Suchergebnisse

Previous literature has found inconsistent effects of tracking students in secondary school on student performance using various ways to alleviate the endogeneity in tracking. Sociological literature argues that the threat for war with and invasion by the French around the 1800s induced European countries to introduce mass public education systems. I use this theory to estimate the effect of tracking on student performance in Europe, instrumenting tracking by the political pressure caused by the Napoleonic Wars. The relation between political pressure by Napoleon and tracking is strong and leads in the second stage to a consistent positive effect of tracking on student performance. One important limitation of this analysis is that it is reasonable to assume that political pressure from Napoleon influenced many facets of European countries.

Much research has been done into the emergence of mass education systems, primarily by studying the social origin of the education system, the introduction of compulsory schooling laws, or the expansion of enrolment rates. However, little is known about the origin of the characteristics of these newly formed systems. Ramirez and Boli (1987) argue that the threat for war with and invasion by the French around the 1800s induced European countries to introduce mass public education systems. This paper empirically establishes whether political pressure from Napoleon is related to the levels of differentiation and standardization of European education systems. I find that the political pressure from France is related to differentiation, but less to standardization of the content of instruction, and not at all to the existence of central exam and administrative standardization.