Private or public school advantage? Evidence from 40 countries using PISA 2012-Mathematics

Abstract

It is known that in most countries, students of private schools outperform students in public schools in international assessments. However, the empirical literature recognizes that assessing the true effect of private school attendance requires addressing selection and sorting issues on both observables and unobservables. The existing empirical evidence on the private school effect mostly covers OECD and Latin American countries, with little evidence on other parts of the world. There is recent emerging country specific evidence doubting the existence of a private school advantage. I use PISA 2012 data for Mathematics and two different methodologies to derive bias-corrected estimates of the “true” private-dependent and independent school effect for 40 countries. A robust private school advantage if found only in a handful of countries. Public schools perform equally well as private subsidized schools and outperform independent schools. Accounting for both peer effects and selection is necessary when evaluating school effectiveness, especially in the case of independent schools.