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Patrinos, Harry Anthony

Education Global Practice
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Economics of education
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Education Global Practice
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Last updated: January 22, 2024
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.
Citations 253 Scopus

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 87
  • Publication
    A Note on Schooling and Wage Inequality in the Public and Private Sector
    (2009) Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Sakellariou, Chris
    The few studies that have examined the wage impact of education across the earning distribution have focused on high-income countries and show education to be more profitable at the top of the distribution. The implication is that education may increase inequality. Extending the analysis to 16 East Asian and Latin American countries, in Latin America we observe a pattern similar to that of Europe/North America (increasing wage effects), while in East Asia the wage effects are predominantly decreasing by earnings quantile. However, once the analysis is performed separately for the public and the private sector, it is revealed that the strongly decreasing impact of schooling on earnings in the public sectors of East Asian countries is responsible for the overall observed decreasing pattern, while the impact of schooling on earnings in the private sectors of these countries is non-decreasing.
  • Publication
    The Impact of the 1999 Education Reform in Poland
    (2010-04-01) Jakubowski, Maciej; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Porta, Emilio Ernesto; Wisniewski, Jerzy
    Increasing the share of vocational secondary schooling has been a mainstay of development policy for decades, perhaps nowhere more so than in formerly socialist countries. The transition, however, led to significant restructuring of school systems, including a declining share of vocational students. Exposing more students to a general curriculum could improve academic abilities. This paper analyzes Poland s significant improvement in international achievement tests and the restructuring of the education system that expanded general schooling to test the hypothesis that delayed vocational streaming improves outcomes. Using propensity score matching and differences-in-differences estimates, the authors show that delayed vocationalization had a positive and significant impact on student performance on the order of one standard deviation.
  • Publication
    Estimating the Returns to Education : Accounting for Heterogeneity in Ability
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-10) Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Sakellariou, Chris
    Typically estimates of the benefits of education investments show average private rates of return for the average individual. The average may not be useful for policy. An examination of the distribution of the returns across individuals is needed. The few studies that have examined these patterns focus on high-income countries, showing investments to be more profitable at the top of the income distribution. The implication is that investments may increase inequality. Extending the analysis to 16 East Asian and Latin American countries the authors observe mixed evidence in middle-income countries and decreasing returns in low-income countries. Such differences between countries could be due to more job mobility in industrial countries, scarcity of skills, or differential exposure to market forces.
  • Publication
    Response to COVID-19 in Europe and Central Asia: Policy and Practice Recommendations
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-05-08) Shmis, Tigran; Nunes Teixeira, Janssen Edelweiss; Patrinos, Harry Anthony
    The Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Education Team's vision is for education systems to empower all to reach their full potential. In line with this vision, the purpose of this guidance note is to provide recommendations and policy advice for decision-makers on potential education responses to the COVID-19 crisis. The note includes measures for mitigating learning losses and preparedness for school re-openings and/or a second wave based on the following scenarios: (i) schools remain closed until the end of June and reopen in July allowing for the possibility of summer school; and (ii) schools remain closed through the summer, reopening for the next school year but with protracted disruptions.
  • Publication
    Enhancing Accountability in Schools : What Can Choice and Contracting Contribute
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-04) Patrinos, Harry Anthony
    This note claims that contracting in education can be employed for initiatives of varying sizes and across a range of services. For policy-makers, contracting represents an effective means of introducing accountability in the education system. Contracting can also insulate governments from some of the criticism leveled at privatization. Moreover, it can bring in skills and capital to the education sector.
  • Publication
    Quality of Schooling, Returns to Schooling and the 1981 Vouchers Reform in Chile
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-05) Patrinos, Harry Anthony
    This paper exploits unique information on cognitive ability to examine the importance of schooling and non-schooling cognitive skills for heterogeneous individuals using instrumental variables estimation. Using a binary instrument based on the 1981 reform in Chile, the authors find that the main beneficiaries of the reform were those who at the time were pupils in basic schooling (ages 6-13). For this treated group of pupils, only a negligible part of the estimated return to schooling is due to classical ability bias. The labor market reward to an additional year of schooling is a measure of the "true" non-cognitive return to schooling. However, once the treated group is expanded to include secondary school students, the pure return to schooling decreases dramatically, while the return to schooling cognitive and non-schooling cognitive skills increases accordingly, suggesting that a large part of the estimated return in an earnings function is due to classical ability bias. For this treated group (mixture of basic school and secondary school age students), the labor market rewarded cognitive skills (especially those acquired through schooling) significantly.
  • Publication
    Social Networks among Indigenous Peoples in Mexico
    (2009-06-01) Skoufias, Emmanuel; Patrinos, Harry Anthony
    This paper examines the extent to which social networks among indigenous peoples have a significant effect on a variety of human capital investment and economic activities, such as school attendance and work among teenage boys and girls, and migration, welfare participation, employment status, occupation and sector of employment among adult males and females. The analysis uses data from the 10 percent population sample of the 2000 Population and Housing Census of Mexico and an empirical strategy that allows taking into account the role of municipality and language group fixed effects. The authors confirm empirically that social network effects play an important role in the economic decisions of indigenous people, especially in rural areas. The analysis also provides evidence that better access to basic services, such as water and electricity, increases the size and strength of network effects in rural areas.
  • Publication
    Assessment Testing Can Be Used to Inform Policy Decisions : The Case of Jordan
    (2011-12-01) Abdul-Hamid, Husein; Patrinos, Harry Anthony
    Over the past two decades, the Jordanian education system has made significant advances. Net enrollment in basic education increased from 89 percent in 2000 to 97 percent in 2006. Transition rates to secondary education increased from 63 to 79 percent in the same period. At the same time, Jordan made significant gains on international surveys of student achievement, with a particularly impressive gain of almost 30 points on the science portion of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Changes in test scores over time are presented and analyzed using decomposition analysis. The trends are related to policy changes over time. It is argued that benchmarking education systems and constant feedback between researchers and policymakers contributed to this achievement.
  • Publication
    Mobilizing the Private Sector for Public Education : A View from the Trenches
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Sosale, Shobhana
    Historically, ensuring access to primary education has been seen as a predominantly public responsibility. However, governments are increasingly sharing this responsibility through a variety of subsidiary arrangements. Some governments are contracting services out to the private sector, to nongovernmental organizations, and even to other public agencies. Some societies are transferring responsibility for financing, providing, and regulating primary education to lower levels of government, and in some cases, to communities. In education policy, public-private partnerships play an important role in enhancing the supply and the quality of human capital. This book explores the burgeoning number of public-private partnerships in public education in different parts of the world. The partnerships differ in form and structure, in the extent of public and private participation, and in the forms of their engagement. The essays in this book are written mainly from the provider's perspective and offer valuable insights into the purpose, trend, and impact of public-private partnerships, and an understanding of the barriers they face.
  • Publication
    The Impact of an Accountability Intervention with Diagnostic Feedback: Evidence from Mexico
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-08) de Hoyos, Rafael; Garcia-Moreno, Vicente A.; Patrinos, Harry Anthony
    In 2009, the Mexican state of Colima implemented a low-stakes accountability intervention with diagnostic feedback among 108 public primary schools with the lowest test scores in the national student assessment. A difference-in-difference and a regression discontinuity design are used to identify the effects of the intervention on learning outcomes. The two alternative strategies consistently show that the intervention increased test scores by 0.12 standard deviations only a few months after the program was launched. When students, teachers, and parents in a school know that their scores are low, and this triggers a process of self-evaluation and analysis, the process itself may lead to an improvement in learning outcomes. Information on quality, without punitive measures but within a supportive and collaborative environment, appears to be sufficient to improve learning outcomes.