IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucd/wpaper/201808.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Distributional Analysis of Upper Secondary School Performance

Author

Listed:
  • John Cullinan

    (National University of Ireland, Galway)

  • Kevin Denny

    (University College Dublin)

  • Darragh Flannery

    (University of Limerick)

Abstract

We examine the relationship between the distribution of upper secondary school performance and a range of individual and school level characteristics using unconditional quantile regression methods and data from Ireland. We find that determinants such as social class, maternal unemployment, extra private tuition, and working part-time have differential effects for low and high ability students and that important insights are lost by focusing on the conditional mean. The implication is that while certain factors can impact on whether or not a student is likely to proceed to higher education, other factors may affect where students go and what they study.

Suggested Citation

  • John Cullinan & Kevin Denny & Darragh Flannery, 2018. "A Distributional Analysis of Upper Secondary School Performance," Working Papers 201808, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ucd.ie/geary/static/publications/workingpapers/gearywp201808.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2018
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eide, Eric & Showalter, Mark H., 1998. "The effect of school quality on student performance: A quantile regression approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 345-350, March.
    2. D. Flannery & J. Cullinan, 2014. "Where they go, what they do and why it matters: the importance of geographic accessibility and social class for decisions relating to higher education institution type, degree level and field of study," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(24), pages 2952-2965, August.
    3. Pedro Carneiro & James J. Heckman, 2002. "The Evidence on Credit Constraints in Post--secondary Schooling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 705-734, October.
    4. Haroon Chowdry & Claire Crawford & Lorraine Dearden & Alissa Goodman & Anna Vignoles, 2013. "Widening participation in higher education: analysis using linked administrative data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 176(2), pages 431-457, February.
    5. Thomas Fuchs & Ludger Wößmann, 2007. "What accounts for international differences in student performance? A re-examination using PISA data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 433-464, May.
    6. Christopher Jepsen, 2015. "Class size: Does it matter for student achievement?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 190-190, September.
    7. Foreman-Peck, James & Foreman-Peck, Lorraine, 2006. "Should schools be smaller? The size-performance relationship for Welsh schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 157-171, April.
    8. Flannery, Darragh & O'Donoghue, Cathal, 2009. "The Determinants of Higher Education Participation in Ireland: A Micro Analysis," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 40(1), pages 73-107.
    9. Lorraine Dearden & Javier Ferri & Costas Meghir, 2002. "The Effect Of School Quality On Educational Attainment And Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 1-20, February.
    10. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.),Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    11. Pfeifer, Christian & Cornelißen, Thomas, 2010. "The impact of participation in sports on educational attainment--New evidence from Germany," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 94-103, February.
    12. Blundell, Richard, et al, 2000. "The Returns to Higher Education in Britain: Evidence from a British Cohort," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 110(461), pages 82-99, February.
    13. McCoy, Selina & Kelly, Elish & Watson, Dorothy, 2007. "School Leavers' Survey Report 2006," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BMI198.
    14. Bijan J. Borah & Anirban Basu, 2013. "Highlighting Differences Between Conditional And Unconditional Quantile Regression Approaches Through An Application To Assess Medication Adherence," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(9), pages 1052-1070, September.
    15. Dolton, Peter & Sandi, Matteo, 2017. "Returning to returns: revisiting the British education evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 85152, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. repec:lan:wpaper:1092 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Denny, Kevin, 2014. "The effect of abolishing university tuition costs: Evidence from Ireland," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 26-33.
    18. Steve Bradley & Jim Taylor, 1998. "The Effect of School Size on Exam Performance in Secondary Schools," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 60(3), pages 291-324, August.
    19. Hinnerich, Björn Tyrefors & Vlachos, Jonas, 2017. "The impact of upper-secondary voucher school attendance on student achievement. Swedish evidence using external and internal evaluations," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-14.
    20. Philip Oreopoulos & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2011. "Priceless: The Nonpecuniary Benefits of Schooling," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 159-184, Winter.
    21. Sergio Firpo & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2009. "Unconditional Quantile Regressions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(3), pages 953-973, May.
    22. Getinet Astatike Haile & Anh Ngoc Nguyen, 2007. "Determinants of academic attainment in the United States: A quantile regression analysis of test scores," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(1), pages 29-57.
    23. Dolton, Peter & Sandi, Matteo, 2017. "Returning to returns: Revisiting the British education evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 87-104.
    24. John Cullinan & Darragh Flannery & Sharon Walsh & Selina Mccoy, 2013. "Distance Effects, Social Class and the Decision to Participate in Higher Education in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 44(1), pages 19-51.
    25. Grönqvist, Erik & Vlachos, Jonas, 2016. "One size fits all? The effects of teachers' cognitive and social abilities on student achievement," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 138-150.
    26. Lorraine Dearden & Leslie McGranahan & Barbara Sianesi, 2004. "The Role of Credit Constraints in Educational Choices: Evidence from NCDS and BCS70," CEE Discussion Papers 0048, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    27. Eyles, Andrew & Hupkau, Claudia & Machin, Stephen, 2016. "School reforms and pupil performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 9-19.
    28. Kelly, Elish & O'Connell, Philip J. & Smyth, Emer, 2010. "The economic returns to field of study and competencies among higher education graduates in Ireland," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 650-657, August.
    29. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    30. Aurora Galego & João Pereira, 2014. "Decomposition of Regional Wage Differences Along the Wage Distribution in Portugal: The Importance of Covariates," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(10), pages 2514-2532, October.
    31. Dickson, Matt & Harmon, Colm, 2011. "Economic returns to education: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and Where We Are Going—Some brief pointers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1118-1122.
    32. Lunn, Pete & Kelly, Elish & Fitzpatrick, Nick, 2013. "Keeping Them in the Game: Taking Up and Dropping Out of Sport and Exercise in Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number rs33.
    33. Lounkaew, Kiatanantha, 2013. "Explaining urban–rural differences in educational achievement in Thailand: Evidence from PISA literacy data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 213-225.
    34. Karl Fritjof Krassel & Eskil Heinesen, 2014. "Class-size effects in secondary school," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 412-426, August.
    35. Juliana Guimarães & Breno Sampaio, 2013. "Family background and students’ achievement on a university entrance exam in Brazil," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 38-59, February.
    36. Humlum, Maria Knoth & Smith, Nina, 2015. "Long-term effects of school size on students’ outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 28-43.
    37. Devon Gorry, 2016. "Heterogenous effects of sports participation on education and labor market outcomes," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(6), pages 622-638, November.
    38. repec:lan:wpaper:1016 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. repec:lan:wpaper:1015 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Judith M. Delaney & Paul J. Devereux, 2020. "How Gender and Prior Disadvantage Predict Performance in College," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 51(2), pages 189-239.
    2. Doris, Aedin & O'Neill, Donal & Sweetman, Olive, 2019. "Good Schools or Good Students? The Importance of Selectivity for School Rankings," IZA Discussion Papers 12459, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Secondary school performance; Distribution; Unconditional quantile regression; Ireland;

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ucd:wpaper:201808. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Geary Tech). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/geucdie.html .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.