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Do Fiscal and Political Decentralization Raise Students’ Performance? A Cross-Country Analysis

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  • Díaz Serrano, Lluís
  • Meix Llop, Enric

Abstract

The low quality of education is a persistent problem in many developed countries. Parallel to in the last decades exists a tendency towards decentralization in many developed and developing countries. Using micro data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) referred to 22 countries, we test whether there exists an impact of fiscal and political decentralization on student performance in the areas of mathematics, reading skills and science. We observe that fiscal decentralization exerts an unequivocal positive effect on students’ outcomes in all areas, while the effect of political decentralization is more ambiguous. On the one hand, the capacity of the subnational governments to rule on its region has a positive effect on students’ performance in mathematics. On the other hand, the capacity to influence the country as a whole has a negative impact on mathematics achievement. As a general result, we observe that students’ performance in Mathematics is more sensible to these exogenous variations than in Sciences and reading skills. Keywords: School outcomes, PISA, fiscal decentralization, political decentralization JEL codes: H11, H77, I21

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  • Díaz Serrano, Lluís & Meix Llop, Enric, 2012. "Do Fiscal and Political Decentralization Raise Students’ Performance? A Cross-Country Analysis," Working Papers 2072/203156, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/203156
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    1. Thomas Fuchs & Ludger Wößmann, 2008. "What accounts for international differences in student prformance? A re-examination using PISA data," Studies in Empirical Economics, in: Christian Dustmann & Bernd Fitzenberger & Stephen Machin (ed.), The Economics of Education and Training, pages 209-240, Springer.
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    8. Winkler, Donald R., 1989. "Decentralization in education : an economic perspective," Policy Research Working Paper Series 143, The World Bank.
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    Cited by:

    1. Paula Salinas, 2014. "The effect of decentralization on educational outcomes: real autonomy matters!," Working Papers 2014/25, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    2. Leonardo Letelier S & Hector Ormeño C, 2018. "Education and fiscal decentralization. The case of municipal education in Chile," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(8), pages 1499-1521, December.
    3. Buerger, Christian & Lincove, Jane Arnold & Mata, Catherine, 2023. "How context shapes the relationship between school autonomy and test-scores. An explanatory analysis using PISA 2015," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    4. Luis Diaz-Serrano & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2015. "Decentralization and the Welfare State: What Do Citizens Perceive?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 411-435, January.
    5. Kayode Taiwo, 2024. "The Effect of Decentralisation on Access to Sanitation and Water Services: An Empirical Test using International Data," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 249(2), pages 157-180, June.
    6. Paula Salinas, 2014. "The effect of decentralization on educational outcomes: real autonomy matters!," Working Papers 2014/25, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    7. Jeong, Dong Wook & Lee, Ho Jun & Cho, Sung Kyung, 2017. "Education decentralization, school resources, and student outcomes in Korea," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 12-27.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Programa Internacional de Evaluación de Estudiantes (PISA); Rendiment escolar; Descentralització administrativa; Relacions intergovernamentals; 37 - Educació. Ensenyament. Formació. Temps lliure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

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