|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2005‒12‒14
sixteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Vincent, VANDENBERGHE (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Should access to higher education remain ‘free’ ? Theoretical answers to this question are at least twofold. First, public higher education is said to be regressive as a priviliged minority profits from extra human capital, and all the private benefits it generates, while the general public foots the bill. A frequent reply is that higher education students enjoying ‘free’ access are implicitly borrowing public money that they pay back when entering the labour market, via progressive income taxes. Using a simple lifecycle framework this paper produces realistic estimates of how much graduates are likely to ‘reimburse” society via income tax. Using Belgian data on higher education public expenditure and income taxes paid by both graduates and non-graduates over their lifetime, we show that the implicit reimbursement rate ranges from 37% to 95%. It is much higher for bachelors than master graduates, and for males |
| Keywords: | Higher Education Finance; Regressive Transfers; Implicit Loans |
| JEL: | I28 H52 |
| Date: | 2005–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvec:2005031&r=edu |
| By: | Maria Paula Savanti (Harvard University); Harry Anthony Patrinos (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | There has not been much change in the premium to primary education, while the returns to secondary education increased, but by less than the premium to university. The returns to incomplete university also increased significantly. There is a signal that there might be credentialism at the tertiary level, but 15 years of schooling also represents a significant threshold. The returns to schooling are higher in the private sector. There is little evidence of screening or credentialism driving the returns to schooling, which increased significantly in Argentina from 1992 to 2002. |
| Keywords: | Labor and employment, Education |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3714&r=edu |
| By: | Ludger Woessmann (University of Munich); Thomas Fuchs (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the relationship between family background, school characteristics, and student achievement in primary school in two Latin American countries, Argentina and Colombia, as well as several comparison countries. The database used is the student-level international achievement data of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), which tested the reading performance of fourth-grade students in 2001. The nationally representative samples have 3,300 students in Argentina and 5,131 students in Colombia. The emerging general pattern of results is that educational performance is strongly related to students' family background, weakly to some institutional school features, and hardly to schools' resource endowments. In an international perspective, estimated family background effects are relatively large in Argentina, and relatively small in Colombia. A specific Argentine feature is the lack of performance differences between rural and urban areas. A specific Colombian feature is the lack of significant differences between gender performance. Nonnative students and students not speaking Spanish at home have particularly weak performance in both countries. But there are no differences by parental occupation and no positive effects of kindergarten attendance. In Argentina, students perform better in schools with a centralized curriculum and ability-based class formation. |
| Keywords: | Education |
| Date: | 2005–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3537&r=edu |
| By: | Gladys López-Acevedo (The World Bank and LCSPP) |
| Abstract: | The National School for Professional Technology Education (CONALEP) is Mexico's largest and oldest technical education system. CONALEP serves low-income students at the upper-secondary school level in Mexico. The labor market performance of CONALEP graduates has been evaluated four times in the past. These evaluations have yielded encouraging results, showing that CONALEP's graduates find jobs faster and earn higher wages than similar "control" groups. In contrast, using non-experimental methods, this paper suggests that CONALEP's graduates might earn higher wages but do not find jobs faster compared with control groups. |
| Keywords: | Education |
| Date: | 2005–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3572&r=edu |
| By: | Jorge Augusto Paz |
| Abstract: | This work studies the relationship between education and labor market performance, first by making a review of the literature on the subject, and then by examining certain stylized facts. For the empirical evaluation, education is analysed through the educational attainment reached by economic agents and the labor market by certain results: remunerations, probabilities to participate, to be employed or unemployed. The issue of the probability to access better jobs is also approached. Therefore, education is here discussed as an input, and labor market results, as an output. |
| JEL: | I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2005–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cem:doctra:311&r=edu |
| By: | Marco Francesconi (Department of Economics, University of Essex); Stephen P. Jenkins (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Thomas Siedler (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | We analyse the impact on schooling outcomes of growing up in a family headed by a single mother. Growing up in a non-intact family in Germany is associated with worse outcomes in models that do not control for possible correlations between common unobserved determinants of family structure and educational performance. But once endogeneity is accounted for, whether by using sibling-difference estimators or two types of instrumental variable estimator, the evidence that family structure affects schooling outcomes is much less conclusive. Although almost all the point estimates indicate that non-intactness has an adverse effect on schooling outcomes, confidence intervals are large and span zero. |
| Keywords: | childhood family structure, education success, instrumental variables, lone parents, sibling differences, treatment effects |
| Date: | 2005–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2005-22&r=edu |
| By: | Jishnu Das (The World Bank); Stefan Dercon (Oxford University); James Habyarimana (Georgetown University); Pramila Krishnan (Cambridge University) |
| Abstract: | A large literature examines the link between shocks to households and the educational attainment of children. The authors use new data to estimate the impact of shocks to teachers on student learning in mathematics and English. Using absenteeism in the 30 days preceding the survey as a measure of these shocks they find large impacts: A 5 percent increase in the teacher's absence rate reduces learning by 4 to 8 percent of average gains over the year. This reduction in learning achievement likely reflects both the direct effect of increased absenteeism and the indirect effects of less lesson preparation and lower teaching quality when in class. The authors document that health problems-primarily teachers' own illness and the illnesses of their family members-account for more than 60 percent of teacher absences; not surprising in a country struggling with an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The relationship between shocks to teachers and student learning suggests that households are unable to substitute adequately for teaching inputs. Excess teaching capacity that allows for the greater use of substitute teachers could lead to larger gains in student learning. |
| Keywords: | Poverty, Rural development, Labor and employment, Education |
| Date: | 2005–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3602&r=edu |
| By: | Paula Inés Giovagnoli (Universidad Nacional de la Plata); Ariel Fiszbein (The World Bank); Harry Anthony Patrinos (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | The authors estimate returns to schooling in urban Argentina for a 10-year period. In addition to comparable earnings functions, they also estimate the returns using quantile regression analysis to detect differences in the returns across the distribution. Over time, men in higher quantiles have higher returns to schooling compared with those in the lower quantiles. For women, returns are highest at the lowest quantile. The returns to education increased during the past decade. The authors do not rule out that increased demand for skills is driving the increasing returns over the decade. |
| Keywords: | Labor and employment, Education |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3715&r=edu |
| By: | Maurice Schiff (The World Bank and IZA) |
| Abstract: | Based on static partial equilibrium analysis, the "new brain drain" literature argues that, by raising the return to education, a brain drain generates a brain gain that is, under certain conditions, larger than the brain drain itself, and that such a net brain gain results in an increase in welfare and growth due to education's positive externalities. This paper argues that these claims are exaggerated. In the static case, and based on both partial and general equilibrium considerations, the paper shows that (1) the size of the brain gain is smaller than suggested in that literature; (2) the impact on welfare and growth is smaller as well (for any brain gain size); (3) a positive brain gain is likely to result in a smaller, possibly negative, human capital gain; (4) an increase in the stock of human capital may have a negative impact on welfare and growth; and (5) in a dynamic framework, the paper shows that the steady-state brain gain is equal to the brain drain so that a 'beneficial brain drain' cannot take place, and a net brain loss is likely during the transition. |
| Keywords: | International economics |
| Date: | 2005–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3708&r=edu |
| By: | Philip Stevens (National Institute of Economic & Social Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the job satisfaction of academics using a detailed dataset of over two thousand academics from ten English higher education institutions. The results of our analysis suggest that one would be wrong to consider one single measure of job-satisfaction. Academics appear to be considering three separate sets of elements of their jobs, namely the pecuniary factors (both the salary and the ability to earn money from additional work. We also consider the influence of these elements of job satisfaction on their intentions to leave the sector. |
| Keywords: | Satisfaction, academics, turnover, comparison income |
| JEL: | C25 J28 J63 |
| Date: | 2005–12–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0512005&r=edu |
| By: | Gonzalo Duran (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) |
| Abstract: | : During the last couple of decades, the migratory movements in Chile have been minimum, regions are far from achieving match in the per capìta income, situation that would give persistence to the regional inequity. According to studies, in 52 years, half of the gap between a rich and a poor region would be closed. What generates this apparent motionless? a possible explanation, are the education subsidies, those act like an anchor element. The subject is covered using an enlarged specification of the Harris and Todaro’s model (1970), working trough cross section estimations. |
| Keywords: | Migration, Convergence, Education Subsidies. |
| JEL: | O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2005–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0512007&r=edu |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the impact of voucher design on student sorting, and more specifically investigates whether there are feasible ways of designing vouchers that can reduce or eliminate student sorting. It studies these questions in the context of the first five years of the Milwaukee voucher program. Much of the existing literature investigates the question of sorting where private schools can screen students. However, the publicly funded U.S. voucher programs require private schools to accept all students unless oversubscribed and to pick students randomly if oversubscribed. This paper focuses on two crucial features of the Milwaukee voucher program - random private school selection and the absence of topping up of vouchers. In the context of a theoretical model, it argues that random private school selection alone cannot prevent student sorting. However, random private school selection coupled with the absence of topping up can preclude sorting by income, although there is still sorting by ability. Sorting by ability is not caused here by private school selection, but rather by parental self selection. Using a logit model and student level data from the Milwaukee voucher program for 1990-94, it then establishes that random selection has indeed taken place so that it provides an appropriate setting to test the corresponding theoretical predictions in the data. Next, using several alternative logit specifications, it demonstrates that these predictions are validated empirically. These findings have important policy implications. |
| Keywords: | Vouchers, Sorting, Cream Skimming, Private Schools |
| JEL: | H0 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2005–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0512004&r=edu |
| By: | Rabah, AMIR; Malgorzata, KNAUFF |
| Abstract: | An objective ranking of economics departments worldwide in terms of graduate education is derived. The central idea is that the value of a department is the sum of the values of its PhD graduates, as reflected in the values of their current employing departments. The scores are thus derived as solutions to a linear system of simultaneous equations in the values. The sample includes the top fifty-four departments, the composition of which is determined endogenously using a criterion requiring a minimum of four placements in the departments comprising the sample. Two other related rankings are proposed, which place more emphasis on more recent faculty recruitments. The results point to a very high concentration in the economics PhD education market worldwide, confirming the dominance of the top U.S. departments, in particular of Harvard and M.I.T. Nevertheless, a modest de-concentration trend is under way. The rankings are in close agreement with the 1994 National Research Council survey ranking based on the perceived quality of PhD programs |
| Keywords: | Economics PhD education; scientific evaluation methods; economic department ranking |
| JEL: | A14 L11 R32 |
| Date: | 2005–07–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvec:2005041&r=edu |
| By: | Rajashri Chakrabarti (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I analyze the behavior of public schools facing vouchers. The literature on the effect of voucher programs on public schools typically focuses on student and mean school scores. This paper tries to go inside the black box to investigate some of the ways in which schools facing the threat of vouchers in Florida behaved. Florida schools getting an 'F' grade are exposed to the threat of vouchers, while vouchers are implemented if they get another 'F' grade in the next three years. Exploiting the institutional details of the 1999 program, I analyze the incentives built into the system and investigate whether the threatened public schools behaved strategically to respond to incentives. There is strong evidence that they did respond to incentives. Using highly disaggregated school level data, a difference- in-differences estimation strategy as well as a regression discontinuity analysis, I find that the threatened schools tended to focus more on students below the minimum criteria cutoffs rather than equally on all, but interestingly, this improvement did not come at the expense of higher performing students. Second, consistent with incentives, they focused mostly on writing rather than reading and math. Finally, consistent with substantial costs associated with such reclassification during that period, there is not much evidence of relative reclassification of low performing students in to special education categories exempt from the calculation of grades. These results are robust to controlling for differential pre-program trends, changes in demographic compositions, mean reversion and sorting. These findings have important policy implications and subsequent grading rule changes in Florida suggest that these policy changes have been a response to public school behavior. |
| Keywords: | Vouchers, Incentives, Strategic Behavior, Regression Discontinuity, Mean Reversion |
| JEL: | H4 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2005–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwppe:0512002&r=edu |
| By: | Aaditya Mattoo (The World Bank); Gnanaraj Chellaraj (The World Bank); Keith E. Maskus (University of Colorado at Boulder) |
| Abstract: | The impact of international students and skilled immigration in the United States on innovative activity is estimated using a model of idea generation. In the main specification a system of three equations is estimated, where dependent variables are total patent applications, patents awarded to U.S. universities, and patents awarded to other U.S. entities, each scaled by the domestic labor force. Results indicate that both international graduate students and skilled immigrants have a significant and positive impact on future patent applications, as well as on future patents awarded to university and nonuniversity institutions. The central estimates suggest that a 10 percent increase in the number of foreign graduate students would raise patent applications by 4.7 percent, university patent grants by 5.3 percent, and nonuniversity patent grants by 6.7 percent. Thus, reductions in foreign graduate students from visa restrictions could significantly reduce U.S. innovative activity. Increases in skilled immigration also have a positive, but smaller, impact on patenting. |
| Keywords: | International economics |
| Date: | 2005–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3588&r=edu |
| By: | Derek H. C. Chen (The World Bank); Hiau Looi Kee (The World Bank) |
| Abstract: | The authors present a model of endogenous growth in which the main engine of economic development is knowledge. Using a two-sector closed economy model that comprises of a conventional goods-producing sector and a research and development sector, their model incorporates two key aspects of knowledge: technology and human capital. Steady-state equilibrium conditions show that the growth rate of per capita income hinges on the growth rate of human capital. While the growth rate of human capital has been previously shown to affect the growth of the economy in transition between steady states or balanced growth paths, the authors are the first to link the growth rate of human capital to the steady-state growth rate of productivity and output per worker. Furthermore, this result does not exhibit scale effects or policy invariance, both of which have been longstanding concerns with the predictions of endogenous growth models developed in the 1990s. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics and growth, Education |
| Date: | 2005–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3539&r=edu |