Failure at school: an old problem in a new context? In most OECD countries, there is some reluctance to acknowledge the problem of failure at school. And when the problem is acknowledged, it is not always easy to find effective means for combating it or, even, to agree on indicators of failure...

This study was prepared by Gabriela Schütz while she was working with the Ifo Institute for Economic Research. It was completed in September 2008 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Economics Department of the University of Munich (LMU). The topic of this study is an econometric analysis...