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Stratified or Comprehensive? The Economic Efficiency of School Design

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Giorgio Brunello ()
Massimo Giannini

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Abstract

We study the efficiency of secondary school design by focusing on the degree of differentiation between vocational and general education. Using a simple model of endogenous job composition, we analyze the interaction between relative demand and relative supply of skills and characterize efficient school design when the government runs schools and cares about total net output. We show that neither a comprehensive nor a stratified system unambiguously dominates the other system in terms of efficiency for all possibile values of the underlying parameters. Since comprehensive systems generate more equal labor market outcomes, it follows that the relationship between efficiency and equity in secondary education is not necessarily a trade off. We also show that net output maximizing government policy is not always supported by majority voting. When schools are stratified, majority voting could increase the elitist nature of general schools by rising the admission standard above efficient levels. At the same time, and depending on the values of the underlying parameters, efficient stratified schools could be voted down in favor of less efficient comprehensive schools.

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Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number CESifo Working Paper No. 453.

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Date of creation: 2001
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_453

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I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Gould, Eric D & Moav, Omer & Weinberg, Bruce A, 2001. " Precautionary Demand for Education, Inequality, and Technological Progress," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 285-315, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Caroline Hoxby, 2000. "Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation," NBER Working Papers 7867, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Daron Acemoglu, 1999. "Changes in Unemployment and Wage Inequality: An Alternative Theory and Some Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1259-1278, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. De Fraja, Gianni, 1998. "The Design of Optimal Education Policies," CEPR Discussion Papers 1792, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Philippe Aghion & Eve Caroli & Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa, 1999. "Inequality and Economic Growth: The Perspective of the New Growth Theories," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1615-1660, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Francesco Caselli, 1999. "Technological Revolutions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 78-102, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Bartel, Ann P & Lichtenberg, Frank R, 1987. "The Comparative Advantage of Educated Workers in Implementing New Technology," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(1), pages 1-11, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Bartel, Ann P & Sicherman, Nachum, 1998. "Technological Change and the Skill Acquisition of Young Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 718-55, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Bertocchi, Graziella & Spagat, Michael, 2004. "The evolution of modern educational systems: Technical vs. general education, distributional conflict, and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 559-582, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Dennis Epple & Elizabeth Newlon & Richard Romano, 2000. "Ability Tracking, School Competition, and the Distribution of Educational Benefits," NBER Working Papers 7854, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. De Fraja, Gianni, 1999. "Equal Opportunities in Education: Market Equilibrium and Public Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 2090, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Giorgio Brunello & Massimo Giannini, 1999. "Selective Schools," IZA Discussion Papers 76, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  14. Betts, Julian R, 1998. "The Impact of Educational Standards on the Level and Distribution of Earnings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(1), pages 266-75, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Horst Entorf & Martina Lauk, 2006. "Peer Effects, Social Multipliers and Migrants at School: An International Comparison," cege – Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research Discussion Papers 57, cege – Center for European, Governance and Economic Development Research, University of Goettingen (Germany)., revised 12 Mar 2007. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Natalia Zinovyeva & Florentino Felgueroso & Pablo Vazquez Vega, 2008. "Immigration and Students' Achievement in Spain," Working Papers 2008-37, FEDEA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Eric A. Hanushek & Ludger Woessmann, 2005. "Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence across Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Roel van Elk & Marc van der Steeg & Dinand Webbink, 2009. "The effect of early tracking on participation in higher education," CPB Documents 182, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. [Downloadable!]
  5. Cappellari, Lorenzo, 2004. "High School Types, Academic Performance and Early Labour Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 1048, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Maurizio Iacopetta, 2006. "Human Capital Dispersion and Incentives to Innovate," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_013, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
  7. Volker Meier & Gabriela Schütz, 2007. "The Economics of Tracking and Non-Tracking," Ifo Working Paper Series Ifo Working Papers No. 50, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich. [Downloadable!]
  8. Marisa Hidalgo, 2005. "Peer Group Effects And Optimal Education System," Working Papers. Serie AD 2005-12, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie). [Downloadable!]
  9. Hendrik Jürges & Kerstin Schneider, 2007. "What Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong: Birthday Effects and Early Tracking in the German School System," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo, 2009. "Tracking can be more equitable than mixing: peer effects and college attendance," Working Papers 09.04, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  11. Gerald Eisenkopf, 2005. "Ability grouping and incentives," Working Papers of the Research Group Heterogenous Labor 05-10, Research Group Heterogeneous Labor, University of Konstanz/ZEW Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
  12. Andrea Bassanini & Alison Booth & Giorgio Brunello & Maria De Paola & Edwin Leuven, 2005. "Workplace Training in Europe," IZA Discussion Papers 1640, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-3.

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