Educational Scores: How Does Russia Fare?

Chiara Amini () and Simon Commander ()
Additional contact information
Chiara Amini: University College London
Simon Commander: IE Business School, Altura Partners

No 6033, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper uses two large multi-country datasets on educational scores – PISA and TIMSS – to examine the performance of Russia in comparative light as well as the factors associated with differences in educational outcomes in Russia. Despite the perception of a positive educational legacy, Russian scores are not stellar and have mostly deteriorated. Using an education production function, we distinguish between individual and family background factors and those relating to the school and institutional environment. We use pooled data, as well as cross sectional evidence, to look at the variation across countries before looking at within-country variation in Russia. We find – both in the cross-country estimates as also those using just Russia data – that a number of individual and family variables in particular, such as parental educational levels, are robustly associated with better educational outcomes. Institutional variables also matter – notably student-teacher ratios and indicators of school autonomy – but there are also some clear particularities in the Russian case.

Keywords: human capital; PISA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H5 I21 I28 J24 O15 P5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Comparative Economics, 2012, 40 (3), 508 - 527

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