Measuring educational efficiency at student level with parametric stochastic distance functions: An application to Spanish PISA results

Abstract

This study explicitly considers that education is a multi-input multi-output production process subject to inefficient behaviors that can be identified at student level. Therefore a distance function allows us to calculate different aspects of educational technology. The paper presents an empirical application of this model using Spanish data from the Programme for International Student Assessment implemented by the OECD. The results provide insights into how student background, peer-group and school characteristics interact with educational outputs. Findings also suggest that, once educational inputs are taken into account; there is no statistically significant difference in efficiency levels across schools regarding public-private ownership.Secondary schools, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier, distance function.