Breaking Up the Vicious Cycle of Poverty: How Can the School Performance of Children from Low-Income Households in Macedonia Be Improved?

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the factors that affect educational achievements of children from low-income households in Macedonia. In addition, we compare the two distinctive social programs that provide assistance for children from poor households in the country. Our empirical strategy is based on the education production function, which is estimated using the ordinary least squares (OLS) and ordered probit approach. We regress an indicator for educational achievement on three groups of factors: i) individual characteristics; ii) household characteristics; and iii) school-related characteristics/variables. The findings suggest that all three sets of factors are significantly related with the school performance of young individuals. Individual- and family-related factors are more important than the school climate, although this finding may be related to the availability (and hence, the choice) of the school-related variables. Gender, father’s education, and ethnicity were found to be significantly related to the educational achievement of students. Among the family factors, we find that the number of rooms at home and household consumption are positively related to school performance. On the other hand, household size, conditional cash transfers (CCTs) acceptance and the measures of parental involvement are negatively related to achievement. We find that only one measure of school context, the average grade in school, is significant.