Managerial Practices and Students' Performance

62 Pages Posted: 4 Oct 2014

See all articles by Adriana Di Liberto

Adriana Di Liberto

Università di Cagliari and Crenos; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Fabiano Schivardi

Luiss Guido Carli - Department of Economics and Finance; Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Giovanni Sulis

Department of Economics and Business, University of Cagliari; IZA Institute of Labor Economics; CRENoS

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Abstract

We study the effects of managerial practices in schools on students' outcomes. We measure managerial practices using the World Management Survey, a methodology that enables us to construct robust measures of management quality comparable across countries.We find substantial heterogeneity in managerial practices across six industrialized countries, with more centralized systems (Italy and Germany) lagging behind the more autonomous ones (Canada, Sweden, the UK, the US). For Italy, we are able to match organizational practices at the school level with students' outcomes in a math standardized test. We find that managerial practices are positively related to students' outcomes. The estimates imply that if Italy had the same managerial practices as the UK (the best performer), it would close the gap in the math OECD-PISA test with respect to the OECD average.We argue that our results are robust to selection issues and show that they are confirmed by a set of IV estimates and by a large number of robustness checks. Overall, our results suggest that policies directed at improving students' cognitive achievements should take into account principals' selection and training in terms of managerial capabilities.

Keywords: management, productivity, school principals, cognitive skills

JEL Classification: L2, I2, M1, O32

Suggested Citation

Di Liberto, Adriana and Schivardi, Fabiano and Sulis, Giovanni, Managerial Practices and Students' Performance. IZA Discussion Paper No. 8475, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2505337 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2505337

Adriana Di Liberto (Contact Author)

Università di Cagliari and Crenos ( email )

via S. Ignazio 78
Cagliari, 09123
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Fabiano Schivardi

Luiss Guido Carli - Department of Economics and Finance ( email )

Viale Romania 32
Rome, Rome 00187
Italy

Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) ( email )

Via Due Macelli, 73
Rome, 00187
Italy

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

Giovanni Sulis

Department of Economics and Business, University of Cagliari

Viale S Ignazio da Laconi 17
09123 Cagliari
Cagliari, 09123
Italy

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

CRENoS ( email )

Facolta di Scienze Politiche via Sant'Ignazio 78
Cagliari, 09124

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