The Roma/Non-Roma Test Score Gap in Hungary

摘要

Our results show that the test score gap between Roma and non-Roma eighth graders in Hungary is similar to the black-white gap present in the United States during the 1980s. After accounting for health, parenting, school and class fixed effects, and family background, the test score gap disappears in reading and decreases by 85 percent in mathematics. We also showed that the large ethnic gaps in health and parenting disappear or decrease considerably if parental education and measures of family income and poverty are included. While causality is difficult to determine in our regressions, these results are consistent with the conclusion that education and poverty play an overwhelming role in the large ethnic test score gaps in Hungary, with health, parenting, and schools as the key transmission mechanisms.