Three essays on empirical research in the economics of education

Identifier:  TDX:2336

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX2336

Authors:  Meix Llop, Enric

Abstract:
The thesis consists of three main chapters. First one explores the relationship between the level of fiscal and political decentralization in 22 OECD countries and the academic performance of their students. The chapter concludes that in the most fiscally decentralized countries, its students obtain better academic results, on the contrary for countries with high levels of political decentralization, the results are ambigous. In the second chapter, the goal is to explore whether there is discrimination against homosexual parents during the admission of pupils in primary schools. To conduct the study, a field experiment via email is designed. It concludes that the men homosexual's receive significantly fewer responses than heterosexual's. However, this difference does not exist between women homosexual's and heterosexual couples. The third and last chapter analyzes the role of efficient or equitable educational systems in the formation of citizen's satisfaction with the education system. The chapter concludes that citizens have a positive valuation of its educational system if it is efficient. However, the results for the effect of equity differ depending on the educational stage.