Does Private Schooling Affect National Stability?

Abstract

ABSTRACTI employ a year and country-level fixed-effects analytical technique to examine how private schooling could impact national stability using five different measures. I examine 177 different countries across the globe from 1999 to 2014. Most importantly, this technique allows me to conduct a quasi-experimental analysis by controlling for otherwise unobservable and relatively time-invariant characteristics of nation-states such as culture, language, religiosity, and racial diversity. I do not find that contemporaneous changes in private schooling influence perceived control of corruption, stability, or rule of law within a nation-state. Moreover, I do not find any evidence indicating that private schooling fluctuations influence actual terrorist activity or the likelihood of a coup d’état within a country. However, I find evidence indicating that private schooling improves perceived control of corruption and rule of law when students become adults.