Miguel Urquiola

Does School Choice Lead to Sorting? Evidence from Tiebout Variation

A question commonly raised about school choice is whether it would result in sorting or stratification. Previous research has asked this with respect to inter-district or Tiebout choice, but has generated no consensus in part because areas’ district concentrations may be endogenous. This paper addresses this by exploiting the fact that some metropolitan areas (MAs) have different numbers of districts operating at the primary and the secondary level. The resulting within-MA, between-educational level variation in district concentration suggests that increases in district availability do affect children’s district and school level peer groups, and that they lower private enrollment. (JEL H1,H7,I2)

Identifying Class Size Effects in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rural Bolivia

This note implements two research designs that attempt to isolate the effect of class size on achievement. A first strategy focuses on variation in class size in rural schools with fewer than 30 students, and hence only one classroom, per grade. Second, an approach similar to Angrist and Lavys exploits regulations that allow schools with more than 30 students in a given grade to obtain an additional teacher. Both designs suggest class size negatively affects test scores.

School Choice, Stratification, and Information on School Performance: Lessons from Chile

In the early 1980s, Chile implemented a nationwide school choice system, under which the government finances education via a flat per-student sub- sidy (or voucher) to the public or private school chosen by a family. At present, about 94 percent of all schools (public, religious, and secular private) are voucher funded. More than half of urban schools are private, and most of these operate as for-profit institutions.1 Since the early 1990s, Chile has also publicized information on school performance and increased per pupil expen- diture substantially. Despite these and other reforms, Chile has found it challenging to improve students’ learning outcomes.2 Hsieh and Urquiola find that the country’s rel- ative performance in international tests did not change much between 1970 and 1999.3 Its performance on the 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is not only much lower than the OECD average but is similar to that of other Latin American countries and low relative to countries with similar income per capita.

Identifying Class Size Effects in Developing Countries: Evidence from Rural Schools in Bolivia

Although class size has attracted great interest as a policy instrument, inferences on its effects are controversial. Recent work highlights a particular way to consider the endogeneity issues that affect this variable: class size is often correlated with enrollment, which may in turn be related to socioeconomic status. In Bolivia, the author shows, these correlations are significant. Building from institutional arrangements that determine pupil-teacher ratios in rural areas, the author implements two research designs to deal with this issue. The first uses a teacher allocation pattern as an instrumental variable; the second relies on variation from remote schools with a single class per grade. Both suggest that class size has a negative effect on test scores.

Geography and Development in Bolivia: Migration, Urban and Industrial Concentration, Welfare, and Convergence: 1950-1992

This paper argues that considering the impact of geographical variables within Bolivia makes feasible a considerably richer analysis. The picture that emergesis occasionally not entirely consistent with the international evidence, but nonethelesspoints toward a systematic and significant impact of geography on development.

The Effects of Generalised School Choice on Achievement and Stratification

A central argument in the school choice debate is that public schools are inefficient local monopolies, and that educational quality would improve dramatically if only parents were allowed to freely choose between schools. For example, Hoxby (2003) asks, “What is the range of productivity over which choice could cause productivity to vary? Recent history suggests that school productivity could be much higher than it is now — 60 per cent to 70 per cent higher.“ Two arguments underlie this view. First, there is a widely held belief that private schools are more effective than public schools.