Does school autonomy make sense everywhere? Panel estimates from PISA

Eric Hanushek, Susanne Link and Ludger Wößmann
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ludger Woessmann

Munich Reprints in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics

Abstract: Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we estimate the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results suggest that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These estimates are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (151)

Published in Journal of Development Economics 104(2013): pp. 212-232

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Does school autonomy make sense everywhere? Panel estimates from PISA (2013)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2012)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2011)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2011)
Working Paper: Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA (2011)
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:lmu:muenar:20465

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Munich Reprints in Economics from University of Munich, Department of Economics Ludwigstr. 28, 80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tamilla Benkelberg ().