A panel data analysis of the effect of well-being on PISA maths skills from the perspective of equality

Being one of the earliest focuses of debates in human history, equality remains to be a significant determiner of student achievement, and we believe that it is important to understand why and how inequalities influence student achievement. In this study, we analyzed well-being indicators in the “How’s Life? Well-being” data set provided by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with a pooled effect model panel data analysis to comprehend the effect of well-being on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) maths skills of students. The dataset we worked on includes data from the years 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018, when PISA tests were carried out and we analyzed data from 37 OECD countries. We found that PISA math skills scores have a negative correlation with economic factors of household income, employment rate, and youth neither in employment, education, or training, and have a positive correlation with the gender wage gap, and deprivation of adequate health condition indicators. We suggest further analysis with the methods of discriminant and cluster analysis to comprehend common traits of countries that have high scores on the PISA tests.