 Learning More with Every Year: School Year Productivity and International Learning DivergenceJournal of the European Economic Association, 2020, vol. 18, issue 4, 1770-1813 Abstract: I use unique child-level panel data from Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam, four developing countries with widely differing levels of student achievement, to study the extent to which differences in the productivity of primary schooling can explain international differences in human capital. I document, using identical tests of quantitative skills across countries, that although some cross-sectional gaps in test scores between these countries are evident at preschool ages, these grow substantially in the first 2–3 years of schooling. By the age of 8 years, differences are particularly stark between Vietnam and the other three countries. Using value-added models, and a regression-discontinuity design based on enrolment guidelines, I show that the causal effect of an extra grade of schooling on test scores is substantially higher in Vietnam by 0.25–0.4 standard deviations compared to the other countries. This differential productivity of a school year accounts for most of the cross-country achievement gap at 8 years of age. Equalizing the exposure to and the productivity of schooling closes the gap with Vietnam almost entirely for Peru and India and by ∼60% for Ethiopian students enrolled. Date: 2020 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jeurec:v:18:y:2020:i:4:p:1770-1813. Access Statistics for this article Journal of the European Economic Association is currently edited by Romain Wacziarg More articles in Journal of the European Economic Association from European Economic Association |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.