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on Education |
| By: | ; Arnaud Chevalier; ; Colm Harmon; ; Vincent O'Sullivan; Ian Walker (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the intergeneration transmission of education and investigates the extent to which early school leaving (at age 16) may be due to variations in permanent income, parental education levels, and shocks to income at this age. Least squares estimation reveals conventional results - stronger effects of maternal education than paternal, and stronger effects on sons than daughters. We find that the education effects remain significant even when household income is included. Moreover, decomposing the income when the child is 16 between a permanent component and shocks to income at age 16 only the latter is significant. It would appear that education is an important input even when we control for permanent income but that credit constraints at age 16 are also influential. However, when we use instrumental variable methods to simultaneously account for the endogeneity of parental education and paternal income, we find that the strong effects of parental education become insignificant and permanent income matters much more, while the effects of shocks to household income at 16 remain important. A similar pattern of results are reflected in the main measure of scholastic achievement at age 16. These findings have important implications for the design of policies aimed at encouraging pupils to remain in school longer. |
| Keywords: | Early school leaving, intergenerational transmission |
| JEL: | I20 J62 |
| Date: | 2005–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:05/05&r=edu |
| By: | Robert Bifulco (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University); William Duncombe (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University); John Yinger (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | Thousands of schools around the country have implemented whole-school reform programs to boost student performance. This paper uses quasi-experimental methods to estimate the impact of whole-school reform on students' reading performance in New York City, where various reform programs were adopted in dozens of troubled elementary schools in the mid-1990s. This paper complements studies based on random assignment by examining a broad-based reform effort and explicitly accounting for implementation quality. Two popular reform programs--the School Development and Success for All--do not significantly increase reading scores but might have if they had been fully implemented. The More Effective Schools program does boost reading scores, particularly for the poorest students, but only when program "trainers" remain in the school and the students are native English speakers. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2003–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:55&r=edu |
| By: | William D. Duncombe (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University); John Yinger (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a guide to statistically based methods for estimating the extra costs of educating disadvantaged students, shows how these methods are related, and compares state aid programs that account for these costs in different ways. We show how pupil weights, which are included in many state programs, can be estimated from an education cost equation, which many scholars use to obtain an education cost index, and we devise a method to estimate pupil weights directly. Using data from New York, we show that the distribution of state aid is similar with statistically based pupil weights and an educational cost index. Finally, we show that large, urban school districts with a high concentration of disadvantaged students would receive far more aid (and rich suburban districts would receive far less aid) if statistically based pupil weights were used instead of the ad hoc weights in existing state aid programs. |
| JEL: | C15 H52 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:60&r=edu |
| By: | Kathryn Wilson; Kristina Lambright (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University); Timothy M. Smeeding (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | This paper breaks new ground in the debate on school finance and equality of per pupil school expenditures. We are able to allocate expenditures per pupil at the *individual* student and family income level. This allows us to examine both student and school district characteristics and to assess several measures of equality of expenditure across the income distribution of parents and by funding sources. We find a surprising degree of equality in the actual amounts expended per child in low- vs. high-income families. But adjusting for student needs to reach equivalent education expenditures results in much greater inequality over the income distribution. Policy implications for school finance and increased equality of eduational opportunity are drawn in closing. |
| JEL: | I22 O15 |
| Date: | 2004–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:62&r=edu |
| By: | Irwin Garfinkel; Lee Rainwater; Timothy M. Smeeding (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the redistributive effects of welfare state expenditures on social and economic disparities in the economic well-being of citizens in ten nations. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other sources for cash and non-cash social welfare benefits (health and education benefits from third parties) are used to describe differences in the size and nature of welfare states and their distributional effects. The OECD data are combined with micro data on household incomes from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) both to estimate the redistributive effects of the expenditures and taxes and to construct measures of the differences in the relative standard of living among the population at various points in the income distributions of their countries. Estimates are provided for country populations as a while and for three mutually exclusive groups: all persons; non-aged persons living with children; non-aged without children at home; and the elderly. These measures may be thought of as capturing the degree to which welfare states at the end of the 20th and dawn of the 21st century provide for the developmental needs and capabilities of their populations in terms of cash, access to health care, and educational opportunity. The results indicate a wide range of differences in levels of economic resources and support, within as well as between, nations and groups. The degree to which children have fair and equal opportunity chances; the degree to which the population has access to quality health care; and the population groups who are most called upon (most taxed) to provide these benefits are all investigated here. Non-cash benefits are particularly important for low-income Americans, especially elders and children and their families, and should not be taken for granted by analysts of the welfare state. Counting in-kind benefits at government cost substantially reduces across-national differences in market and cash disposable incomes, but does not eliminate them. The results are very sensitive to how in-kind benefits are measured and valued. [Revised October 2004] |
| JEL: | I18 I28 J13 O57 |
| Date: | 2004–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:63&r=edu |
| By: | James N. Laditka; Douglas A. Wolf (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | This report describes preparation of data from the National Long-Term Care Survey (NLTCS) fur use in a dynamic multiple-indicator model of dependency in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). The data set descrdibed makes use of all functional status information available across four NLTCS waves for six ADLs, including information from screening interviews, detailed interviews in the community, and institutional interviews. Importantly, it also captures all available information elicited from respondents about the *duration* of any impairment in these ADLs. The data was prepared as described in this report to enable the calculation of improved estimates of the probabilities that an older individual will transition from one functional status state to another in any of six ADLs. These probabilities can then be used to improve estimates of active life expectancy. |
| JEL: | I12 J14 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:65&r=edu |