IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v25y2025i2p305-342n1006.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public and Private School Grade Inflation Patterns in Secondary Education

Author

Listed:
  • Silva Pedro Luís

    (Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Matosinhos, Portugal)

  • DesJardins Stephen L.

    (Marsal Family School of Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA)

  • Biscaia Ricardo

    (Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Matosinhos, Portugal)

  • Sá Carla

    (Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Matosinhos, Portugal)

  • Teixeira Pedro N.

    (Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES), Matosinhos, Portugal)

Abstract

We examine the extent of grade inflation in courses taken during high school and how such differences vary across student and school characteristics. Using administrative data, we assess grade inflation in Portuguese high schools over a decade. We propose a relative measure of grade inflation, comparing students’ high school grades to their national exam ranks. Examining various school types, we find that private schools tend to inflate grades more than their public school peers, particularly at the top of the ability distribution. A regional disaggregation indicates that the northern districts exhibit higher probabilities of grade inflation.

Suggested Citation

  • Silva Pedro Luís & DesJardins Stephen L. & Biscaia Ricardo & Sá Carla & Teixeira Pedro N., 2025. "Public and Private School Grade Inflation Patterns in Secondary Education," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 25(2), pages 305-342.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:25:y:2025:i:2:p:305-342:n:1006
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2024-0136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2024-0136
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/bejeap-2024-0136?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martins, Pedro S., 2009. "Individual Teacher Incentives, Student Achievement and Grade Inflation," IZA Discussion Papers 4051, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. De Fraja, Gianni & Landeras, Pedro, 2006. "Could do better: The effectiveness of incentives and competition in schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-2), pages 189-213, January.
    3. Denton Marks, 2002. "Academic Standards as Public Goods and Varieties of Free-Rider Behaviour," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 145-163.
    4. George R. Parsons & GAndrew J. Plantinga & GKevin J. Boyle, 2000. "Narrow Choice Sets in a Random Utility Model of Recreation Demand," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(1), pages 86-99.
    5. Gabrielle Fack & Julien Grenet & Yinghua He, 2019. "Beyond Truth-Telling: Preference Estimation with Centralized School Choice and College Admissions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1486-1529, April.
    6. Raphael Boleslavsky & Christopher Cotton, 2015. "Grading Standards and Education Quality," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 248-279, May.
    7. Gabrielle Fack & Julien Grenet & Yinghua He, 2019. "Beyond Truth-Telling: Preference Estimation with Centralized School Choice and College Admissions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1486-1529, April.
    8. Cecilia Elena Rouse & Jane Hannaway & Dan Goldhaber & David Figlio, 2013. "Feeling the Florida Heat? How Low-Performing Schools Respond to Voucher and Accountability Pressure," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 251-281, May.
    9. Marcel L. Corstjens & David A. Gautschi, 1983. "Conjoint Analysis: A Comparative Analysis of Specification Tests for the Utility Function," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(12), pages 1393-1413, December.
    10. De Witte, Kristof & Geys, Benny & Solondz, Catharina, 2014. "Public expenditures, educational outcomes and grade inflation: Theory and evidence from a policy intervention in the Netherlands," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 152-166.
    11. Jean Tirole, 1996. "A Theory of Collective Reputations (with applications to the persistence of corruption and to firm quality)," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(1), pages 1-22.
    12. M C A S Portela & A S Camanho, 2010. "Analysis of complementary methodologies for the estimation of school value added," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(7), pages 1122-1132, July.
    13. Winship C. Fuller & Charles F. Manski & David A. Wise, 1982. "New Evidence on the Economic Determinants of Postsecondary Schooling Choices," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 17(4), pages 477-498.
    14. Smith, Jeremy & Naylor, Robin, 2005. "Schooling effects on subsequent university performance: evidence for the UK university population," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 549-562, October.
    15. Erica Lindahl, 2016. "Are teacher assessments biased? -- evidence from Sweden," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 224-238, April.
    16. Stephen L. DesJardins & Dennis A. Ahlburg & Brian P. McCall, 2006. "An Integrated Model of Application, Admission, Enrollment, and Financial Aid," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(3), pages 381-429, May.
    17. Nordin, Martin & Heckley, Gawain & Gerdtham, Ulf, 2019. "The impact of grade inflation on higher education enrolment and earnings," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    18. Alexandra C. Achen & Paul N. Courant, 2009. "What Are Grades Made Of?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 77-92, Summer.
    19. Ernst Fehr & Jean-Robert Tyran, 2001. "Does Money Illusion Matter?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1239-1262, December.
    20. Krautmann, Anthony C. & Sander, William, 1999. "Grades and student evaluations of teachers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 59-63, February.
    21. Donald G. Freeman, 1999. "Grade Divergence as a Market Outcome," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 344-351, December.
    22. Gary S. Becker, 1994. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck94-1, October.
    23. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    24. Silva, Maria C.A. & Camanho, Ana S. & Barbosa, Flávia, 2020. "Benchmarking of secondary schools based on Students’ results in higher education," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    25. Manski, Charles F., 1989. "Schooling as experimentation: a reappraisal of the postsecondary dropout phenomenon," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 305-312, August.
    26. Talia Bar & Vrinda Kadiyali & Asaf Zussman, 2012. "Putting Grades in Context," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 445-478.
    27. King, Stephen P., 1995. "Search with free-riders," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 253-271, March.
    28. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    29. Steven Pressman, 2007. "The Economics of Grade Inflation," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(5), pages 93-102.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Michael C Herron & Zachary D Markovich, 2017. "Student sorting and implications for grade inflation," Rationality and Society, , vol. 29(3), pages 355-386, August.
    2. Geraint Johnes & Kwok Tong Soo, 2017. "Grades across Universities over Time," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(1), pages 106-131, January.
    3. Bauer, Thomas K. & Grave, Barbara S., 2011. "Performance-related Funding of Universities: Does More Competition Lead to Grade Inflation?," IZA Discussion Papers 6073, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Van Belle, Eva & Caers, Ralf & De Couck, Marijke & Di Stasio, Valentina & Baert, Stijn, 2017. "Why Is Unemployment Duration a Sorting Criterion in Hiring?," IZA Discussion Papers 10876, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Martin Gregor, 2021. "Electives Shopping, Grading Policies and Grading Competition," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(350), pages 364-398, April.
    6. Thomas K. Bauer & Barbara S. Grave, 2011. "Performance-related Funding of Universities – Does more Competition Lead to Grade Inflation?," Ruhr Economic Papers 0288, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    7. Shao-Hsun Keng, 2016. "The Effect of a Stricter Academic Dismissal Policy on Course Selection, Student Effort, and Grading Leniency," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(2), pages 203-224, Spring.
    8. Horacio Matos-Díaz, 2014. "Measuring grade inflation and grade divergence accounting for student quality," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Rebecca Summary & William Weber, 2012. "Grade inflation or productivity growth? An analysis of changing grade distributions at a regional university," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 95-107, August.
    10. repec:zbw:rwirep:0288 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    12. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2021. "High School Rank in Math and English and the Gender Gap in STEM," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Libh Anthony L. Limama & Glenne B. Lagura & Romalie F. Galleto, 2025. "Employment Trends and Sectoral Integration of Public Administration Graduates: A Tracer Study (2018–2023)," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(3), pages 4980-4996, March.
    14. Grenet, Julien & He, YingHua & Kübler, Dorothea, 2022. "Preference Discovery in University Admissions: The Case for Dynamic Multioffer Mechanisms," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 130(6), pages 1-1.
    15. Alessandro Tampieri, 2016. "Social background effects on school and job opportunities," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 496-510, September.
    16. Emmanuel Duguet & Rémi Le Gall & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit, 2018. "How does labour market history influence the access to hiring interviews?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(4), pages 519-533, July.
    17. Licht Amir N., 2008. "Social Norms and the Law: Why Peoples Obey the Law," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 715-750, December.
    18. Tong Wang & Congyi Zhou, 2020. "High school admission reform in China: a welfare analysis," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 24(3), pages 215-269, December.
    19. Oosterbeek, Hessel & Sóvágó, Sándor & van der Klaauw, Bas, 2021. "Preference heterogeneity and school segregation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    20. Klijn, Flip & Pais, Joana & Vorsatz, Marc, 2020. "Improving schools through school choice: An experimental study of deferred acceptance," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    21. John Eric Humphries & Juanna Schr¿ter Joensen & Gregory F. Veramendi, 2025. "Complementarities in High School and College Investments," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2446, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

    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:bpj:bejeap:v:25:y:2025:i:2:p:305-342:n:1006. 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    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.