European education production functions: what makes a difference for student achievement in Europe?

Ludger Wößmann
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ludger Woessmann

No 190, European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 from Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission

Abstract: This paper estimates the effects of family background, resources, and institutions on student performance in 17 Western European school systems. Family background has a strong effect in Europe, remarkably similar in size to the United States. France and Flemish Belgium achieve the most equitable performance for students from different family backgrounds, and Britain and Germany the least. Equality of opportunities is unrelated to countries' mean performance. Quantile regressions show little variation in family-background effects across the ability distribution. There is little evidence of substantial class-size effects, but slight evidence of effects of material shortage and teacher experience in some countries. Stronger evidence exists for effects of within-country variations in schools' hiring autonomy, testing, and homework. Â

Keywords: educational production; student performance; Western Europe; family background; class size; school-system institutions; TIMSS; effect heterogeneity; equity-efficiency tradeoff; United States; Wößmann (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 80 pages
Date: 2003-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication862_en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: European "Education Production Functions": What Makes A Difference For Student Achievement In Europe? (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:euf:ecopap:0190

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