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Welfare state generosity and student performance: Evidence from international student tests

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  • Falch, Torberg
  • Fischer, Justina AV

Abstract

Student achievement has been identified as important contributor to economic growth. This paper investigates the relationship between redistributive government activities and investment in human capital measured by student performance in international comparative tests in Mathematics and Science during the period 1980 to 2003. In fixed effects panel models, government consumption, government social expenditures, and the progressivity of the income tax system have negative effects on student achievement. The results are robust to a variety of model specifications, including models that condition on educational expenditures. Our best estimate indicates that increased government size by 10 percent reduces student achievement by 0.1 standard deviations

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  • Falch, Torberg & Fischer, Justina AV, 2011. "Welfare state generosity and student performance: Evidence from international student tests," MPRA Paper 35269, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:35269
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    Cited by:

    1. Goodpasture James & Speece Mark & Cripps Jeremy, 2020. "An Analysis of Critical Thinking Skills amongst Business Students in Kuwait," Economics and Culture, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 5-16, June.
    2. Falch, Torberg & Fischer, Justina AV, 2011. "Welfare state generosity and student performance: Evidence from international student tests," MPRA Paper 35269, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Torberg Falch & Justina AV Fischer, 2016. "Welfare state generosity and student performance: Evidence from international student tests 1980 ? 2003," Working Paper Series 17316, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Student achievement; welfare state; government size; tax system; panel data; international tests;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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