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Does School Privatization Improve Educational Achievement? Evidence from Sweden's Voucher Reform

Author

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  • Böhlmark, Anders

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

  • Lindahl, Mikael

    (University of Gothenburg)

Abstract

This paper evaluates general achievement effects of choice and competition between private and public schools at the nine-year school level by assessing a radical voucher reform that was implemented in Sweden in 1992. Starting from a situation where the public schools essentially were monopolists on all local school markets, the degree of privatization has developed very differently across municipalities over time as a result of this reform. We estimate the impact of an increase in private enrolment on short, medium and long-term educational outcomes of all pupils using within-municipality variation over time, and control for differential pre-reform and concurrent municipality trends. We find that an increase in the private school share moderately improves short-term educational outcomes such as 9th-grade GPA and the fraction of students who choose an academic high school track. However, we do not find any impact on medium or long-term educational outcomes such as high school GPA, university attainment or years of schooling. We conclude that the first-order short-term effect is too small to yield lasting positive effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Böhlmark, Anders & Lindahl, Mikael, 2008. "Does School Privatization Improve Educational Achievement? Evidence from Sweden's Voucher Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 3691, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3691
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Schlotter & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann, 2011. "Econometric methods for causal evaluation of education policies and practices: a non-technical guide," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 109-137.
    2. R—mulo A. Chumacero & Ricardo D. Paredes, 2012. "Vouchers, choice, and public policy: An overview," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 39(2 Year 20), pages 115-122, December.
    3. 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.
    4. David Figlio & Cassandra M. D. Hart, 2014. "Competitive Effects of Means-Tested School Vouchers," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 133-156, January.
    5. Anders Böhlmark & Mikael Lindahl, 2015. "Independent Schools and Long-run Educational Outcomes: Evidence from Sweden's Large-scale Voucher Reform," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(327), pages 508-551, July.
    6. Dante Contreras & Paulina Sepúlveda & Sebastián Bustos, 2010. "When Schools Are the Ones that Choose: The Effects of Screening in Chile," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 91(s1), pages 1349-1368.
    7. Burgess, Simon, 2016. "Human Capital and Education: The State of the Art in the Economics of Education," IZA Discussion Papers 9885, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Kaja Høiseth Brugård, 2013. "Does School Choice Improve Student Performance?," Working Paper Series 14513, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    9. Gabriel Heller Sahlgren, 2014. "Handing Over the School Keys: The Impact of Privatisation on Education Quality," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 196-210, June.
    10. McNally, Sandra, 2010. "Evaluating education policies: the evidence from economic research," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 57973, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Elinder, Mikael & Jordahl, Henrik, 2013. "Political preferences and public sector outsourcing," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 43-57.
    12. Ricardo Paredes & Matías Fresard, 2018. "Voucher y cierre de escuelas en Chile," Estudios Públicos, Centro de Estudios Públicos, vol. 0(151), pages 7-27.
    13. Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2014. "Job mobility among high-skilled and low-skilled teachers," Working Paper Series 2014:14, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    14. Rómulo A. Chumacero & Juan Gallegos Mardones & Ricardo D. Paredes, 2016. "Competition Pressures and Academic Performance in Chile," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 43(2 Year 20), pages 217-232, December.
    15. W. Bentley MacLeod & Miguel Urquiola, 2009. "Anti-Lemons: School Reputation and Educational Quality," NBER Working Papers 15112, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Javiera Cartagena FarÍas & Steven McIntosh, 2019. "Does the Increase in Competition between Schools Improve the Quality of the Service? The Role of Educational Reform in Chile," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(8), pages 1799-1815, August.
    17. Luis Miguel Doncel & Jorge Sainz & Ismael Sanz, 2012. "An Estimation of the Advantage of Charter over Public Schools," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(4), pages 442-463, November.
    18. de Haan, Monique & Leuven, Edwin & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 2011. "Scale Economies Can Offset the Benefits of Competition: Evidence from a School Consolidation Reform in a Universal Voucher System," IZA Discussion Papers 5528, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Ricardo Paredes & Rómulo Chumacero & Juan Gallegos, 2012. "Competition Pressures and Academic Performance in a Generalized Vouchers Context," EcoMod2012 4184, EcoMod.
    20. Karbownik, Krzysztof, 2014. "The determinants of teacher mobility in Sweden," Working Paper Series 2014:13, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    21. Marcel Boyer & Anne Catherine Faye, 2011. "Assessment of International Economic Policy Models and Measures: Lessons for Canada," CIRANO Working Papers 2011s-19, CIRANO.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    private schooling; choice; competition; educational achievement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General

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