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Mean and distributional impact of single-sex high schools on students’ cognitive achievement, major choice, and test-taking behavior: Evidence from a random assignment policy in Seoul, Korea

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  • Sohn, Hosung

Abstract

Single-sex schooling has been considered in many countries as a way to promote student achievement. This paper estimates the mean and distributional impact of single-sex high schools on students’ cognitive achievement, major choice, and test-taking behavior—by exploiting the random assignment policy adopted in Seoul, Korea. Based on administrative data for a period of seven years, I find that, on average, the positive effects of single-sex schooling on test scores are small, especially when the parental and teacher sorting are accounted for. Although the magnitude of the estimated effects is small, I find that the effect is relatively larger for students in quantiles 0.5–0.8 of the distribution of test scores. The impact is trivial, on the other hand, for students located at the very bottom and the very top quantiles. Moreover, I do not find any differences, both practically and statistically, in major choice and test-taking behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Sohn, Hosung, 2016. "Mean and distributional impact of single-sex high schools on students’ cognitive achievement, major choice, and test-taking behavior: Evidence from a random assignment policy in Seoul, Korea," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 155-175.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:52:y:2016:i:c:p:155-175
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2016.02.007
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lee, Youngju & Nakazawa, Nobuhiko, 2022. "Does single-sex schooling help or hurt labor market outcomes? Evidence from a natural experiment in South Korea," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    3. Karnani, Mohit, 2016. "Freshmen teachers and college major choice: Evidence from a random assignment in Chile," MPRA Paper 76062, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Judith M. Delaney & Paul J. Devereux, 2021. "Gender and Educational Achievement: Stylized Facts and Causal Evidence," Working Papers 202103, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Seul-Ki Kim & Young-Chul Kim, 2021. "Coed vs Single-Sex Schooling: An Empirical Study on Mental Health Outcomes," Working Papers 2103, Nam Duck-Woo Economic Research Institute, Sogang University (Former Research Institute for Market Economy).
    6. Eleanor Jawon Choi & Hyungsik Roger Moon & Geert Ridder, 2019. "Within-District School Lotteries, District Selection, and the Average Partial Effects of School Inputs," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 35, pages 275-306.
    7. Park, Hyunjoon & Behrman, Jere R. & Choi, Jaesung, 2018. "Do single-sex schools enhance students’ STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) outcomes?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 35-47.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Single-sex school; Major choice; Random assignment; Mean and distributional impact;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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