Abstract

{ABOUT THE SPEAKER } Lovisa Persson received her PhD from Uppsala University in 2015. Her main research area is local government economics, and her current research topics include: public sector productivity, digitalization in local government, and analysis of quasi-markets. 

{ABSTRACT} This paper provides, to the best of our knowledge, the first comprehensive study on how attending a Swedish Independent upper secondary school affects students’ academic and short-term post-secondary outcomes. Beyond having access to population registers that measure school attendance and student outcomes, we also add measures of student preferences for independent provision, as stated in school application forms. The results from a CEM /VAM approach suggest a positive independent school effect on: final GPA , test scores in English and Swedish, likelihood to graduate on time, and attending post-secondary education. However, we also find a larger discrepancy between the final grade and the standardized test result among the independent school students, in a way that accords with previously indicated more lenient grading practices among independent school students. Results from an alternative regression discontinuity design yielded no additional insights, due to imprecise estimates