Sweden's School Choice Reform and Equality of Opportunity

85 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2014

See all articles by Karin Edmark

Karin Edmark

Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Markus Frölich

Universität Mannheim, Chair of Econometrics

Verena Wondratschek

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 23, 2014

Abstract

This study analyses whether the Swedish school choice reform, enacted in 1992, had different effects on students from different socio-economic backgrounds. We use detailed geographical data on students’ and schools’ locations to construct measures of the degree of potential choice. This allows us to study the effects of choice opportunities among public schools, whereas previous studies have focused on newly opened private schools. Our results suggest small positive or no effects of choice opportunities, depending on specification and outcome. We find no strong evidence of differences between subgroups; if anything, effects tend to be slightly more positive for disadvantaged groups, such as students from low-income families. Taken together, the results indicate that students from a socio-economically disadvantaged or immigrant background were not harmed by the reform.

Keywords: school choice, school competition, treatment evaluation, cognitive and non-cognitive skills

JEL Classification: I24, C21

Suggested Citation

Edmark, Karin and Frölich, Markus and Wondratschek, Verena, Sweden's School Choice Reform and Equality of Opportunity (June 23, 2014). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 14-041, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2464496 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2464496

Karin Edmark

Research Institute of Industrial Economics ( email )

Box 55665
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

HOME PAGE: http://www.ifn.se\karine

Markus Frölich (Contact Author)

Universität Mannheim, Chair of Econometrics ( email )

L7, 3-5
68131 Mannheim
D-Mannheim, 68131
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://froelich.vwl.uni-mannheim.de

Verena Wondratschek

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1
D-68034 Mannheim, 68034
Germany

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ( email )

Box 55665
Grevgatan 34, 2nd floor
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

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