Private school students do not always perform better in standardized tests. We suggest that this may be explained by … choice of private schooling by less capable students in countries where government schools are better suited to talented … students. To assess the empirical relevance of this mechanism, we exploit cross-country variation in the PISA 2009 survey of …

. However, social interactive ability turns out to be important for low aptitude students, whilst the reverse holds for … cognitive abilities. In fact, while high performing students benefit from high cognitive teachers, being matched to such a … students, whereas others may even benefit. High cognitive and non-cognitive abilities thus need not necessarily translate into …

increase in the share of independent-school students between Swedish municipalities. We find that an increase in the share of … independent-school students improves average performance at the end of compulsory school as well as long-run educational outcomes … primarily are due to external effects (e.g., school competition), and not that independent-school students gain significantly …