Managerial Practices and Student Performance: Evidence from Changes in School Principals

Adriana Di Liberto, Ludovica Giua, Fabiano Schivardi, Marco Sideri and Giovanni Sulis

No 25121, RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin)

Abstract: We study how managerial practices of school principals affect student performance and aspirations. For 2011 and 2015, we merge administrative data on Italian high school students with the management quality indices of their principals, constructed using the World Management Survey methodology. The frequent principals' turnover over this period allows us to causally interpret school-fixed-effect estimates. We find that management quality positively and substantially impacts standardized math and language tests and student desire to attend college. The comparison to pooled-OLS suggests that fixed effects correct for the downward bias arising from selection of better principals into more difficult schools.

Keywords: Management; School principals; Student outcomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 L2 M1 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
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Working Paper: Managerial Practices and Student Performance: Evidence from Changes in School Principals (2023)
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