The Determinants of Demand for Private Tutoring in South Korea

Private tutoring (PT) has been a growing economic phenomenon in South Korea for many years. This study investigated the determinants of the demand for PT in South Korea. Data were collected from 45 proportionally stratified South Korean high schools, and 3,605 questionnaires were analyzed using the Heckman two-stage sample selection correction method. Additionally this study exploited the local government regulation of PT to identify participation in PT, and this serves as an identifier of the selection correction term in the second stage outcome equation (expenditure on PT and hours of PT). Results of the regression analysis showed that among the students and family background characteristics, students’ achievement level, household income and parents’ education level were positively associated with a higher probability to participate in PT and higher expenditure and spending hours of PT. At the school level, students in schools with higher student-teacher ratio were expected to spend more time on PT. The contextual effect measured by the proportion of classmates receiving PT services were significantly and positively related to expenditure on PT. Residence in urban areas had greater expenditure and hours spent on PT. The implications of these findings are discussed here.