Study versus television

Abstract

The great majority of studies on the effect of school quality on academicoutcomes do not take account of changes in student choices concerning effortif school quality, e.g. class size, changes. We show that empiricalestimates of the ‘total’ effect of changes in school qualitycould be quite different from the ‘partial’ effect holding otherinputs (including student effort) constant. The main parameters governingthis difference are the extent to which inputs in the education productionfunction are substitutes or complements and how kinked is the benefit from ahigher mark. The difference depends also on student ability, thestudent’s distaste for effort and the curvature of the educationproduction with respect to effort. JEL classification: I21; I28