The organisational economics of school chains

While school autonomy is advocated, many countries are experiencing a counterbalancing trend: the emergence of chains that bind schools together into institutionalised structures with varying degrees of centralisation. Despite their prominence, no evidence exists on the determinants and effects of differences in the organisational set-up of school chains.

Professor Silvia's work aims to fill this gap. His research uses the insights of the incomplete contracts literature to study the internal organisation of school chains seen as firms. The work matches detailed survey information on decentralisation decisions of procurement activities regarding 410 chains and 2,000 schools in the England to student, school and market-level administrative records. 

The research project is with Lorenzo Neri and Elisabetta Pasini, both at Queen Mary University.

Links

• Quantitative Social Science seminars
• Department of Social Science