IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/injoed/v65y2019icp123-133.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competition among schools and educational quality: Tension between various objectives of educational policy

Author

Listed:
  • Gajardo, Felipe
  • Grau, Nicolás

Abstract

Using Chilean data for fourth grade students, this research studies the effect of competition among schools on the results of standardized tests, academic self-esteem and motivation, the climate within the school, civic participation, and healthy lifestyle habits. To address the potential bias due to the endogeneity of the competition among schools, an instrumental variable approach is implemented, using instruments associated with the size of each “educational market.” The results show that an increase of one standard deviation in competition among schools generates a moderate increase in standardized test results (0.06 standard deviations) and a more significant decrease in the other indicators of quality (between 0.02 and 0.16 standard deviations). Therefore, the results suggest a tension in the school between various objectives of educational policy, in which pressure to improve standardized test scores resulting from competition among schools could produce an undesired effect of deterioration in other dimensions of quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Gajardo, Felipe & Grau, Nicolás, 2019. "Competition among schools and educational quality: Tension between various objectives of educational policy," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 123-133.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:65:y:2019:i:c:p:123-133
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.03.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059317304583
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.03.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francisco Gallego, 2002. "Competencia y Resultados Educativos: Teoría y Evidencia para Chile," Latin American Journal of Economics-formerly Cuadernos de Economía, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 39(118), pages 309-352.
    2. Dennis Epple & Richard E. Romano & Miguel Urquiola, 2017. "School Vouchers: A Survey of the Economics Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(2), pages 441-492, June.
    3. Masino, Serena & Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel, 2016. "What works to improve the quality of student learning in developing countries?," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 53-65.
    4. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    5. Joshua Angrist & Eric Bettinger & Erik Bloom & Elizabeth King & Michael Kremer, 2002. "Vouchers for Private Schooling in Colombia: Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1535-1558, December.
    6. Dante Contreras & Tomás Rau, 2012. "Tournament Incentives for Teachers: Evidence from a Scaled-Up Intervention in Chile," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 219-246.
    7. Brando, Nicolás, 2017. "Between equality and freedom of choice: Educational opportunities for the least advantaged," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 71-79.
    8. Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard E, 1998. "Competition between Private and Public Schools, Vouchers, and Peer-Group Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 33-62, March.
    9. Bettinger, Eric, 2011. "Educational Vouchers in International Contexts," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 551-572, Elsevier.
    10. David Bravo & Sankar Mukhopadhyay & Petra E. Todd, 2010. "Effects of school reform on education and labor market performance: Evidence from Chile's universal voucher system," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 1(1), pages 47-95, July.
    11. Joshua Angrist & Eric Bettinger & Michael Kremer, 2006. "Long-Term Educational Consequences of Secondary School Vouchers: Evidence from Administrative Records in Colombia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 847-862, June.
    12. Dewatripont, Mathias & Jewitt, Ian & Tirole, Jean, 2000. "Multitask agency problems: Focus and task clustering," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(4-6), pages 869-877, May.
    13. Hsieh, Chang-Tai & Urquiola, Miguel, 2006. "The effects of generalized school choice on achievement and stratification: Evidence from Chile's voucher program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(8-9), pages 1477-1503, September.
    14. Francisco A. Gallego, 2004. "School Choice, Incentives, and Academic Outcomes: Evidence from Chile," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 39, Econometric Society.
    15. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Miguel Urquiola, 2002. "When Schools Compete, How Do They Compete? An Assessment of Chile's Nationwide School Voucher Program," Working Papers 123, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    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. Diego Amador & Juan-Andrés Castro & Nicolás Grau, 2019. "Telling schools apart: the role of preferences, constraints, and the ability to differentiate between schools in parents' choices," Documentos CEDE 17343, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    2. Lazaretti, Lauana Rossetto & Aniceto França, Marco Túlio, 2020. "School competition and performance indicators: evidence from the creation of federal education institutions in Brazil," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Rebai, Sonia & Ben Yahia, Fatma & Essid, Hédi, 2020. "A graphically based machine learning approach to predict secondary schools performance in Tunisia," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    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. Dante Contreras & Jorge Rodríguez & Sergio Urzúa, 2019. "The Return to Private Education: Evidence from School-to-Work Transitions," Working Papers wp479, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    2. Diego Amador & Juan-Andrés Castro & Nicolás Grau, 2019. "Telling schools apart: the role of preferences, constraints, and the ability to differentiate between schools in parents' choices," Documentos CEDE 17343, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    3. W. Bentley MacLeod & Miguel Urquiola, 2018. "Is Education Consumption or Investment? Implications for the Effect of School Competition," NBER Working Papers 25117, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Julio Cáceres-Delpiano & Eugenio Giolito, 2023. "Minimum age requirements and the role of the school choice set," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 63-103, March.
    5. Cáceres-Delpiano, Julio & Giolito, Eugenio, 2018. "Minimum Age Requirements and the Impact of School Choice," IZA Discussion Papers 11420, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Fabre, Anaïs & Straub, Stéphane, 2019. "The Impact of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Infrastructure, Health and Education: A Review," TSE Working Papers 19-986, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Sep 2021.
    7. Nicolás Grau, 2016. "A Dynamic Model of Elementary School Choice," Working Papers wp417, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    8. MacLeod, W. Bentley & Urquiola, Miguel, 2012. "Competition and Educational Productivity: Incentives Writ Large," IZA Discussion Papers 7063, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Song, Yang, 2019. "Sorting, school performance and quality: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 238-261.
    10. Duflo, Esther & Glennerster, Rachel & Kremer, Michael, 2008. "Using Randomization in Development Economics Research: A Toolkit," Handbook of Development Economics, in: T. Paul Schultz & John A. Strauss (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 61, pages 3895-3962, Elsevier.
    11. Zhang, Hongliang, 2016. "Identification of treatment effects under imperfect matching with an application to Chinese elite schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 56-82.
    12. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2009. "The Experimental Approach to Development Economics," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 151-178, May.
    13. Correa, Juan A. & Parro, Francisco & Sánchez, Rafael, 2021. "The Effect of School Voucher Spending on Initial Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 14552, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Alessandrini, Diana & Milla, Joniada, 2022. "School Choice and Higher Education Attainment," IZA Discussion Papers 15330, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Eric Bettinger & Michael Kremer & Maurice Kugler & Carlos Medina & Christian Posso & Juan E. Saavedra, 2019. "School Vouchers, Labor Markets and Vocational Education," Borradores de Economia 1087, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    16. Miguel Urquiola, 2015. "Progress and challenges in achieving an evidence-based education policy in Latin America and the Caribbean," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 24(1), pages 1-30, December.
    17. Benjamin Feigenberg, 2021. "Priced Out: Aggregate Income Shocks And School Pricing In The Chilean Voucher Market," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(2), pages 696-721, April.
    18. Patrinos, Harry A. & Sakellariou, Chris, 2011. "Quality of Schooling, Returns to Schooling and the 1981 Vouchers Reform in Chile," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2245-2256.
    19. Francesca Marchetta & Tom Dilly, 2019. "Supporting Education in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges for an Impact Investor," Working Papers hal-02288103, HAL.
    20. Baum, Donald R., 2018. "Private school vouchers in developing countries: A survey of the evidence," SocArXiv 6j7qp, Center for Open Science.

    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:eee:injoed:v:65:y:2019:i:c:p:123-133. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-educational-development .

    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.