Overview

Abstract (English)

Very few studies analyze the long-term educational effects of private secondary school attendancewhile controlling for socioeconomic status. In Québec, the second most populous Canadian province, twenty percent of students at this level are enrolled in private schools subsidized by the government thathowever setsa relatively low ceiling for the fees in exchange for subsidies. Selectionbias arising from a host of factors, preclude simplistic comparisonsof their educational results with those of their public sector peers. This study uses the first four longitudinal waves ofthe two cohorts fromStatistics Canada’s Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) toestimatethe average treatment on the treated effect of private school on the highschool graduation rate within the expected number of years after starting high school (5), enrollment in postsecondary institutions at age 19, university enrollment at age 21 or more, university graduation at age 24 or more, and enrollment in a professional degreeprogram. The econometric estimationof treatment effects is based on a particular entropy balancing algorithm with a large set of key balancing covariates. Results are validated by a simulation-based sensitivity analysis for matching estimators. We find large, positive, robust,and statistically significant effects of private schooling on almost all outcomes analyzed. Most results are not sensitive to simulations of omitted variable bias.

Abstract (French)

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