Person:
Patrinos, Harry Anthony
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
Economics of education
Degrees
ORCID
Departments
Education Global Practice
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Harry Anthony Patrinos is the Practice Manager for the Europe and Central Asia region of the World Bank's education global practice. He specializes in all areas of education, especially school-based management, demand-side financing and public-private partnerships. He managed education lending operations and analytical work programs in Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, as well as a regional research project on the socioeconomic status of Latin America’s Indigenous Peoples, published as Indigenous Peoples, Poverty and Human Development in Latin America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). He is one of the main authors of the report, Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy (World Bank, 2003). Mr. Patrinos has many publications in the academic and policy literature, with more than 40 journal articles. He is co-author of the books: Policy Analysis of Child Labor: A Comparative Study (St. Martin’s, 1999), Decentralization of Education: Demand-Side Financing (World Bank, 1997), and Indigenous People and Poverty in Latin America: An Empirical Analysis with George Psacharopoulos (World Bank/Ashgate, 1994). He has also worked in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. He previously worked as an economist at the Economic Council of Canada. Mr. Patrinos received a doctorate from the University of Sussex.
Publication Search Results
1 - 10 of 83
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Publication
Private Education Provision and Public Finance : The Netherlands
(Taylor and Francis, 2011-06-17)One of the key features of the Dutch education system is freedom of education – freedom to establish schools and organize teaching. Almost 70% of schools in the Netherlands are administered by private school boards, and all schools are government funded equally. This allows school choice. Using an instrument to identify private school attendance, it is shown that the Dutch system promotes academic performance. The instrumental variable results show that private school attendance is associated with higher test scores. Private school size effects on math, reading, and science achievement are 0.19, 0.31, and 0.21, respectively. -
Publication
An Expansion of a Global Data Set on Educational Quality : A Focus on Achievement in Developing Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-07)This paper assembles a panel data set that measures cognitive achievement for 128 countries around the world from 1965 to 2010 in 5-year intervals. The data set is constructed from international achievement tests, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which have become increasingly available since the late 1990s. These international assessments are linked to regional ones, such as the South and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring of Educational Quality, the Programme d'Analyse des Systemes Educatifs de la Confemen, and the Laboratorio Latinoamericano de Evaluacion de la Calidad de la Educacion, in order to produce one of the first globally comparable data sets on student achievement. In particular, the data set is one of the first to include achievement in developing countries, including 29 African countries and 19 Latin American countries. The paper also provides a first attempt at using the data set to identify causal factors that boost achievement. The results show that key drivers of global achievement are civil rights and economic freedom across all countries, and democracy and economic freedom in a subset of African and Latin American countries. -
Publication
Schooling and Labor Market Impacts of a Natural Policy Experiment
(World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2004-11)The authors use a nationally representative household survey to estimate returns to schooling in Venezuela from instrumental variables based on a supply-side intervention in the education market. These estimates apply to a subgroup of liquidity-constrained individuals, in the spirit of the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) literature. Returns to schooling estimates which apply to a subgroup of individuals affected by the policy intervention may be more interesting from a policy perspective than the return to the "average" individual. The authors use an instrument based on the 1980 education reform (the Organic Law of Education) which provided for nine years of compulsory basic education. They also obtain alternative estimates using father's education as an instrument, in an attempt to derive high and low estimates of returns to schooling in Venezuela. The estimates are consistent with recent findings suggesting that the effect of education, at least for certain subgroups affected by a policy intervention, is as large, or larger than what is suggested by OLS estimates. -
Publication
Incidence Analysis of Public Support to the Private Education Sector in Cote d'Ivoire
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2004-03)This report analyzes the equity effects of public subsidization of private schools in Cote d'Ivoire, updates previous analyses, and attempts to assess how efficiently public spending is targeted. The subsidy per student in private (and public) schools increases at higher quintiles. Students from families in the highest quintile receive more than twice the subsidy received by students from families in the lowest quintile, compared with four times more in the case of students attending public schools. However, the subsidy system is progressive as there is a clear tendency for the share of family education expenditure covered by subsidies to decline at higher quintiles. This element of progressivity is stronger in the case of private school attendance. -
Publication
Economic Volatility and Returns to Education in Venezuela: 1992-2002
(World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2004-11)Preliminary evidence suggests that the rates of return to education in Venezuela have been declining since the 1970s. The authors rigorously estimate the returns to education in Venezuela for the period 1992-2002, and link them to earlier available estimates from the 1980s. They use consistent cross-sections from the "Encuesta de Hogares por Muestreo" (Household Survey) to document falling returns to schooling, and educational levels until the mid-1990s, followed by increased returns thereafter. The authors use quantile regression analysis to provide further insight into and within skill group changes in returns over time. -
Publication
Stuck in the Middle? Human Capital Development and Economic Growth
(World Bank, Washington, D.C., 2012-11)The challenge of sustaining economic growth over the long term is one that only a few countries have been able to surmount. Slowing momentum in countries like Malaysia and Thailand has led analysts and policy makers to consider what it would take to lift them out of middle-income status, where other countries have arguably become stuck. The paper examines the role of human capital formation in the quest to sustain economic growth in these two countries. It argues that a good education system is fundamental to equip workers with marketable skills. Malaysia and Thailand have successfully expanded access to schooling, but the quality of education remains an issue. Modern education systems should aim to provide universally-available quality education using the following policies: prioritize budgets to deliver quality and universally-available basic education before expanding higher levels of schooling; provide appropriate incentives and rewards to teachers; permit school autonomy and ensure accountability for results; invest in early childhood development; and consider implementing income-contingent loan financing schemes to expand higher education. -
Publication
Adult Literacy, Heterogeneity and Returns to Schooling in Chile
(Taylor and Francis, 2013-08-06)We examine the importance of adult functional literacy skills for individuals using a quantile regression methodology. The inclusion of the direct measure of basic skills reduces the return to schooling by 27 percent, equivalent to two additional years of schooling, while a one standard deviation increase in the score increases earnings by 20 percent. For those who are less skilled, more education contributes little to earnings; rather skills are the key to higher earnings. The non-schooling component of skill is a significant contributor to earnings, but not the component associated with years of schooling. -
Publication
Functional Literacy, Heterogeneity and the Returns to Schooling : Multi-Country Evidence
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-11)Little is known about which of the skills that make up workers' human capital contribute to higher earnings. Past empirical evidence suggest that most of the return to schooling is generated by effects or correlates unrelated to the skills measured by the available tests. This paper uses the International Adult Literacy and the Adult Literacy and Life Skills surveys to obtain multi-country estimates of the components of the return to schooling. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity and a dichotomy between two groups of countries. For a subgroup of educationally advanced countries, nearly half of the return to schooling can be attributed to labor marker-relevant functional literacy skills associated with schooling, while for a subgroup of less educationally advanced countries, such skills account for just over 20 percent of the return to schooling, while the return to schooling mostly reflects the signaling value of schooling. -
Publication
Framework for the Reform of Education Systems and Planning for Quality
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-11)In 2000, the goal that, by 2015, all children will have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality, was set. Despite the progress in terms of student enrollment and completion, the quality of learning produced in developing countries remains poor. Existing models of education production are inadequate for informing education reform for the purpose of improving school quality, as measured by student learning. Thus, a broader and more integrated approach of policy making is put forward. Building on theory and empirical evidence on what works, the paper puts forward a framework for improving the quality of education. The framework includes six factors: (1) assessment; (2) autonomy; (3) accountability; (4) attention to teachers; (5) attention to early childhood development; and (6) attention to culture. Going forward, there is a need to develop a system of international quality benchmarks drawing on a larger body of evidence. Most importantly, more empirical evidence from impact evaluations is needed. -
Publication
Strengthening Education Quality in East Asia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-01)This study argues that in order to improve education quality, it is crucial to monitor each policy domain that makes up the whole. To help government's identify best practice policies, the World Bank created a framework to benchmark education system policies across the world. The framework is called system assessment and Benchmarking for Education Results (SABER). This study presents the first, pilot application of SABER in 14 economies in East Asia-a region where improving the quality of education remains the key challenge. It outlines the SABER framework for eight education policy domains; affording cross-country comparisons, in combination with evidence on which program work. Under each domain, the latest empirical evidence on how these policies and practices relate to education quality is presented, along with the indicators used to measure them. The report concludes that the key to a successful education system is not just success in any one domain, but an overall alignment of policies in many aspects of the education system.