Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/52464 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3648
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we identify the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results show that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These results are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas.
Subjects: 
school autonomy
decentralization
developing countries
educational production
international student achievement tests
panel estimation
JEL: 
I20
O15
H75
I25
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size
891.03 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.