It is widely believed today, that the operation of the labour markets is influenced by institutional factors, affecting macroeconomic adjustment in response to shocks. In this way, labour market institutions affect both cyclical and long-term growth and inflation performance of an economy. The...

We estimate preferences for school tracks in upper secondary education in Hungary. We consider travel time, school SES composition, school level (in terms of peer quality) and school quality (in terms of added value). We find that students have stronger preferences for school SES composition and...

Girls tend to outperform boys in reading tests, while they usually lag behind boys in math. However, the size of the gender gap varies to a great extent between countries. While the existing literature explains these differences as being mainly due to cultural factors, this paper explores...

This paper aims at the evaluation of the reform of vocational education introduced in 1998 in Hungary. The reform extended the duration of education by one year, and increased teaching time spent on non-vocational subjects. The reform affected two of the three tracks in upper-secondary education...

In 2013 the responsibility for school governance and funding has been transferred from local governments to a central government agency in Hungary. The key objectives of this reform, as stated by policy makers, was to mitigate interjurisdictional inequalities in education. This paper explores...

In this study, we present the first results of a telephone survey that was conducted among families raising a school-age child. Parents and children were asked about their experiences with online teaching following Covid-19 lockdowns. The data collection took place in April 2021, just after one...

While most empirical studies document that cognitive and social skills are strong predictors of individual earnings, their impact is not homogenous in space. We argue that dense urban settings utilize cognitive and social skills more intensively than rural areas, therefore the labour market...

The paper analyses disparities in local education expenditures at the settlement and school level n Hungary. It is shown that local average income, which is a major element of the local government budget constraint, has a strong impact on school expenditures, especially in towns. This lack of...

The paper investigates the effect of teacher characteristics (experience, level of education attainment and credentials, gender) on the achievement of eighth grade students using matched student-teacher data from the 1999, 2003 and 2007 TIMSS surveys. The analysis covers European countries, thus...

Previous research provided ambiguous results on the association between average student performance and inequality of opportunity, as measured by the effect of family background on student achievement. In this paper we explore this association distinguishing between inequality of opportunity at...