Working Paper: NBER ID: w22222
Authors: C. Kirabo Jackson
Abstract: In 2010, the Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago converted 20 low-performing secondary schools from coeducational to single-sex. I exploit these conversions to identify the causal effect of single-sex schooling holding other school inputs constant. After also accounting for student selection, single-sex cohorts at conversion schools score higher on national exams and are four percentage points more likely to complete secondary school. There are also important non-academic effects; all-boys cohorts have fewer arrests as teens, and all-girls cohorts have lower teen pregnancy rates. These benefits are achieved at zero financial cost. Survey evidence suggests that these single-sex effects reflect both direct gender peer effects due to interactions between classmates, and indirect effects generated through changes in teacher behavior.
Keywords: single-sex education; academic outcomes; crime; teen motherhood; Trinidad and Tobago
JEL Codes: I20; J00
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Single-sex education (I24) | Higher secondary school completion rates (I21) |
| All-boys cohorts (C92) | Reduction in arrests by age 18 (J13) |
| All-girls cohorts (C92) | Reduction in teen pregnancy rates (J13) |
| Single-sex education (I24) | Higher national exam scores (I23) |