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on Education |
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Issue of 2006‒09‒30
thirteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Samuel Berlinski (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College, London); Sebastian Galiani; Marco Manacorda |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of pre-primary education on children's subsequent school outcomes by exploiting a unique feature of the Uruguayan household survey (ECH) that collects retrospective information on preschool attendance. A rapid expansion in the supply of pre-primary places over the last decade generates sufficient variation in the data to warrant identification. Using a within household estimator that only exploits differences in exposure across siblings, we find small gains from preschool attendance at early ages that magnify as children grow up. By age 16, children that attended preschool have accumulated more than 1 extra year of education and are 27 percentage points more likely to be in school compared to their siblings with no preschool education. We speculate that early grade repetition harms subsequent school progression and that pre-primary education appears as a successful policy option to prevent early grade failure and its long lasting consequences. |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:06/18&r=edu |
| By: | Adele Atkinson; Paul Gregg; Brendon McConnell |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the impact of academic selection at age 11 on children in the minority of areas that still operate such a system. The answers are very clear. Overall there is little or no impact on attainment, but those educated in grammar schools do substantially better (around four grade points more than pupils with the same Key Stage 2 (KS2) points in similar, but non-selective, areas). This is equivalent to raising four GCSEs from a grade ‘C’ to a ‘B’. Other children within selective areas who do not gain a place in a grammar school are disadvantaged by a little under one grade point. In part these effects stem from the substantive under representation of poorer and special needs children in grammar schools. Only 32% of high ability children eligible for free school meals (FSM) attend grammar schools compared with 60% of non-FSM pupils. So whilst the net effect of selection is not substantive it does result in gains for those attending the grammar schools and a slight disadvantage for the rest. The paradox is that grammar schools bestow greater advantages to poor children than more affluent children, but very few make the cut. |
| Keywords: | grammar schools, selective education |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2006–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:06/150&r=edu |
| By: | Ouarda Merrouche |
| Abstract: | In settlement colonies, the economic systems, infrastructure and development projects of the settlers exclusively served their own needs. The disastrous outcomes of this discrimination became apparent in the post-colonial era particularly as regards education. In Algeria under French rule (1930-1962) education was almost exclusively reserved to French and other European settlers and as a consequence only ten per cent of Muslim Algerians were literate at independence. While the majority of the settlers left Algeria in 1962, the infrastructure remained. This paper exploits substantial regional variations in the non-Muslims proportion of the population on the eve of the war of independence (1954) in Algeria to evaluate the long term impact of colonial discrimination in public goods allocation on education levels. Using an instrumental variables approach to correct for endogeneous sorting of settlers and natives into regions my results indicate that settlement regions, which inherited a larger stock of infrastructure per capita at independence, have persistently higher literacy rates relative to extractive regions. However, these disparities tend to vanish over time probably as a result of the massive funds allocated to the education sector by the successive governments in the post-independence era. |
| Date: | 2006–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:14/06&r=edu |
| By: | Hannes Suppanz |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews Iceland’s performance in skills accumulation against the backdrop of a rapidly changing economic environment and discusses directions for further improvements. Since the late 1990s, the government has considerably raised expenditure on education, which is now among the highest in the OECD relative to GDP. Nonetheless, Iceland continues to have one of the largest shares of those in the working age population who have not attained upper secondary or higher qualifications, and educational achievements of 15- year olds are not outstanding relative to the country’s advanced state of economic development. This is all the more unsatisfactory because spending per student in the compulsory education sector exceeds the OECD mean considerably, even after controlling for differences in per capita GDP. Measures to improve outcomes include curriculum adjustments and an enhancement of teaching evaluation and quality. While ensuring that students acquire a satisfactory basic set of competencies, there is room for reducing the average duration of primary and secondary education, which is quite long by international comparison. In contrast to upper secondary attainment, that for the tertiary sector is above the OECD average, and higher education has to cope with an enormous rise in participation. With a view to maintaining quality in the face of these developments, the government has introduced legislation that is welcome. However, it does not address the issue of tuition fees, which are authorised in the private but not in the public sector. This Working Paper relates to the 2006 OECD Economic Survey of Iceland (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/iceland). <P>Adapter le système éducatif Islandais à un nouveau contexte <BR>Ce travail passe en revue les résultats des efforts déployés par l’Islande pour développer les compétences de sa population dans un contexte économique en mutation rapide, et examine la voie à suivre pour progresser encore dans ce domaine. Depuis la fin des années 90, les pouvoirs publics ont sensiblement augmenté les dépenses d’éducation, qui figurent aujourd’hui parmi les plus élevées des pays de l’OCDE par rapport au PIB. Toutefois, l’Islande enregistre toujours l’une des plus fortes proportions de personnes d’âge actif qui n’ont pas achevé le deuxième cycle de l’enseignement secondaire, et les acquis scolaires des jeunes de 15 ans ne sont pas exceptionnels compte tenu du stade avancé de développement économique du pays. Cette situation est d’autant moins satisfaisante que les dépenses par élève dans le secteur de l’enseignement obligatoire sont très supérieures à la moyenne des pays de l’OCDE, même une fois prises en considération les différences de PIB par habitant. Les mesures requises en vue d’y remédier consistent, entre autres, à ajuster les programmes d’enseignement et à renforcer l’évaluation de l’enseignement et la qualité de ce dernier. Il est possible, tout en veillant à ce que les élèves acquièrent un ensemble suffisant de compétences de base, de réduire la durée moyenne de la scolarité dans l’enseignement primaire et secondaire, qui est assez longue par rapport aux autres pays. A la différence de ce que l’on observe dans le cas du deuxième cycle du secondaire, les personnes qui ont fait des études supérieures sont proportionnellement plus nombreuses que la moyenne des pays de l’OCDE et l’enseignement supérieur doit faire face à une énorme augmentation de ses effectifs. Afin que cette évolution ne soit pas préjudiciable à la qualité, les pouvoirs publics ont adopté des textes de loi que l’on peut saluer. Toutefois, ceuxci n’abordent pas le problème des droits de scolarité, dont le prélèvement est autorisé dans le secteur privé mais non dans le secteur public. Ce document de travail se rapporte à l’Etude économique de l’OCDE de l’Islande 2006 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/islande). |
| Keywords: | human capital, education, capital humain, Islande, éducation, education policy, Iceland, politique d'éducation |
| JEL: | J20 J21 J22 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:516-en&r=edu |
| By: | Kondakci, Y.; Van den Broecke, H.; Devos, G. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the internationalization process in higher education as an organizational level managerial issue. This approach brings a new perspective to internationalization in higher education. This is believed to be a necessary step toward filling a gap in the internationalization of higher education discussions. Nevertheless, the purpose of the study is not to falsify the dominant discussion in the literature. Rather, adopting the organizational change process conceptualization, this paper aims to fill a gap in the ongoing discussion on internationalization in the literature. To do this, the authors adopted the commonly accepted organizational change model of Burke and Litwin (1992) and made a comprehensive discussion on both transformational (external environment, mission and strategy, leadership, and organizational culture) and transactional (structure, task requirements and individual skills, individual needs and values, motivation, management practices, systems, climate) domains of the model from the perspective of internationalization in higher education. This approach is expected to clarify process, content, and context aspects of internationalization, which is essential for successful internationalization implementation. |
| Date: | 2006–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2006-28&r=edu |
| By: | Orazio Attanasio (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Emla Fitzsimons (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Ana Gomez; Diana Lopez; Costas Meghir (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London); Alice Mesnard (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | The paper studies the effects of Familias en Acción, a conditional cash transfer programme implemented in rural areas in Colombia in 2002, on school enrolment and child labour. Using a quasi-experimental approach, our methodology makes use of an interesting feature of the data, which allows us to identify anticipation effects. Our results show that the programme increased school participation of 14 to 17 year old children quite substantially, by between 5 and 7 percentage points, and had lower, but non-negligible effects on enrolment of younger children of between around 1.5 and 2.5 percentage points. In terms of work, the effects are generally largest for younger children whose participation in domestic work decreased by around 10 to 12 percentage points after the programme but whose participation in income-generating work remained largely unaffected by the programme. We also find evidence of school and work time not being fully substitutable, suggesting that some, but not all, of the increased time at school may be drawn from children’s leisure time. |
| JEL: | I28 I38 J22 O15 |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:06/13&r=edu |
| By: | Christina Czart Ciecierski; Pinka Chatterji; Frank J. Chaloupka; Henry Wechsler |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of state tobacco control program expenditures on individual-level tobacco use behaviors among young adults. Data come from the 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2001 waves of the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS). Our findings indicate that a higher level of state spending on tobacco control programs is associated with a statistically significant increase in the probability that smokers report at least one attempt to quit smoking in the past year, as well as increases in the number of attempts to quit in the past year among smokers. We also find that higher state expenditures on tobacco control programs are associated with reductions in the prevalence of smokeless tobacco and cigar use among college students. We do not find, however, any statistically significant association between state tobacco control program expenditures and the overall prevalence and intensity of cigarette use among college students, a finding that is at odds with previous research on high school students. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12532&r=edu |
| By: | Venetia Bell; Pablo Burriel-Llombart; Jerry Jones |
| Abstract: | In this paper, annual indices of labour input adjusted for the education, age and gender distributions of the UK workforce are presented for the period 1975-2002. These measures show that improvement in labour quality, as proxied by education, age and gender, has added on average 0.67 percentage points per year to the growth rate in total labour input. Changes in the education distribution more than account for the improvement in labour quality, adding 0.68 percentage points per annum. Changes in the age distribution have made a much smaller contribution, adding only 0.11 percentage points to the growth rate. The rise in female participation has had a small negative effect of 0.08 percentage points, as women have had a preference for part-time work, which tends to be paid less per hour than full-time jobs. Using this evidence, the key finding of this paper is that a large proportion of growth that is usually attributed to TFP (total factor productivity) growth can be accounted for by an improvement in the quality of labour input. This result has no implications for the measurement of UK GDP growth from 1975-2002, but it does help to identify more accurately the sources of that growth. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:280&r=edu |
| By: | Pinka Chatterji; Jeffrey DeSimone |
| Abstract: | We estimate the relationship between 10th grade binge drinking in 1990 and labor market outcomes in 2000 among National Educational Longitudinal Survey respondents. For females, adolescent drinking and adult wages are unrelated, and negative employment effects disappear once academic achievement is held constant. For males, negative employment effects and, more strikingly, positive wage effects persist after controlling for achievement as well as background characteristics, educational attainment, and adult binge drinking and family and job characteristics. Accounting for illegal drug use and other problem behaviors in 10th grade eliminates the unemployment effect, but strengthens the wage effect. As the latter is not explicable by the health, income or social capital justifications that are often used for frequently observed positive correlations between adult alcohol use and earnings, we conjecture that binge drinking conveys unobserved social skills that are rewarded by employers. |
| JEL: | I1 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12529&r=edu |
| By: | Nadir Altinok (IREDU - Institut de recherche sur l'éducation : Sociologie et Economie de l'Education - [CNRS : FRE5211] - [Université de Bourgogne]); Hatidje Murseli (IREDU - Institut de recherche sur l'éducation : Sociologie et Economie de l'Education - [CNRS : FRE5211] - [Université de Bourgogne]) |
| Abstract: | In this research work, we have used a methodology which enables us to obtain qualitative indicators of human capital (QIHC) for 105 countries. This methodology relies on the potential to reconsider survey results comparatively by analysing the results of countries which took part in at least two different surveys. This allowed us to build indicators of comparable data concerning the quality of human capital in numerous countries and between 1964-2005: our results represent a valuable comparison to what has been done so far. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomic Data ; Educational Quality ; Human Capital |
| Date: | 2006–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00097099_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Alessandro Lizzeri; Marciano Siniscalchi |
| Date: | 2006–09–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levrem:321307000000000395&r=edu |
| By: | Philippe Méhaut (LEST - Laboratoire d'économie et de sociologie du travail - [CNRS : UMR6123] - [Université de Provence - Aix-Marseille I][Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II]) |
| Abstract: | Presentacion rapida sobre la gestión de las competencias in Francia. |
| Keywords: | Gestion des compétences; France |
| Date: | 2006–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00096298_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Sterlacchini, Alessandro |
| Abstract: | By using accounting data from the largest utility companies of Europe, this note illustrates the recent R&D performance in energy and telecommunication. Although not all the companies under consideration behaved symmetrically, most of them reduced substantially their R&D investment. Over the period 2000-05, their total R&D expenditures at current prices decreased by 33%, while their R&D intensity (on sales) diminished from 1.1 to 0.7%. In discussing the above findings, it is argued that a drop of this size is hardly justifiable and weakens the EU economy in a non-negligible manner. |
| Keywords: | R&D performance; energy and telecommunication utilities |
| JEL: | O38 L97 O32 |
| Date: | 2006–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:31&r=edu |