Better schools for Europe

A prize-winning essay by Erich Gundlach and Ludger Wöbmann in a competition organised by the European Investment Bank. The authors speculate that the apparent decline in European schooling productivity reflects inefficient schooling institutions. International cross-section evidence suggests that the performance of students in many European countries could be vastly improved by changing the institutions which govern the incentives of students, teachers and the school administration. They find that centralised exams, school autonomy in personnel decisions, and competition from private schools boost student performance and that, in their view, educational policies in Europe should focus on institutional reform rather than on additional spending.