Human Capital Formation In Poland. Where Does Educational Quality Come From?

Abstract

Theory and empirical literature relates educational quality to four main explanatory factors: intergenerational transfer of human capital, quality of schools, school composition and economic conditions. Based on these findings a model explaining territorial differentiation of educational quality is proposed. The dependent variable is test score of 6th grade students, averaged at municipality level. As it turns out, educational outcome is highly conditioned on school composition, most likely as a result of high vulnerability to inequalities in school community. Of great importance is also local human capital stock. The role of traditionally meant school quality is minor (although higher in rural areas than in cities), partly because of decreasing returns to scale of school resources. Average school outcome differs significantly along historical divisions of Poland, not only in levels, but also in parameters of determining function. Legacies of the past and related socioeconomic processes have a substantial impact on the sensitivity of educational quality to different explanatory factors.