This study examines the effect of parental job loss on children's completion of secondary school and the mediating role of home environment in that effect. It uses rich survey data from Hungary on adolescents age 14 through 21, with detailed measures of parental employment and home environment....

The Roma or "Gypsies" are Europe's largest and poorest ethnic minority. Nearly 80 per cent of them live in the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The Roma - Non-Roma educational gap, always substantial but slowly closing in the communist years, widened again after the...

This study estimates the expected long-term budgetary benefits to investing into Roma education in Hungary. By budgetary benefits we mean the direct financial benefits to the national budget. The main idea is that investing extra public money into Roma education would pay off even in fiscal...

This study estimates the expected long-term budgetary benefits to investing into Roma education in Hungary. By budgetary benefits we mean the direct financial benefits to the national budget. The main idea is that investing extra public money into Roma education would pay off even in fiscal...

The paper looks at school segregation in Hungary by ethnicity (Roma versus non-Roma) and social disadvantage. We use comprehensive data from the National Assessment of Basic Competences from 2006. School segregation is measured at various levesl: by micro-regions, within towns and cities, and...

This paper documents and decomposes the test score gap between Roma and non-Roma 8th graders in Hungary in 2006. Our data connect national standardized test scores to an individual panel survey with detailed data on ethnicity and family background. The test score gap is approximately one...

The paper looks at secondary school attendance and grade retention after 8th grade in Hungary. It makes use of panel data of the Hungarian Life Course Survey from 2006 through 2009. Three and a half years after finishing 8th grade, ninety per cent of the children are in school, three quarters on...

This paper aims at estimating the effect of the kindergarten allowance program (a conditional cash transfer program organized by the government) introduced in Hungary in January 2009. We use institutional kindergarten data and municipality-level demographic data spanning ten years (2001 through...

This study quantifies the achievement gap between Roma and non-Roma students in Hungary and assesses the potential causes of the gap. According to reading and mathematics test scores measured in eighth grade, the gap is substantial. Its magnitude is similar to the gap between African American...

This paper evaluates the kindergarten attendance allowance program in Hungary, a conditional cash transfer (CTT) program introduced in 2009 that aimed to increase kindergarten enrollment of disadvantaged children aged 3 and 4. Administration of the program was decentralized, and we make use of...