Local governments’ efficiency and educational results: empirical evidence from Italian primary schools

In Italy, the provision of educational ancillary services (like meals and school transportation) is in charge of the municipalities. We investigate whether municipalities differ in their efficiency when providing these services and whether such heterogeneity explains some portion of the variability observed in pupils’ test scores. This paper is the first application of a non-parametric order-$${\rm{m}}$$m model and a two-stage multilevel regression model to a unique administrative dataset, made up of the entire population of Italian pupils tested in reading and mathematics at grade 5 (academic years 2012/2013 and 2014/2015). Results demonstrate that local governments have different efficiency levels in providing services to schools. The test scores’ variability among pupils is not explained by different efficiency levels of local government in producing ancillary services.