IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ieb/wpaper/doc2016-25.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The evolution of educational inequalities in Spain: dynamic evidence from repeated cross-sections

Author

Listed:
  • Álvaro Choi

    (Universitat de Barcelona& Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB))

  • María Gil

    (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

  • Mauro Mediavilla

    (Universitat de València & Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB))

  • Javier Valbuena

    (Universitat de Girona)

Abstract

A lack of longitudinal data prevents many countries from estimating dynamic models and, thus, from obtaining valuable evidence for policymaking in the field of education. This is the case of Spain, where recent education reforms have targeted secondary schools, but their design has been based on incomplete information regarding the evolution of student performance and far from robust evidence concerning just when educational inequalities are generated. This paper addresses the absence of longitudinal data required for performing such analyses by using a dynamic model with repeated cross-sectional data. We are able to link the reading competencies of students from the same cohort that participated in two international assessments at different ages (9/10 and 15/16) and so identify when educational gaps – in terms of gender, socio-economic status and place of birth – emerge. In addition, we provide new evidence on the effect on achievement of the main policy used in Spain for levelling the performance of secondary school students, namely, grade retention. Our results suggest that educational inequalities in Spain originate in lower educational levels. After controlling for reverse causality, the negative relationship between grade retention and performance at the lower secondary school level persists.

Suggested Citation

  • Álvaro Choi & María Gil & Mauro Mediavilla & Javier Valbuena, 2016. "The evolution of educational inequalities in Spain: dynamic evidence from repeated cross-sections," Working Papers 2016/25, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
  • Handle: RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2016-25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ieb.ub.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/2016-IEB-WorkingPaper-25.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4, June.
    2. Verbeek, Marno & Vella, Francis, 2005. "Estimating dynamic models from repeated cross-sections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 127(1), pages 83-102, July.
    3. Moffitt, Robert, 1993. "Identification and estimation of dynamic models with a time series of repeated cross-sections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1-2), pages 99-123, September.
    4. Rajagopal, 2014. "The Human Factors," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 9, pages 225-249, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Hanushek, Eric A. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2011. "The Economics of International Differences in Educational Achievement," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 89-200, Elsevier.
    6. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2011. "Too Young to Leave the Nest? The Effects of School Starting Age," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 455-467, May.
    7. John Jerrim & John Micklewright, 2012. "Socioeconomic gradients in children's cognitive skills: Are cross-country comparisons robust to who reports family background?," DoQSS Working Papers 12-06, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    8. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman & Susanne M. Schennach, 2010. "Estimating the Technology of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skill Formation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(3), pages 883-931, May.
    9. Manuel Arellano & Costas Meghir, 1992. "Female Labour Supply and On-the-Job Search: An Empirical Model Estimated Using Complementary Data Sets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 59(3), pages 537-559.
    10. Giorgina Brown & John Micklewright & Sylke V. Schnepf & Robert Waldmann, 2007. "International surveys of educational achievement: how robust are the findings?," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 170(3), pages 623-646, July.
    11. Robertson, Erin, 2011. "The effects of quarter of birth on academic outcomes at the elementary school level," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 300-311, April.
    12. De Simone, Gianfranco, 2013. "Render unto primary the things which are primary's: Inherited and fresh learning divides in Italian lower secondary education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 12-23.
    13. Gabriela Schütz & Heinrich W. Ursprung & Ludger Wößmann, 2008. "Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 279-308, May.
    14. Helena Holmlund & Mikael Lindahl & Erik Plug, 2011. "The Causal Effect of Parents' Schooling on Children's Schooling: A Comparison of Estimation Methods," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 615-651, September.
    15. repec:ieb:wpaper:2013/6/doc2014-35 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Royston, Patrick & White, Ian R., 2011. "Multiple Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE): Implementation in Stata," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 45(i04).
    17. John Jerrim & Álvaro Choi & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez, 2014. "Two-sample two-stage least squares (TSTSLS) estimates of earnings mobility: how consistent are they?," Working Papers 2014/35, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    18. John Jerrim & Alvaro Choi & Rosa Simancas Rodriguez, 2014. "Two-Sample Two-Stage Least Squares (TSTSLS) estimates of earnings mobility: how consistent are they?," DoQSS Working Papers 14-17, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    19. Kelly Bedard & Elizabeth Dhuey, 2006. "The Persistence of Early Childhood Maturity: International Evidence of Long-Run Age Effects," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(4), pages 1437-1472.
    20. Gomes-Neto, Joao Batista & Hanushek, Eric A, 1994. "Causes and Consequences of Grade Repetition: Evidence from Brazil," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(1), pages 117-148, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Contini, Dalit & Tommaso, Maria Laura Di & Mendolia, Silvia, 2017. "The gender gap in mathematics achievement: Evidence from Italian data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 32-42.
    2. Javier Valbuena & Mauro Mediavilla & Álvaro Choi & María Gil, 2021. "Effects Of Grade Retention Policies: A Literature Review Of Empirical Studies Applying Causal Inference," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 408-451, April.
    3. Gerard Ferrer-Esteban & Mauro Mediavilla, 2017. "The more educated, the more engaged? An analysis of social capital and education," Working Papers 2017/13, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Álvaro Choi & María Gil & Mauro Mediavilla & Javier Valbuena, 2018. "The Evolution of Educational Inequalities in Spain: Dynamic Evidence from Repeated Cross-Sections," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 853-872, August.
    2. Álvaro Choi & María Gil & Mauro Mediavilla & Javier Valbuena, 2016. "Double toil and trouble: grade retention and academic performance," Working Papers 2016/7, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    3. Lisa Grazzini, 2016. "The Importance of the Quality of Education: Some Determinants and its Effects on Earning Returns and Economic Growth," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 43-82.
    4. Canaan, Serena, 2020. "The long-run effects of reducing early school tracking," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    5. José Manuel Cordero Ferrera & Manuel Muñiz Pérez & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez, 2015. "The influence of socioeconomic factors on cognitive and non-cognitive educational outcomes," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 10, in: Marta Rahona López & Jennifer Graves (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 10, edition 1, volume 10, chapter 21, pages 413-438, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    6. Bernhard C. Dannemann, 2020. "Peer Effects in Secondary Education: Evidence from the 2015 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study Based on Homophily," Working Papers V-428-20, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2020.
    7. Engzell, Per, 2017. "What Do Books in the Home Proxy For? A Cautionary Tale," Working Paper Series 1/2016, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    8. Ã lvaro Choi & John Jerrim, 2015. "The use (and misuse) of PISA in guiding policy reform: the case of Spain?," DoQSS Working Papers 15-04, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    9. Jo Blanden & Matthias Doepke & Jan Stuhler, 2022. "Education inequality," CEP Discussion Papers dp1849, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    10. Filmer, Deon & Rogers, Halsey & Angrist, Noam & Sabarwal, Shwetlena, 2020. "Learning-adjusted years of schooling (LAYS): Defining a new macro measure of education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    11. Ludger Woessmann, 2016. "The Importance of School Systems: Evidence from International Differences in Student Achievement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 3-32, Summer.
    12. Daniel Kuehnle & Michael Oberfichtner, 2020. "Does Starting Universal Childcare Earlier Influence Children’s Skill Development?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(1), pages 61-98, February.
    13. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Mathias Sinning & Steven Stillman, 2012. "Migrant Youths’ Educational Achievement," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 643(1), pages 18-45, September.
    14. Deborah A. Cobb-Clarke & Mathias Sinning & Steven Stillman, 2011. "Migrant Youths' Educational Achievement: The Role of Institutions," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2011-565, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    15. Contini, Dalit & Grand, Elisa, 2013. "On Estimating Achievement Dynamic Models from Repeated Cross-Sections," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201343, University of Turin.
    16. Contini, Dalit, 2014. "Cross-sectional learning assessments: comparability of regression coefficients and validity of difference-in-difference estimation to evaluate institutional effects," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201431, University of Turin.
    17. repec:zbw:rwirep:0292 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Dalit Contini & Elisa Grand, 2017. "On Estimating Achievement Dynamic Models from Repeated Cross Sections," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 46(4), pages 988-1017, November.
    19. C. Dannemann & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "The Educational Burden of ADHD: Evidence From Student Achievement Test Scores," Working Papers V-408-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2018.
    20. Martin Schlotter & Ludger Wößmann, 2010. "Frühkindliche Bildung und spätere kognitive und nichtkognitive Fähigkeiten: deutsche und internationale Evidenz," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 79(3), pages 99-120.
    21. Álvaro Choi & John Jerrim, 2015. "The use (and misuse) of Pisa in guiding policy reform: the case of Spain," Working Papers 2015/6, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Academic achievement; pseudo-panel; PIRLS; PISA;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2016-25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iebubes.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.