient of 10th graders’ reading test scores becomes 20% steeper after the school-day reduction. Intensive compulsory education contributes to equalizing the academic performance of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, at least for some subjects.

Keywords: Compulsory education; Inequality; Socioeconomic gradient; Five-day school week (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889158316000022
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Fewer School Days, More Inequality (2013)
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:eee:jjieco:v:39:y:2016:i:c:p:35-52

DOI: 10.1016/j.jjie.2016.01.001

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Japanese and International Economies is currently edited by Takeo Hoshi

More articles in Journal of the Japanese and International Economies from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().