This paper investigates the relationship between educational attainment and truancy. Using data from the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales, we estimate the causal impact that truancy has on educational attainment at age 16. Problematic is that both truancy and attainment are measured as...

This paper estimates the impact of the specialist schools programme in England on exam performance at the end of compulsory education (at age 16). Two approaches are used. The first uses pupil level data obtained from the 2003 National Pupil Database. The second uses panel data methods and is...

We estimate peer effects for fourth graders in six European countries. The identification relies on variation across classes within schools. We argue that classes within primary schools are formed roughly randomly with respect to family background. Similar to previous studies, we find sizeable...