Equity and Efficiency in Private and Public Education: A Nonparametric Comparison

22 Pages Posted: 16 Oct 2007

See all articles by L. Cherchye

L. Cherchye

KU Leuven; Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

K. De Witte

University of Leuven (KUL)

Erwin Ooghe

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Center for Economic Studies

Ides Nicaise

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - HIVA

Date Written: September 2007

Abstract

We present a nonparametric approach for the equity and efficiency evaluation of (private and public) primary schools in Flanders. First, we use a nonparametric (Data Envelopment Analysis) model that is specially tailored to assess educational efficiency at the pupil level. The model accounts for the fact that minimal prior structure typically available for the behavior (objectives and feasibility set) under evaluation, it reckons with outlier behavior in the available data, while it corrects for 'environmental' characteristics that are specific to each pupil. Second, we propose first- and second-order stochastic dominance (FSD and SSD) criteria as naturally complementary aggregation criteria for comparing the performance of different school types (private and public schools) in Flanders. While FSD only accounts for (Pareto) efficiency, SSD also takes (Pigou-Dalton) equality into consideration. We find that private schools outperform public schools in terms of SSD.

Keywords: equity, efficiency, private versus public education, non-parametric analysis, data envelopment analysis, stochastic dominance

Suggested Citation

Cherchye, Laurens and De Witte, Kristof and Ooghe, Erwin and Nicaise, Ides, Equity and Efficiency in Private and Public Education: A Nonparametric Comparison (September 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1020922 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1020922

Laurens Cherchye (Contact Author)

KU Leuven ( email )

Oude Markt 13
Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant
Belgium

Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM)

P.O. Box 1738
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands

Kristof De Witte

University of Leuven (KUL) ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, Vlaams Brabant B-3000
Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.feb.kuleuven.be

Erwin Ooghe

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Center for Economic Studies ( email )

Naamsestraat 69
Leuven, B-3000
Belgium

Ides Nicaise

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - HIVA ( email )

Parkstraat 47
Leuven, BE3000
Belgium

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