Paper title: Educational Governance, Corruption, and Student Performance in Post-Communist Countries
Authors: 
Faisal Mohammed - Estonian Business School
Kaire Põder - Estonian Business School
Niveditha Prabakaran Pankova - Estonian Business School

Abstract:

Educational governance, defined by school autonomy and accountability, has a complex relationship with student performance, varying across institutional contexts. While decentralization—characterized by parental choice, school autonomy, and accountability—has been the core education governance agenda since the 1990s, there are mixed results of it on student outcomes in countries with weak institutions. In this study, we examine this ambiguity in post-communist countries, which serve as a natural experiment due to their shared institutional transition but differing governance outcomes. Using the PISA 2022 dataset (98,225 students from 3,669 schools across 15 countries), and the World Bank’s “Control of Corruption” estimate, we analyse how governance structures influence student achievement. Employing weighted least squares regression with country-fixed effects and Fay’s Balanced Repeated Replication method, we find that students in decentralized schools with accountability mechanisms perform better, regardless of corruption levels. However, the benefits of decentralization are greater in low-corruption environments. Additionally, in highly corrupt countries, increased public education spending correlates with lower student performance, suggesting misallocation of resources. These findings highlight the importance of institutional quality in shaping the effectiveness of decentralization in education policy. 

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