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on Education |
|
Issue of 2005‒07‒25
seven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | FRANCISCO MARCOS (Instituto de Empresa) |
| Abstract: | (WP 13/03 Clave pdf)The Spanish university system has witnessed many changes. Initial conditions for competition were laid down in 83, specially through the recognition of legal status to private universities. However, the shortage of students since 98 and the drop on demand for higher education has prompted further reform recently.In 2001 a new act was enacted to force market-like behavior and to privatize some operating conditions of state universities. It´s too early to assess the effectiveness of these changes, but public funding remains mostly unchanged and this is a key issue that would need to be modified in order to provide conditions of authentic competition in the higher education. |
| Keywords: | Competition, Higher education, Privatization, Public goods, Economics of education |
| Date: | 2003–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emp:wpaper:wp03-13&r=edu |
| By: | João Cerejeira Silva (Universidade do Minho - NIPE; European University Institute) |
| Abstract: | In this paper the individual optimal level of education is set in a frictional labor market, where matching is not perfect. Also search frictions are a function of the average education can improve economic efficiency, not only through improvements in workers productivity, but also making the matching process more efficient, and thus reducing the unemployment level. |
| Keywords: | Education, Externalities, Search, Matching, Unemployment. |
| JEL: | I21 J41 J64 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:11/2005&r=edu |
| By: | James B. Davies; Matthias Sutter; Martin G. Kocher |
| Abstract: | We examine the publications of authors affiliated with an economics research institution in Canada in (i) the Top-10 journals in economics according to journals' impact factors, and (ii) the /Canadian Journal of Economics/. We consider all publications in the even years from 1980 to 2000. Canadian economists contributed about 5% of publications in the Top-10 journals and about 55% of publications in the /Canadian Journal of Economics /over this period. We identify the most active research centres and identify trends in their relative outputs over time. Those research centres successful in publishing in the Top-10 journals are found to also dominate the /Canadian Journal of Economics/. Additionally, we present data on authors' Ph.D.-origin, thereby indicating output and its concentration in graduate education. |
| Keywords: | research in economics, Canadian economics, top journals |
| JEL: | A11 A14 |
| Date: | 2005–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:discus:2005-16&r=edu |
| By: | Iwan Barankay; Ben Lockwood |
| Abstract: | Advocates of fiscal decentralization argue that amongst other benefits, it can increase the productive efficiency of delivery of government services. This paper is one of the first to evaluate this claim empirically by looking at the association between expenditure decentralization and the productive efficiency of government using a data-set of Swiss cantons. We first provide careful evidence that expenditure decentralization is a powerful proxy for factual local autonomy. Further panel regressions of Swiss cantons provide robust evidence that more decentralization is associated with higher educational attainment. We also show that these gains lead to no adverse effects across education types but that male students benefited more from educational decentralization closing, for the Swiss case, the gender education gap. Finally, we present evidence of the importance of competence in government and how it can reinforce the gains from decentralization. |
| Date: | 2005–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:597&r=edu |
| By: | Flavio Cunha (University of Chicago); James J. Heckman (University of Chicago, University College London, American Bar Foundation and IZA Bonn); Lance Lochner (University of Western Ontario); Dimitriy V. Masterov (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents economic models of child development that capture the essence of recent findings from the empirical literature on skill formation. The goal of this essay is to provide a theoretical framework for interpreting the evidence from a vast empirical literature, for guiding the next generation of empirical studies, and for formulating policy. Central to our analysis is the concept that childhood has more than one stage. We formalize the concepts of self-productivity and complementarity of human capital investments and use them to explain the evidence on skill formation. Together, they explain why skill begets skill through a multiplier process. Skill formation is a life cycle process. It starts in the womb and goes on throughout life. Families play a role in this process that is far more important than the role of schools. There are multiple skills and multiple abilities that are important for adult success. Abilities are both inherited and created, and the traditional debate about nature versus nurture is scientifically obsolete. Human capital investment exhibits both self-productivity and complementarity. Skill attainment at one stage of the life cycle raises skill attainment at later stages of the life cycle (self-productivity). Early investment facilitates the productivity of later investment (complementarity). Early investments are not productive if they are not followed up by later investments (another aspect of complementarity). This complementarity explains why there is no equity-efficiency trade-off for early investment. The returns to investing early in the life cycle are high. Remediation of inadequate early investments is difficult and very costly as a consequence of both self-productivity and complementarity. |
| Keywords: | skill formation, education, government policy, educational finance |
| JEL: | J31 I21 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2005–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1675&r=edu |
| By: | John Beath (University of St Andrews); Joanna Poyago-Theotoky (University of Loughborough); David Ulph (Inland Revenue) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the following question: how does a higher education funding system influence the trade-off that universities make between research and teaching? We do so by constructing a general model that allows universities to choose actively the quality of their teaching and research when faced with different funding systems. In particular, we derive the feasible sets that face universities under such systems and show how, as the parameters of the system are varied, the nature of the university system itself changes. The “culture” of the university system thus becomes endogenous. This makes the model useful for the analysis of reforms in funding and also for international comparisons. |
| Keywords: | University funding system, higher education, teaching quality, research quality, research elite. |
| JEL: | I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2005–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2005_2&r=edu |
| By: | Marit Hinnosaar |
| Abstract: | The current paper analyses unemployment and labour movements between labour market statuses in the period of January 1997 to July 2000 using data from the Estonian Labour Force Surveys. The paper is motivated by the hypothesis that in the beginning of transition in Estonia high labour mobility and low unemployment rate seemed to be related. The analysis reveals that in the end of the 1990s labour mobility has decreased substantially in Estonia compared to 1994. The results from the paper indicate that unemployment rate and labour mobility measure have inverse relationship, both in aggregate and disaggregate level. The most mobile groups in Estonian labour market are Estonians, people living in the area of capital Tallinn and people with higher education. Young people also tend to move a lot from job to job. High mobility in case of young workers is accompanied by high number of unemployment incidents, which is captured by the aggregate unemployment rate time series. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eea:boewps:wp2002-07&r=edu |