Year: 2006
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Competition and choice in education have found growing support from both policy makers and academics over the past decades. Yet, evidence on the actual benefits of market-oriented reforms is at best mixed. Moreover, while the economic rationale for choice and competition is clear, there is rarely an attempt to distinguish between the two concepts. In this paper, we study whether primary schools in England facing more competition perform better than those in a more monopolistic situation, and whether pupils with wider range of choices achieve more than those whose choice is more limited. In simple least squares regression models, we find little evidence of a link between choice and attainment, but find a small positive association between competition and school performance. Yet, this could be related to endogenous school location or pupil sorting. In fact, our instrumental variable strategy, based on discontinuities generated by admissions district boundaries, suggests that the performance gains from greater pupil choice and school competition are limited. Only when we restrict our attention to religious schools and their competitive position in relation to other faith schools do we find evidence of a causal link between competition and pupil achievement.
Authors: Stephen Gibbons, Stephen Machin, Olmo Silva
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2124660601