Private schooling promotes political and economic freedom? An international fixed effects instrumental variables analysis

ABSTRACT

Specialised learning environments provided through private schooling may increase educational quality, which may increase the likelihood that citizens will pursue human rights through civic engagement. We employed 2-stage least squares year and country-level fixed effects and examined how private schooling could affect political rights, civil liberties, and economic freedom indices in 174 nations across the globe from 1999 to 2014. We used an innovative instrumental variable, fluctuations in the short-run demand for schooling within countries, over time, in order to predict private schooling. Our results suggest that an increased share of private schooling enrolment at the primary level leads to enhanced political and economic freedom.

KEYWORDS:

• School choice
• private schooling
• education reform
• civic education
• democratic education

Acknowledgements

The content of the report is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the University of Arkansas. We thank Dr. Robert Maranto for comments on previous drafts. All remaining flaws are our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.PRIV.ZS

2. http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=UNESCO&f=series%3APRP_1

3. https://freedomhouse.org/report-types/freedom-world

4. http://www.freetheworld.com/

5. http://www.heritage.org/index/explore

6. The Fraser Institute index is missing the year 1999, so that specific analysis is from 2000 to 2014.

7. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

8. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world-2016/methodology

9. http://www.freetheworld.com/2015/economic-freedom-of-the-world-2015.pdf

10. Information for enrolment in primary education, both sexes, is obtained from United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) data. Retrieved from http://data.uis.unesco.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=edulit_ds

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Corey A. DeAngelis

Corey A. DeAngelis is a Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute and a Distinguished Doctoral Fellow and PhD Candidate in Education Policy at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He is also a Policy Advisor and Contributing Editor for the Heartland Institute. He additionally holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

M. Danish Shakeel

M. Danish Shakeel has an academic background in physics, mathematics, and computer science. His professional background includes teaching, education administration, and management consultation. Currently, he is a Doctoral Academy Fellow and a PhD candidate at the University of Arkansas. His research interests include school choice, history and philosophy of education reform, and research methods. His work has also been cited in the Wall Street Journal.