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Sorting, status, and shadow education: How track placement shapes parental investment

Author

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  • Klein, Thilo
  • McNamara, Sarah

Abstract

Educational tracking-separating students into tracks or schools by ability-is commonplace, but access and preferences for top programs often depend on socioeconomic status (SES), reinforcing inequality. We study shadow education in the context of an early-tracking system, exploiting score cut-offs using a pseudo-regression discontinuity design to isolate the causal effect on parental investments. We find that assignment to the highest track disproportionately increases private tutoring among families in the lowest tercile of SES. This suggests tracking activates a behavioral response among disadvantaged households, which may amplify between-track achievement gaps.

Suggested Citation

  • Klein, Thilo & McNamara, Sarah, 2025. "Sorting, status, and shadow education: How track placement shapes parental investment," ZEW Discussion Papers 25-023, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:319893
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; school choice; tracking; shadow education; private tutoring; student achievement; inequality of opportunity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • E47 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

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