How does quantifying and ranking national performance influence state behavior? Cross-national assessments in education, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) promoted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have become increasingly prominent in recent years. However, cross-national assessments are politically contentious, and their impact remains underexplored. We argue that assessment participation has a meaningful, positive impact on education outcomes and evaluate three hypotheses related to elite, domestic, and transnational mechanisms. Our mixed-method approach draws on a panel dataset covering all cross-national assessments and all countries as well as an original survey of education officials directly responsible for planning and implementation in 46 countries. We find that assessment participation increases net secondary enrollment rates even after accounting for potential self-selection. The magnitude of this increase is large: on a global basis, it is equivalent to improved access to higher education for 27–32 million students annually. The empirical evidence suggests elite-level mechanisms are primarily responsible for these findings.

量化和排名国家绩效如何影响国家行为？跨国教育评估，如经济合作与发展组织（OECD）推动的国际学生评估计划（PISA），近年来日益突出。然而，跨国评估在政治上存在争议，其影响仍未得到充分探讨。我们认为，评估参与对教育成果具有有意义的、积极的影响，并评估了与精英、国内和跨国机制相关的三个假设。我们的混合方法采用了涵盖所有跨国评估和所有国家的面板数据集，以及对 46 个国家直接负责规划和实施的教育官员的原始调查。我们发现，即使考虑到潜在的自我选择，评估参与也会提高中学净入学率。这一增长的幅度很大：在全球范围内，相当于每年增加 27-3200 万学生接受高等教育的机会。经验证据表明，精英层面的机制对这些发现负有主要责任。