Working Paper: NBER ID: w11670
Authors: Claudia Uribe; Richard J. Murnane; John B. Willett; Marie Andre Somers
Abstract: Many countries use tax revenues to subsidize private schools. Whether these policies meet social objectives depends, in part, on the relative quality of education provided by the two types of schools. We use data on elementary school students and their teachers in Bogotá, Colombia to examine difference in resource mixes and differences in the relative effectiveness of public and private schools. We find that, on average, the schools in the two sectors are equally effective. However, they produce education using very different resource combinations. Moreover, there are large differences in the effectiveness of schools in both sectors, especially in the private sector. The results of our analysis shed light on the quantity-quality tradeoff that governments in many developing countries face in deciding how to use scarce educational resources.
Keywords: school enrollment; subsidizing private schools; education quality; Bogota
JEL Codes: I2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| teacher quality (A21) | student achievement (I24) |
| peer group composition (C92) | student achievement (I24) |
| class size (C55) | student achievement (I24) |
| private school choice (I21) | student achievement (I24) |
| teacher quality (A21) | peer group composition (C92) |
| peer group composition (C92) | class size (C55) |