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Why Subsidize Independent Schools? Estimating the Effect of a Unique Canadian Schooling Model on Educational Attainment

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  • Pierre Lefebvre

    (Research Group on Human Capital, Department of Economics School of Management (ESG), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, QC H3C3P8, Canada)

  • Philip Merrigan

    (Research Group on Human Capital, Department of Economics School of Management (ESG), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, QC H3C3P8, Canada)

Abstract

Canada is recognized as one of the top 10 countries in secondary education according to PISA results. A particularly intriguing case in this country is the large system of highly subsidized independent schools in the province of Québec where students also perform extremely well in PISA testing. This paper uses the year 2000 PISA cohort of 15-year-olds in Québec to estimate the ATT effect of independent schooling on educational attainment. We find large, positive, robust, and statistically significant effects of independent schooling on attainment. The robustness of the results to omitted variable bias is addressed through a sensitivity analysis for matching estimators.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Lefebvre & Philip Merrigan, 2022. "Why Subsidize Independent Schools? Estimating the Effect of a Unique Canadian Schooling Model on Educational Attainment," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:10:y:2022:i:4:p:605-:d:750807
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    YITS; high school graduation; independent schools; postsecondary education and professional programs enrollment and graduation; longitudinal data; treatment effect; entropy balancing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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