TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of attending an independent upper secondary school
T2 - Evidence from Sweden using school ranking data
AU - Edmark, Karin
AU - Persson, Lovisa
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has benefited from funding from the Swedish Research Council, Project number: 2014-01783, as well as from funding from Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Project number: 2018-01573. We are grateful for comments from seminar and conference participants at the Fifth Lisbon Research Workshop on Economics, Statistics and Econometrics of Education; the Swedish Institute for Social Research at Stockholm University (SOFI); the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); the Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU); Maastricht University; Cambridge University; and GRIP seminar participants at Kristianstad University. We are particularly thankful for comments from two anonymous reviewers, as well as from Jan Sauermann, Anders Stenberg, Anna Sjögren, and Jonas Vlachos.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Since the 1990s, the Swedish education market has gone through a dramatic transformation due to the introduction of voucher-funded independent schools. We make use of data on school applications to condition on student preferences for independent versus public education, and estimate a positive relationship between independent upper secondary school attendance and grades, graduation rates, and post-secondary education. We however also find strong indications of more lenient grading standards in independent schools, especially in schools organized as for-profit entities and in schools with a low share of qualified teachers. Our results suggest that, although independent school attendance seems to benefit the individual students in terms of higher grades and increased transition to post-secondary studies, grade inflation in the Swedish upper secondary independent schools may be a serious problem.
AB - Since the 1990s, the Swedish education market has gone through a dramatic transformation due to the introduction of voucher-funded independent schools. We make use of data on school applications to condition on student preferences for independent versus public education, and estimate a positive relationship between independent upper secondary school attendance and grades, graduation rates, and post-secondary education. We however also find strong indications of more lenient grading standards in independent schools, especially in schools organized as for-profit entities and in schools with a low share of qualified teachers. Our results suggest that, although independent school attendance seems to benefit the individual students in terms of higher grades and increased transition to post-secondary studies, grade inflation in the Swedish upper secondary independent schools may be a serious problem.
KW - Mixed markets
KW - Private provision
KW - Upper secondary education
KW - Voucher school reform
U2 - 10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102148
DO - 10.1016/j.econedurev.2021.102148
M3 - Article
SN - 0272-7757
VL - 84
SP - 1
EP - 14
JO - Economics of Education Review
JF - Economics of Education Review
M1 - 102148
ER -
