Oana Borcan (University of East Anglia) 10.10.2024
It is our pleasure that Oana Borcan (University of East Anglia) will present on Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 12:45 in room RB338 about the topic “Positive Disruption? Meritocratic Principal Selection and Student Achievement“ .
Registration is not required and anyone who would like to attend is warmly invited.
It is also possible to participate online via MS Teams at this link.
ABSTRACT: We analyse the impact of the 2016 introduction of merit-based selection for Romanian state school principals on students’ school-leaving test scores using a staggered difference-in-difference strategy. Overall, competitively selected principals (compared to those appointed) have an insignificant impact on achievement. However, competitively selected new principals (compared to principals who retain their position) improve pass rates by 8 percentage points two years on. The effect is driven by schools with average past performance and is partly due to strategic selection of students into the exam. Additional survey data also suggests the policy selects principals that are more motivated for the job.
BIO: Oana is an associate professor in Economics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, working on research at the intersection of public and development economics, with a strong focus on corruption and integrity. Her most recent works focus on impact evaluation of integrity and ethics interventions in the public sector and beyond. She uses quasi-experiment and field experiments with data from Romania, Ukraine and Ghana, and employing insights from behavioural economics. She is currently also guest editor of the Special Issue on Discrimination and Diversity at the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation, and co-organiser of the annual Discrimination and Diversity Workshop (5th edition due July 2024). In addition, she regularly serve in advisory roles for local government or international organisations such as the UN.
