Introduction -- Chapter 1: Systematic reviews in education research: when do effect studies provide evidence? : Introduction ; First order conditions ; Second order conditions ; Third order conditions ; Applying the inclusion criteria in practice ; Concluding remarks ; Appendix A: inclusion criteria used in review articles in the Review of Education, edition 2010 -- Chapter 2: Selection bias in educational issues and the use of Heckman's sample selection model : Introduction ; Selection bias and causality ; Heckman's sample selection model ; The sample selection model in educational research ; Conclusion -- Chapter 3: The causal effect of single-sex education versus coeducation on motivation and educational attainments. Evidence from a randomized experiment in secondary education : Introduction ; Literature review ; Flemish education system ; Data and experiment ; Quantitative analysis ; Qualitative analysis ; Conclusion and policy recommendations -- Chapter 4: Benchmarking and operational management: an application of frontier analysis to Dutch secondary education : Introduction ; Methodology ; Data ; Results ; Conclusions -- Chapter 5: Schools' efficiency and equity: evidence from a stochastic frontier approach with translog specification : Introduction ; Methodology and data ; Results and discussion ; Appendix A -- Chapter 6: Do nurses react to inter-industry wage differentials? Evidence of nursing graduates in the Netherlands : Introduction ; Wage differentials and job-related skills in the literature ; The life sciences and health industry in the Netherlands ; Conceptual framework ; Empirical strategy ; Data ; Descriptive statistics ; Results ; Discussion and conclusions -- Short author bios of the corresponding authors.