E & M Ekonomie A Management | 2019
On the Relationship between Selected Socio-Economic Indicators and Student Performances in the PISA 2015 Study
Abstract
The main aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between the PISA (Programme for\nInternational Student Assessment) international study results of 15 and 16 years-old pupils from\n2015 and a set of socio-economic indicators (on a national level) such as governments’ expenditures\non primary education, gross domestic product per capita, the Democracy index compiled by\nthe Economist Intelligence Unit, or primary teachers’ salaries. The study covered 71 countries\nor territories, including 34 OECD countries and their 37 non-OECD counterparts. The methods\nincluded multivariate linear models, models based on Tornquist functions, and cluster analysis. The\nmain result of the study is that there exists a threshold in terms of GDP per capita and government\nexpenditures on primary education per capita. Above the threshold, the higher GDP per capita\nor expenditures do not translate into the higher PISA scores. However, below this threshold, the\nopposite is true. Therefore, poorer and mainly non-OECD countries may achieve better student\nperformances in PISA tests by increasing expenditures on primary education, while for student\nperformances of the wealthy and mainly OECD countries expenditures are not a statistically\nsignifi cant factor. The division between OECD and non-OECD countries was also confi rmed to be\nstatistically signifi cant by cluster analysis method. In addition, from linear multivariate models it was\nfound that PISA scores were statistically signifi cantly (and positively) related to the national GDP\nper capita, governments’ expenditures on primary education, and the Democracy index, while the\ninfl uence of primary teachers’ salaries on PISA scores was found statistically insignifi cant.