Competition and educational quality: evidence from the Netherlands

Little evidence is available for the effect of competition on educational quality as only a few countries allow large-scale competition. In the Netherlands, free parental choice has been present since the beginning of the 20th century and can be characterised as a full voucher program with 100 percent funding. Based on micro panel data for the Netherlands, we show that there is a relation between competition and educational outcomes in secondary education, but that it is often negative and small, sometimes insignificant but never positive. This effect is larger for small and medium-sized schools and for schools that do not have a Protestant or Catholic denomination.