annual report - Ivie

Isidro Cantarino (Universitat Politècnica de Valencia)
Pilar Chorén (Ivie, Universitat de València)
EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT. PISA 2009 AND THE SPANISH EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM (2011-2012)
Since the year 2000, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has launched an
international standardized evaluation program of the knowledge gained by 15-year-old students, an age that
coincides with the end of compulsory education. Every three years, the Programme for International Student
Assessment, known as PISA, tests the skills and knowledge of these young people in reading, mathematics and
science. In addition to these skill tests, the PISA reports provide a huge amount of information on the students’
lives, on their family background and on the school they attended. This data helps examine the relationship
between tests’ scores and environmental conditions, assessing the equity of the educational systems and
identifying the conditions that lead to better results.
However, there are three basics aspects of the functioning of the different educational systems that have not
been thoroughly examined neither by the studies accompanying the PISA report, nor by the associated
literature, and which require special attention in the Spanish case. This research project, carried out for the
BBVA Foundation, focuses on the analysis of these aspects: 1) it studies in depth the measurement of
educational scores and not only the average scores of the PISA tests; 2) it examines the relationship between
educational attainment, economic growth and the labor market; and 3) analyzes the causes and nature of the
large differences in school performance between the Spanish regions.
Research team:
Antonio Villar (dir.) (Ivie, Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
Sara de la Rica (Universidad del País Vasco, FEDEA)
José Ignacio García Pérez (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
Ainara González (Universidad del País Vasco)
Marisa Hidalgo (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
José Antonio Robles (Universidad Pablo de Olavide)
Lorenzo Serrano (Ivie, Universitat de València)
Ángel Soler (Ivie, Universitat de València)
Héctor García (Ivie)
VERTICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND SOPHISTICATION OF EXPORTS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE (2011-
2012)
The objective of this study for the BBVA Foundation is to continue the line of research on trade and
international specialization started in 2010. On this occassion the patterns of specialization of countries are
studied according to their vertical dimension (the specialization throughout the different ranges of price and
quality within each type of goods), combining it with an analysis of the horizontal dimension (the specialization
along different types of goods). Next to the more descriptive analysis, an assessment of the international
specialization of countries is carried out, from the point of view of their ability to maintain high levels of per
capita income, according to their exports sophistication. Data covers more than 5,000 products and 150
economies. Also a diagnosis is made of the strengths and weaknesses of the Spanish foreign sector, as well as
the challenges and opportunities it is facing.
Research team:
Francisco Alcalá (dir.) (Ivie, Universidad de Murcia)
Pilar Chorén (Ivie, Universitat de València)
Marta Solaz (Universitat de València)
Research and economic studies 43