IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v44y2012i9p2153-2170.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effects of Competition on the Quality of Primary Schools in the Netherlands

Author

Listed:
  • Joëlle Noailly

    (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, PO Box 80510, 2508 GM The Hague, The Netherlands)

  • SunÄ ica Vujić

    (Department of Economics, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, England)

  • Ali Aouragh

    (CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, PO Box 80510, 2508 GM The Hague, The Netherlands)

Abstract

We investigate the impact of competition between primary schools on the quality of education in the Netherlands. Do schools facing more competition in their neighbourhood perform better than schools facing less competition? As a measure of school quality, we look at the performance of pupils at the nationwide standard test (the so-called ‘Cito test’) in the final year of primary education. Since competition is likely to be endogenous to the quality of schools, we use the distance between the school and the city centre as an instrument for the level of competition faced by a school. Using a large range of data on pupil, school, and market characteristics, we find that school competition has a positive significant effect on pupil achievement, although the effect is very small. An increase in competition by one standard deviation (comparable to five additional schools in the market) increases pupil achievement as measured by the Cito test by 5% to 10% of the mean standard deviation, which is less than one point (on the Cito test scale from 500 to 550 points).

Suggested Citation

  • Joëlle Noailly & SunÄ ica Vujić & Ali Aouragh, 2012. "The Effects of Competition on the Quality of Primary Schools in the Netherlands," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(9), pages 2153-2170, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:9:p:2153-2170
    DOI: 10.1068/a449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a449
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a449?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4, June.
    2. Sandra E. Black, 1999. "Do Better Schools Matter? Parental Valuation of Elementary Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 577-599.
    3. George M. Holmes, "undated". "Does school choice increase school quality?," Working Papers 0106, East Carolina University, Department of Economics.
    4. Propper, Carol & Burgess, Simon & Green, Katherine, 2004. "Does competition between hospitals improve the quality of care?: Hospital death rates and the NHS internal market," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(7-8), pages 1247-1272, July.
    5. Oliver Himmler, 2009. "The Effects of School Competition on Academic Achievement and Grading Standards," CESifo Working Paper Series 2676, CESifo.
    6. Richard J. Murnane & John B. Willett & Yves Duhaldeborde & John H. Tyler, 2000. "How important are the cognitive skills of teenagers in predicting subsequent earnings?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 547-568.
    7. Caroline M. Hoxby, 2000. "Does Competition among Public Schools Benefit Students and Taxpayers?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1209-1238, December.
    8. Jerik Hanushek & Dennis Kimko, 2006. "Schooling, Labor-force Quality, and the Growth of Nations," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 154-193.
    9. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3, June.
    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. Rentería, José María, 2023. "The collateral effects of private school expansion in a deregulated market: Peru, 1996–2019," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).

    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. Joëlle Noailly & Suncica Vujic & Ali Aouragh, 2009. "The effects of competition on the quality of primary schools in the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 120.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Joëlle Noailly & Suncica Vujic & Ali Aouragh, 2009. "The effects of competition on the quality of primary schools in the Netherlands," CPB Discussion Paper 120, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    3. Sofia N. Andreou & Panos Pashardes, 2013. "Consumers’ Valuation of Academic and Equality-inducing Aspects of School Performance in England," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 09-2013, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    4. W. Bentley MacLeod & Miguel Urquiola, 2018. "Is Education Consumption or Investment? Implications for the Effect of School Competition," NBER Working Papers 25117, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Catherine Haeck & Pierre Lefebvre, 2020. "The Evolution of Cognitive Skills Inequalities by Socioeconomic Status across Canada," Working Papers 20-04, Research Group on Human Capital, University of Quebec in Montreal's School of Management.
    6. Firpo, Sergio & Ponczek, Vladimir & Possebom, Vítor Augusto, 2014. "Private Education Market, Information on Test Scores and Tuition Practices," IZA Discussion Papers 8476, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Altinok, Nadir & Aydemir, Abdurrahman, 2017. "Does one size fit all? The impact of cognitive skills on economic growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 176-190.
    8. Xiaozhou Ding & Christopher Bollinger & Michael Clark & William H. Hoyt, 2020. "How Do School District Boundary Changes and New School Proposals Affect Housing Prices," CESifo Working Paper Series 8069, CESifo.
    9. Piopiunik, Marc & Hanushek, Eric A. & Wiederhold, Simon, 2014. "The Impact of Teacher Skills on Student Performance across Countries," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100356, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    10. Muñoz-Morales, Juan & Singh, Ruchi, 2023. "Do school shootings erode property values?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    11. Millimet, Daniel L. & Rangaprasad, Vasudha, 2007. "Strategic competition amongst public schools," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 199-219, March.
    12. Rosa Sanchis-Guarner & José Montalbán & Felix Weinhardt, 2021. "Home Broadband and Human Capital Formation," CESifo Working Paper Series 8846, CESifo.
    13. Sofia N. Andreou & Panos Pashardes & Nicoletta Pashourtidou, 2015. "The value of state education to consumers," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 05-2015, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    14. Hanushek, Eric A., 2021. "Addressing cross-national generalizability in educational impact evaluation," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Hanushek, Eric A., 2011. "The economic value of higher teacher quality," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 466-479, June.
    16. Imberman, Scott A. & Lovenheim, Michael F., 2016. "Does the market value value-added? Evidence from housing prices after a public release of school and teacher value-added," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 104-121.
    17. Eric A. Hanushek & Jens Ruhose & Ludger Woessmann, 2015. "Human Capital Quality and Aggregate Income Differences: Development Accounting for U.S. States," CESifo Working Paper Series 5411, CESifo.
    18. Eric A. Hanushek & Jens Ruhose & Ludger Woessmann, 2017. "Knowledge Capital and Aggregate Income Differences: Development Accounting for US States," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 184-224, October.
    19. Oskari Harjunen & Mika Kortelainen & Tuukka Saarimaa, 2018. "Best Education Money Can Buy? Capitalization of School Quality in Finland," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 64(2), pages 150-175.
    20. Edmark, Karin & Frölich, Markus & Wondratschek, Verena, 2014. "Sweden's school choice reform and equality of opportunity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 129-142.

    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:sae:envira:v:44:y:2012:i:9:p:2153-2170. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.