Data Watch: Research Data in the Economics of Education

Abstract

One reason for the recent proliferation of empirical studies addressing the role of education in promoting individual and social welfare has been the emergence of high-quality, micro-level data on education. In this paper, we discuss three broad types of data sets: data on educational institutions, data on educational outcomes at the individual level, and data sets from school reforms and experiments. In each section, we summarize some of the leading surveys, discuss the general availability of the data, and identify some, but certainly not all, of the research that has utilized these data. This review is by no means exhaustive. We have restricted our attention to analyses of data sets describing primary and secondary education. Moreover, we emphasize data sets that are excellent sources of information but are less well known and utilized by economists.