Do schools compete with each other? Empirical evidence from Jakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT

This 2015 cross-sectional study tested whether the level of competition affected the national test scores of senior high schools in Jakarta. We measured the level of competition using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and a gravity-based school competition index for the number of enrolled students. We found that schools’ national exam scores were positively associated with the level of competition. Furthermore, this competition was better explained by physical proximity than by administrative boundaries. However, public schools did not benefit from the competition.

KEYWORDS:

• School competition
• competition index
• Jakarta
• national exam score
• senior high school

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I21
• I28
• D24
• R12

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research received funding from the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia and PITTA Research Grant Universitas Indonesia in 2017.