|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2005‒04‒30
three papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Ludger Woessmann |
| Abstract: | Even though some countries track students into differing-ability schools by age 10, others keep their entire secondary-school system comprehensive. To estimate the effects of such institutional differences in the face of country heterogeneity, we employ an international differences-in-differences approach. We identify tracking effects by comparing differences in outcome between primary and secondary school across tracked and non-tracked systems. Six international student assessments provide eight pairs of achievement contrasts for between 18 and 26 cross-country comparisons. The results suggest that early tracking increases educational inequality. While less clear, there is also a tendency for early tracking to reduce mean performance. Therefore, there does not appear to be any equity-efficiency trade-off. |
| Keywords: | tracking, streaming, ability grouping, selectivity, comprehensive school system, educational performance, inequality, international student achievement test, TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1415&r=edu |
| By: | Isacsson, Gunnar (National Road and Transportations Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an empirical investigation of externalities from education in Sweden in an earnings equation framework. The empirical models are estimated on a large sample of matched employees and establishments. External effects of education are identified from the average educational attainment of workers outside the individual’s establishment. The paper also investigates the coherence of the evidence with respect to the idea that educational externalities arise through face-to-face interaction between individuals. A set of different specifications and fixed effects models is used to investigate the robustness of the basic cross-sectional model. The cross-sectional models suggest, in general, that externalities are positive and significantly different from zero. The cross-sectional evidence is also broadly coherent with the idea that externalities are declining in spatial transaction costs, such as the Euclidean distance between establishments. However, after accounting for individual fixed effects and dummy variables for the county in which the individual works the results indicate no statistically significant external effects of education on earnings in Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Education; earnings |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2005–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2005_010&r=edu |
| By: | Mary A. Silles (Institute of Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of social maladjustment in childhood on schooling and earnings using the NCDS. Net of differences in family background and cognitive ability, estimates suggest that early social maladjustment scores are associated with lower labor market earnings and schooling. These results suggest that there are substantial returns to fostering positive social development in childhood. |
| Keywords: | educational economics; social maladjustment |
| JEL: | I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kud:kuieca:2005_06&r=edu |