Since the 1990s, the Swedish education market has gone through a dramatic transformation due to the introduction of voucher-funded independent schools. We make use of data on school applications to condition on student preferences for independent versus public education, and estimate a positive relationship between independent upper secondary school attendance and grades, graduation rates, and post-secondary education. We however also find strong indications of more lenient grading standards in independent schools, especially in schools organized as for-profit entities and in schools with a low share of qualified teachers. Our results suggest that, although independent school attendance seems to benefit the individual students in terms of higher grades and increased transition to post-secondary studies, grade inflation in the Swedish upper secondary independent schools may be a serious problem.

自 1990 年代以来，由于引入了代金券资助的独立学校，瑞典教育市场发生了翻天覆地的变化。我们利用学校申请数据来确定学生对独立教育与公立教育的偏好，并估计独立高中出勤率与成绩、毕业率和高等教育之间的正相关关系。然而，我们也发现独立学校有更宽松的评分标准的强烈迹象，特别是在营利性实体组织的学校和合格教师比例较低的学校。我们的研究结果表明，尽管独立上学似乎在提高成绩和增加向大专学习的过渡方面使个别学生受益，