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on Education |
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Issue of 2006‒09‒23
fourteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Maluccio, John A.; Hoddinott, John; Behrman, Jere R.; Martorell, Reynaldo; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Stein, Aryeh D. |
| Abstract: | "Early childhood nutrition is thought to have important effects on education, broadly defined to include various forms of learning. We advance beyond previous literature on early childhood nut ition on education in developing countries by (1) using unique longitudinal data from a nutritional experiment with lifetime educational measures; (2) avoiding confounding the estimates by excluding potentially endogenous right-side variables; and (3) using estimators that allow for nonnormal distributions. Our results indicate significantly positive, and fairly substantial, effects of the randomized intervention a quarter century after it ended: increased grade attainment by women, via increased likelihood of entering and completing primary school and some secondary school; speedier grade progression by women; higher scores on cognitive tests for both men and women; and higher scores on educational achievement tests for both men and women. To account for possible biases in the calculation of standard errors and to control for sample attrition, alternative estimations were run and found to be robust." Authors' Abstract |
| Keywords: | malnutrition, Children, Education, Early childhood nutrition, Nutritional intervention, |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:207&r=edu |
| By: | David Carey; Ekkehard Ernst |
| Abstract: | Improving education achievement in Luxembourg is a priority for strengthening productivity growth and enhancing residents. employment prospects in the private sector, where employers mainly hire cross-border workers. Student achievement in Luxembourg is below the OECD average according to the 2003 OECD PISA study, with the performance gap between immigrant and native students being above average. A factor that makes learning more difficult in Luxembourg than in other countries is the use of three languages of instruction (Lëtzebuergesch, German and French). New empirical evidence presented in this paper based on the PISA tests suggests that the reforms over the past decade or so to attenuate these difficulties have had considerable success: the adverse impact of immigrant status on PISA test scores is around the OECD average. The fact that the performance gap between immigrant and native students is nevertheless greater than average reflects other factors, notably the relatively large difference in socio-economic background between immigrant and native students. The paper also discusses further reforms that are underway or planned to improve achievement of immigrant students. Another feature of Luxembourg.s education system is that it is highly stratified, with children being sorted into a large number of parallel tracks at an early stage and there being a high rate of grade repetition. International evidence suggests that stratification increases the impact of socio-economic background on student achievement. Reforms to reduce stratification are discussed in the remainder of the paper, together with reforms to enhance achievement more generally by improving teaching skills and basing school programmes on key competences. This paper relates to the 2006 Economic Survey of Luxembourg (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/luxembourg). <P>Améliorer la performance du système éducatif au Luxembourg <BR>Améliorer la réussite scolaire au Luxembourg constitue une priorité pour renforcer la croissance de la productivité et augmenter les perspectives de l'emploi des résidents dans le secteur privé, dans lequel les employeurs ont principalement recours à de la main-d'oeuvre transfrontalière. La réussite scolaire des élèves au Luxembourg est en dessous de la moyenne de l'OCDE selon l'étude PISA de 2003, avec une différence de réussite entre élèves immigrés et natifs au-dessus de la moyenne. Un des facteurs qui rend l'apprentissage plus difficile au Luxembourg que dans d'autres pays est l'utilisation de trois langues d'instruction (luxembourgeois, allemand et français). Basés sur les tests PISA, les nouveaux travaux empiriques présentés dans ce papier suggère que les réformes durant cette dernière décennie visant à atténuer ces difficultés ont connu un succès notable : l'impact négatif du statut d'immigré sur les performances PISA est autour de la moyenne de l'OCDE. Certes, il existe une différence de résultats entre les élèves immigrés et nationaux -- différence supérieure à la moyenne -- mais cela est dû à d'autres facteurs, notamment les origines socio-économiques différentes des élèves immigrés et nationaux. Le papier discute également d'autres réformes actuellement en route ou planifiées visant à augmenter la réussite scolaire des élèves immigrés. Une autre caractéristique du système éducatif luxembourgeois est sa stratification accrue, qui sélectionne tôt les enfants dans un nombre important de parcours parallèles. Par ailleurs, le redoublement de classe est important. Les comparaisons internationales suggèrent que la stratification augmente l'impact du cadre socio-économique sur la réussite scolaire de l'élève. Le papier discute ainsi des réformes sur une réduction de stratification, mais aussi des réformes visant une augmentation générale de la réussite scolaire en augmentant les compétences d'enseignement des professeurs ainsi qu'une réorientation des programmes scolaires autour des compétences clés. Ce document se rapporte à l'Étude économique du Luxembourg 2006 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/luxembourg). |
| Keywords: | education, éducation, formation professionnelle, PISA, survey data analysis, secondary education, attainment, school system, stratification, tracking, streaming, teachers' skills, trilingual education, pre-school education, immigration and socio-economic background, general education, key competences, PISA, réussite scolaire, analyse des données d'enquête, éducation secondaire, système scolaire, stratification, compétences des enseignants, éducation trilingue, éducation préscolaire, immigration et cadre socio-économique, éducation générale, compétences clés |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–09–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:508-en&r=edu |
| By: | Eliasson, Kent (National Institute for Working Life) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on how accessibility to higher education affects university enrollment decisions in Sweden. The analysis refers to the autumn semester of 1996 and is based on approximately 835,000 individuals aged 1929. The empirical results show that the probability of enrollment increases with accessibility to university education. The findings also reveal that accessibility adds to the likelihood of enrollment within the region of residence. Both these results are robust with regard to different specifications of accessibility. Moreover the empirical results indicate that the enrollment decisions of individuals with a less privileged background are more sensitive to accessibility to university education than those of individuals from a more advantageous background. The influence of accessibility on enrollment decreases significantly with individual ability, parental education, and parental earnings. |
| Keywords: | University enrollment; accessibility; geographical mobility; social recruitment |
| JEL: | A22 I21 R23 |
| Date: | 2006–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0690&r=edu |
| By: | Alstadsæter, Annette (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School); Kolm, Anne-Sofie (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School); Larsen, Birthe (Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect of taxes on the individuals' choices of educational direction, and thus on the economy.s skill composition. A proportional labour tax induces too many workers with high innate ability to choose an educational type associated with high consumption value and low effort. This increases the skill mismatch and aggregate unemployment in the economy. The government can correct for this distortion by use of differentiated tuition fees or tax rates. |
| Keywords: | Unemployment; matching; education; optimal taxation; tuition fees |
| JEL: | H21 H24 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2005–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cbsnow:2005_023&r=edu |
| By: | Andrew Leigh; Chris Ryan |
| Abstract: | International research suggests that differences in teacher performance can explain a large portion of student achievement. Yet little is known about how the quality of the Australian teaching profession has changed over time. Using consistent data on the academic aptitude of new teachers, we compare those who have entered the teaching profession in Australia over the past two decades. We find that the aptitude of new teachers has fallen considerably. Between 1983 and 2003, the average percentile rank of those entering teacher education fell from 74 to 61, while the average rank of new teachers fell from 70 to 62. One factor that seems to have changed substantially over this period is average teacher pay. Compared to non-teachers with a degree, average teacher pay fell substantially over the period 1983-2003. Another factor is pay dispersion in alternative occupations. During the 1980s and 1990s, non-teacher earnings at the top of the distribution rose faster than earnings at the middle and bottom of the distribution. For an individual with the potential to earn a wage at the 90th percentile of the distribution, a non-teaching occupation looked much more attractive in the 2000s than it did in the 1980s. We believe that both the fall in average teacher pay, and the rise in pay differentials in non-teaching occupations are responsible for the decline in the academic aptitude of new teachers over the past two decades. |
| Keywords: | test scores, teacher salary, occupational choice |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:534&r=edu |
| By: | Eliasson, Kent (National Institute for Working Life) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effect on earnings of graduating from five different college groups. The study is based on an administrative data set unusually rich in terms of school grades, parental characteristics and other attributes. Contrary to most previous Swedish research, we find no systematic differences in estimated earnings between the college categories. This finding holds for all college graduates, for men and women separately and for graduates in two specific fields of education. The results indicate that an estimator of the earnings effects of college choice that does not properly adjust for ability is likely to be substantially biased. |
| Keywords: | College choice; ability; earnings; selection on observables |
| JEL: | A22 I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0691&r=edu |
| By: | Eliasson, Kent (National Institute for Working Life) |
| Abstract: | This thesis consists of three papers that examine college choice and earnings among university graduates in Sweden. <p> Paper [I] analyzes how geographical accessibility to higher education affects university enrollment decisions in Sweden. The empirical findings show that the probability of enrollment in university education increases with accessibility to university education. The results also indicate that accessibility adds to the likelihood of attending a university within the region of residence. Both these findings are robust with regard to different specifications of accessibility. The empirical results furthermore indicate that the enrollment decisions of individuals with a less privileged background are more sensitive to accessibility to university education than are the decisions of individuals from a more favorable background. <p> Paper [II] examines the effect on earnings of graduating from five different college groups. The paper relies on selection on observables and linear regression to identify the earnings effect of college choice. Contrary to the majority of previous Swedish studies, we do not find any systematic differences in estimated earnings between college graduates from the different college groups. This finding does not only hold when considering all college graduates, but also when focusing on men and women separately as well as when considering college graduates in two specific fields of education. The results suggest that an estimator of the earnings effects of college choice that does not properly adjust for ability is likely to be substantially biased. <p> Paper [III] estimates the causal effect on earnings of graduating from old universities rather than new universities/university colleges. The study compares estimates from several different matching methods and linear regression. We cannot find any significant differences in earnings between graduates from the two groups of colleges. This holds for male and female sub-samples covering all majors, as well as male and female sub-samples covering two broad fields of education. The results are robust with regard to different methods of propensity score matching and regression adjustment. Furthermore, the results indicate little sensitivity with regard to the empirical support in the data and alternative specifications of the propensity scores. |
| Keywords: | College choice; earnings; propensity score matching |
| JEL: | A22 C14 I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0693&r=edu |
| By: | Eliasson, Kent (National Institute for Working Life) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effect on earnings of graduating from old universities rather than new universities/university colleges. The study is based on Swedish administrative data that is comparatively rich in terms of school grades, parental characteristics and other attributes. Despite the more favorable conditions at old universities in terms of factors related to college quality, we find no significant difference in estimated earnings between graduates from the two groups of colleges. This finding holds for male and female sub-samples covering all majors, as well as male and female sub-samples covering two broad fields of education. The results are robust with regard to different methods of propensity score matching and regression adjustment. The results furthermore indicate little sensitivity with regard to the empirical support in the data and alternative model specifications. |
| Keywords: | College choice; earnings; propensity score matching |
| JEL: | A22 C14 I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:umnees:0692&r=edu |
| By: | Abdurrahman Aydemir (Statistics Canada); Arthur Sweetman (Queen's University and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The educational and labor market outcomes of the first, first-and-a-half, second and third generations of immigrants to the United States and Canada are compared. These countries’ immigration flows have large differences in source countries, scale and timing, and Canada has a much larger policy emphasis on skilled workers. Following from these, the educational attainment of US immigrants is currently lower than that in Canada and the intergenerational transmission of education is expected to cause the gap to grow. This in turn influences earnings. Controlling only for age, the current US second generation has earnings comparable to those of the third, while earnings are higher for the second generation in Canada. Interestingly, the positive wage gap in favour of first-and-a-half and second generation immigrants in Canada is exceeded by the gap in educational attainment, but a lower immigrant rate of return attenuates education’s impact. Moreover, observable characteristics explain little of the difference in earnings outcomes across generations in the US but their introduction into an earnings equation causes the Canadian second generation premium to switch signs and become negative relative to the third. |
| Keywords: | immigration, second generation, Canada, United States, education |
| JEL: | J61 J62 I29 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2298&r=edu |
| By: | Taleb Ahmad; Wolfgang Härdle; Julius Mungo |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we present a case study, which describe the development of the Statistic e-learning-course in Arabic language –``Arabic MM*STAT´´. The basic frame forthis E-book, the system MM*STAT was developed at the School for Business and Economics of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Arabic MM*STAT uses a HTML - based filing card structure. We discuss the difficulties of the implementation of such a system in to the standard WWW formats and present the solutions needed for Arab educational institutions and the Arabic user. Those solutions are consistent with the Arabic language, and include the modern trend in the e-learning environment. |
| Keywords: | electronic books, Arabtex, MM*STAT, Statistical software |
| JEL: | I21 C19 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2006-062&r=edu |
| By: | Nil Demet Güngör (Atilim University); Aysit Tansel (Middle East Technical University and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The emigration of skilled individuals from Turkey attracted greater media attention and the interest of policymakers in Turkey, particularly after the experience of recurrent economic crises that have led to an increase in unemployment among the highly educated young. This study estimates a model of return intentions using a dataset compiled from an Internet survey of Turkish students residing abroad. The findings of this study indicate that, as expected, higher salaries offered in the host country and lifestyle preferences, including a more organized environment in the host country, increase the probability of student non-return. However, the analysis also points to the importance of prior return intentions and the role of the family in the decision to return to Turkey or stay overseas. It is also found that the compulsory service requirement attached to government scholarships increases the probability of student return. Turkish Student Association membership also increases return intentions. Longer stay durations, on the other hand, decrease the probability of return. These findings have important policy implications. |
| Keywords: | student non-return, brain drain, return intentions, Turkey |
| JEL: | F20 F22 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2287&r=edu |
| By: | Rakesh Basant (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad); Simon Commander (London Business School and IZA Bonn); Rupert Harrison (Institute for Fiscal Studies, London); Naercio Menezes-Filho (Universidade de São Paulo) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a unique new data set on nearly a thousand manufacturing firms in Brazil and India to investigate the determinants of ICT adoption and its impact on performance in both countries. The descriptive evidence shows that Brazilian firms on average use ICT more intensively than their Indian counterparts but changes over time have been rather similar in both places. Within countries ICT intensity is strongly related to size, ownership structure, share of administrative workers and education. The econometric evidence documents a strong relationship between ICT capital and productivity in both countries, even after controlling for several other factors, including firm-specific fixed-effects. The rate of return of ICT investment seems to be much larger than usually found in more developed countries. Specific types of organisational changes matter for the return of ICT, but only for high adopters. Firms report several constraints to ICT investment in both countries and power disruption seems to significantly depress adoption and returns to ICT expenditures in India. This may be indicative of the impact of a cluster of poor institutions and/or infrastructure on performance. |
| Keywords: | ICT, productivity |
| JEL: | J2 E20 L20 L60 O33 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2294&r=edu |
| By: | Yamauchi, Futoshi |
| Abstract: | "This paper examines the effects of early childhood nutrition on schooling inputs and outcomes to assess the dynamic nature of human capital production, using panel data from South Africa. Height-for-age Z-score is used as a measure of health and nutritional status in early childhood. Based on a comparison of siblings, this analysis concludes that improving children's health significantly lowers the age when they start school, increases grade attainment, and decreases grade repetition in the early stage of schooling. However, this positive effect diminishes at later stages. The results also show that households allocate more of their resources (such as school fee expenditure) to healthy children at the early stage, although wealthier households may invest more in less well endowed children in an attempt to reduce sibling inequality. However, fewer resources are allocated to healthy children at later stages. By the time of transition from primary to secondary school, the healthy child can increase household income by seeking employment in the labor market. In other words, while health capital augments the efficiency of investment in schooling at the early stage, it may increase opportunity costs at the later stage, which may deter investment in schooling." Authors' Abstract |
| Keywords: | Children Nutrition, Health capital, Height-for-age, Schooling, Investments, South Africa, Nutrition Evaluation, Nutritional status, Household resource allocation, Households Economic aspects, |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:fcnddp:203&r=edu |
| By: | Dirk-jan Omtzigt |
| Abstract: | Population aging and the burden it imposes on state finances is one of the major economic challenges governments around the world face. Responses are formulated in terms of either increasing employment (for example by raising the retirement age) or increasing productivity (investment in education). This paper brings together these two responses in a unified framework and shows how the individual`s education and retirement decisions are affected by population aging - caused either by a fall in the population growth rate, or an increase in life expectancy - and the budget balancing mechanism of the public pension systems. We discuss how a budget balancing mechanism can be informed by fairness considerations and we show that early retirement can be the result of the application of Musgrave`s rule in response to a fall in fertility. |
| Keywords: | Aging, Fairness, Education, Retirement |
| JEL: | H55 I38 J22 J24 J26 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:274&r=edu |