The relationship between socio-economic status and school achievement is well documented and extensive literature indicates that students from more advantaged backgrounds perform better at school. Despite this relationship, several international assessments have highlighted that in every country...

I investigate the role of competition in explaining Italian schools' performance through OECD-PISA2006 data. In a baseline model, three competition indicators are included separately; when allowing their presence simultaneously and the interaction terms, a different (and more realistic) story...