IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hig/wpaper/07edu2012.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inequality of educational opportunity in a cross-section of countries. Empirical analysis of 2009 PISA data

Author

Listed:
  • Timur Natkhov

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Center for Institutional Studies, Associate Professor.)

  • Natalia Kozina

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Center for Institutional Studies, Researcher.)

Abstract

We provide a measure of inequality of educational opportunity for 72 countries, estimated as a share of the variation in the 2009 PISA test scores that is explained by pre-determined family characteristics. Inequality of opportunity accounts for up to 40 percent of the variation in educational achievement and different measures (for example in math, science, and reading) are highly correlated. Cross-country variation in the inequality of educational opportunity is unrelated to financial indicators, such as expenditure per student or public spending on education as a share of GDP, but depends on pre-school enrollment, overall economic inequality, and the availability of basic medical services. We also document the negative relationship between the inequality of educational opportunity and educational achievement: average educational achievement is lower in countries where family background plays a major role in determining individual progress.

Suggested Citation

  • Timur Natkhov & Natalia Kozina, 2012. "Inequality of educational opportunity in a cross-section of countries. Empirical analysis of 2009 PISA data," HSE Working papers WP BRP 07/EDU/2012, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:07edu2012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hse.ru/data/2012/11/23/1301707439/07EDU2012.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Jérémie Gignoux, 2014. "The Measurement of Educational Inequality: Achievement and Opportunity," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(2), pages 210-246.
    2. Hanushek, Eric A. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2011. "The Economics of International Differences in Educational Achievement," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 89-200, Elsevier.
    3. Woessmann, Ludger, 2004. "How Equal Are Educational Opportunities? Family Background and Student Achievement in Europe and the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 1284, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Gabriela Schütz & Heinrich W. Ursprung & Ludger Wößmann, 2008. "Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 279-308, May.
    5. Pritchett, Lant, 2006. "Does Learning to Add up Add up? The Returns to Schooling in Aggregate Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & F. Welch (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 11, pages 635-695, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gordey Yastrebov & Alexey Bessudnov & Мarina Pinskaya & Sergey Kosaretsky, 2013. "The Issue of Educational Results' Contextualization: Schools, Their Social Structure and a Territory Deprivation Level," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 4, pages 188-246.
    2. Tansel, Aysit, 2015. "Inequality of Opportunities of Educational Achievement in Turkey over Time," IZA Discussion Papers 9005, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Tansel, Aysit, 2015. "Inequality of Opportunities of Educational Achievement in Turkey over Time," IZA Discussion Papers 9005, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Sevda Gürsakal & Dilek Murat & Necmi Gürsakal, 2016. "Assessment of PISA 2012 Results With Quantile Regression Analysis Within The Context of Inequality In Educational Opportunity," Alphanumeric Journal, Bahadir Fatih Yildirim, vol. 4(2), pages 41-54, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Jerrim & Álvaro Choi, 2013. "The mathematics skills of school children: how does England compare to the high performing east Asian jurisdictions?," Working Papers 2013/12, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    2. John Jerrim & Álvaro Choi, 2013. "The mathematics skills of school children: how does England compare to the high performing east Asian jurisdictions?," Working Papers 2013/12, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    3. John Jerrim & Alvaro Choi, 2013. "The mathematics skills of school children: How does England compare to the high performing East Asian jurisdictions?," DoQSS Working Papers 13-03, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    4. Zlata Bruckauf & UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, 2016. "Falling Behind: Socio-demographic profiles of educationally disadvantaged youth. Evidence from PISA 2000-2012," Papers inwopa837, Innocenti Working Papers.
    5. Paul Anand & Jere R. Behrman & Hai-Anh H. Dang & Sam Jones, 2018. "Inequality of opportunity in education: Accounting for the contributions of Sibs, schools and sorting across East Africa," Working Papers 480, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Gabriela Schütz & Heinrich W. Ursprung & Ludger Wößmann, 2008. "Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 279-308, May.
    7. Murat Marina, 2012. "Do Immigrant Students Succeed? Evidence from Italy and France," Global Economy Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, September.
    8. Ludger Wößmann, 2011. "Wettbewerb durch öffentliche Finanzierung von Schulen in freier Trägerschaft als wichtiger Ansatzpunkt zur Verbesserung des Schulsystems," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 64(01), pages 09-18, January.
    9. José Manuel Cordero Ferrera & Manuel Muñiz Pérez & Rosa Simancas Rodríguez, 2015. "The influence of socioeconomic factors on cognitive and non-cognitive educational outcomes," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 10, in: Marta Rahona López & Jennifer Graves (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 10, edition 1, volume 10, chapter 21, pages 413-438, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    10. Bernhard C. Dannemann, 2020. "Peer Effects in Secondary Education: Evidence from the 2015 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study Based on Homophily," Working Papers V-428-20, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2020.
    11. Engzell, Per, 2017. "What Do Books in the Home Proxy For? A Cautionary Tale," Working Paper Series 1/2016, Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research.
    12. Tansel, Aysit, 2011. "Intergenerational educational mobility in Turkey," MPRA Paper 68435, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Álvaro Choi & María Gil & Mauro Mediavilla & Javier Valbuena, 2018. "The Evolution of Educational Inequalities in Spain: Dynamic Evidence from Repeated Cross-Sections," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 853-872, August.
    14. Ã lvaro Choi & John Jerrim, 2015. "The use (and misuse) of PISA in guiding policy reform: the case of Spain?," DoQSS Working Papers 15-04, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    15. Hanushek, Eric A. & Woessmann, Ludger, 2012. "Schooling, educational achievement, and the Latin American growth puzzle," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 497-512.
    16. Gradstein, Mark & Brückner, Markus, 2013. "Income and schooling," CEPR Discussion Papers 9365, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Eberle, Mira & Oberrauch, Luis, 2023. "What a difference three years of economics education make: Evidence from lower stream schools in Germany," International Review of Economics Education, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    18. Watson, Barry & Kong, Nancy & Phipps, Shelley, 2022. "Dreaming of a Brighter Future? The Impact of Economic Vulnerability on University Aspirations," IZA Discussion Papers 15539, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Alejandra Cattaneo & Sandra Hanslin & Rainer Winkelmann, 2007. "The Apple Falls Increasingly Far: Parent-Child Correlation in Schooling and the Growth of Post-Secondary Education in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(II), pages 133-153, June.
    20. Álvaro Choi & María Gil & Mauro Mediavilla & Javier Valbuena, 2016. "The evolution of educational inequalities in Spain: dynamic evidence from repeated cross-sections," Working Papers 2016/25, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    equality of opportunity; student performance; family background; equity-efficiency trade-off;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:07edu2012. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamil Abdulaev or Shamil Abdulaev (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.