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Measuring the efficiency of primary education and its determinants in Spain and in the European Union: An analysis with TIMSS-PIRLS 2011

12nd National Competition for Economic Research Grants

Economics of Education

Senior Researcher : Daniel Santín González

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Research Centre or Institution : Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Abstract

The aim of this research project is to analyse the productive efficiency of primary education centres (year 4) in Spain and to compare their performance with those of schools in the European Union. For this, two recent databases will be used, which contain information on primary education in Spain. In particular, it will use the 2009 General Evaluation and Diagnosis Database (ME, 2010) and the international data from TIMSS-PIRLS 2011 (MECD, 2012). To achieve this aim, it will calculate the productive efficiency of the participating education centres by means of a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model. We will then introduce different contextual and qualitative variables of the functioning of the school into the model, which will enable us to investigate which public policies would make it possible to improve the results achieved without the need to continue increasing the available budgetary resources. In short, by means of this project, we will seek to gain an in-depth understanding of which variables could be having an impact on the poor educational results in Spain, studying their causes from the first stages of education (primary education), this being the first time this type of research has been carried out in Spain.