Title
Inequality in school resources and academic achievement: Evidence from Peru
Date Issued
01 January 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
This paper goes further in the discussion on the determinants of school attainment in developing countries. To properly estimate the effects of school resources on academic achievement, we need to take into account the large geographical inequalities in the distribution of school resources and the supply constraints faced by students living in poor areas. We do so by implementing a two-step correction that accounts for the constraints in school choice. Our findings suggest that failing to account for these constraints leads to an underestimation of the effect of school resources on school achievement of about 100%. This underestimation is particularly important for girls and in Math. Additionally, the contribution of school resources in explaining the gap in test scores between rich and poor students is doubled once we account for the constrained choices.
Start page
71
End page
84
Volume
40
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Economía
Ciencias de la educación
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84922932646
Source
International Journal of Educational Development
ISSN of the container
07380593
Sponsor(s)
The first version of this paper was done under the Research Network on Decentralization sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Consortium in Peru (CIES). We are very grateful to participants in seminars given at GRADE, UC Berkeley, CIES, LACEA XII, MWIEDC, and the IADB, who provided useful and insightful comments. León thanks the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness , through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D ( SEV-2011-0075 ) and grant ECO2011-25272 . Jorge Mesinas provided excellent research assistance during the initial stages of the project. The standard disclaimer applies.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus