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School Competition and Efficiency with Publicly Funded Catholic Schools

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Author Info
David Card
Martin Dooley
Abigail Payne

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Abstract

The province of Ontario has two publicly funded school systems: secular schools (known as public schools) that are open to all students, and separate schools that are open to children with Catholic backgrounds. The systems are administered independently and receive equal funding per student. In this paper we use detailed school and student-level data to assess whether competition between the systems leads to improved efficiency. Building on a simple model of school choice, we argue that incentives for effort will be greater in areas where there are more Catholic families, and where these families are less committed to a particular system. To measure the local determinants of cross-system competition we study the effects of school openings on enrollment growth at nearby elementary schools. We find significant cross-system responses to school openings, with a magnitude that is proportional to the fraction of Catholics in the area, and is higher in more rapidly growing areas. We then test whether schools that face greater cross-system competition have higher productivity, as measured by test score gains between 3rd and 6th grade. We estimate a statistically significant but modest-sized impact of potential competition on the growth rate of student achievement. The estimates suggest that extending competition to all students would raise average test scores in 6th grade by 6-8% of a standard deviation.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14176.

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Date of creation: Jul 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14176

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I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Dee, Thomas S., 1998. "Competition and the quality of public schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 419-427, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Booker, Kevin & Gilpatric, Scott M. & Gronberg, Timothy & Jansen, Dennis, 2008. "The effect of charter schools on traditional public school students in Texas: Are children who stay behind left behind?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 123-145, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Couch, Jim F & Shughart, William F, II & Williams, Al L, 1993. " Private School Enrollment and Public School Performance," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 76(4), pages 301-12, August.
  4. Borland, Melvin V. & Howsen, Roy M, 1992. "Student academic achievement and the degree of market concentration in education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 31-39, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. David Card & Martin Dooley & A. Abigail Payne, 2008. "School Choice and the Benefits of Competition: Evidence from Ontario," C.D. Howe Institute Backgrounder, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 115, October. [Downloadable!]
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