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on Education |
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Issue of 2007‒02‒10
sixteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Barrera-Osorio, Felipe |
| Abstract: | In 1999 the city of Bogota, Colombia launched the concession school program designed to broaden the coverage and quality of basic education. It consists of a contract between a group of private schools and the public educational system such that private agents provide education for low-income students. This paper tests three main hypotheses concerning the impact of concessions on the quality of education: first, dropout rates are lower in concession schools than in similar public schools; second, other public schools nearby the concession schools have lower dropout rates in comparison with other public schools outside the area of influence; and third, test scores from concession schools are higher than scores in similar public schools. The paper presents evidence in favor of the three hypotheses using propensity score and matching estimators. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4121&r=edu |
| By: | Hanushek, Eric A.; Woessmann, Ludger |
| Abstract: | The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic well-being, focusing on the role of educational quality. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population-rather than mere school attainment-are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high-level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes it clear that closing the economic gap with industrial countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Tertiary Education,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4122&r=edu |
| By: | Martin Gustafsson (Research Triangle Insitute, Department of Education (Tswane)) |
| Abstract: | The emphasis placed in the existing South African school production function literature on better skilled teachers and better school management is discussed. Ordinary least squares and hierarchical linear production function models, using 2000 SACMEQ data, for the country and for a sub-set of historically disadvantaged schools, are constructed. Ways of making the results more readable for policymakers are explored. The importance of physical infrastructure, textbook and nutrition budgets is highlighted by the models. Correct allocation of teaching and management time in schools, less learner repetition, and better teaching methodologies stand out as important school and classroom management imperatives. |
| Keywords: | Educational quality, Education policy, Education resources, SACMEQ, South Africa |
| JEL: | I21 H52 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers32&r=edu |
| By: | Darcy Rollins Saas |
| Abstract: | An education finance system that is constitutional under the Brigham ruling mandates sacrifices on the part of taxpayers for a public good—educated citizens. It remains to be seen if current proposals can make that sacrifice more palatable or ensure that those bearing the burden have the most stake in the outcomes of the system. |
| Keywords: | Public schools - Vermont ; Local finance - Vermont ; Taxation - Vermont ; Education - Vermont |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbce:07-1&r=edu |
| By: | Oyebola Olabisi |
| Abstract: | A September 8, 2006, ruling by the New Hampshire Supreme Court that the Granite State’s current education financing system is unconstitutional was the latest in a long string of court decisions, legislative responses, and subsequent court opinions that have made school funding one of the state’s most contentious issues. In its opinion, the Supreme Court gave New Hampshire lawmakers until July 2007 to define a constitutionally adequate education, implying that legislative failure could lead to a court-mandated system. This report summarizes how the issue of defining and funding an adequate public education reached this point in New Hampshire. It describes key legal findings and other background behind the string of court decisions defining a constitutional educational system. It examines major education funding bills proposed since the 1997 landmark Claremont ruling, assessing whether they would likely meet the state’s constitutional requirements. |
| Keywords: | Public schools - New Hampshire ; Education - New Hampshire ; State finance - New Hampshire |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedbce:06-2&r=edu |
| By: | Ana Rute Cardoso (IZA Bonn, Universidade do Minho, and CEPR); Miguel Portela (Universidade do Minho - NIPE, Tinbergen Institute and IZA Bonn); Fernando Alexandre (Universidade do Minho - NIPE); Carla Sá (Universidade do Minho - NIPE) |
| Abstract: | The Bologna process aims at creating a European Higher Education Area where intercountry mobility of students and sta?, as well as workers holding a degree, is facilitated. While several aspects of the process deserve wide public support, the reduction of the length of the first cycle of studies to three years, in several continental European countries where it used to last for four or five years, is less consensual. The paper checks the extent of public confidence in the restructuring of higher education currently underway, by looking at its implications on the demand for academic programs. It exploits the fact that some programs have restructured under the Bologna process and others have not, in Portugal. Precise quantification of the demand for each academic program is facilitated by the rules of access to higher education, in a nation-wide competition, where candidates must list up to six preferences of institution and program. We use regression analysis applied to count data, estimating negative binomial models. Results indicate that the programs that restructured to follow the Bologna principles were subject to higher demand than comparable programs that did not restructure, as if Bologna were understood as a quality stamp. This positive impact was reinforced if the institution was a leader, i.e. the single one in the country that restructured the program. Still an additional increase in demand was experienced by large programs that restructured to offer an integrated master degree, thus conforming to Bologna principles while not reducing the program duration. |
| Keywords: | education policy; European Higher Education Area; economic, social and cultural integration; count data. |
| JEL: | I28 I21 F15 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:4/2007&r=edu |
| By: | Malcolm Brynin (Institute for Social and Economic Research); Simonetta Longhi (Institute for Social and Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Higher education has expanded considerably in recent years. Human capital theory implies that this expansion has been the result of a growth in demand for higher level technical and managerial skills – commonly known as the technology bias thesis. Evidence of a positive coefficient for higher education relative to lower educational levels in Mincer-type wage equations and the maintenance of this differential over time are treated as supportive of the technology bias thesis. A more sociological approach might take into account increased social demand for education, which should result in increased competition between graduates for jobs. Moreover, the jobs which face the most competition from graduates are likely to be those which already have a high proportion of graduates, as graduate density itself becomes a signal of status. Using British Labour Force Survey data spanning ten years, when a measure of graduate density within occupations is incorporated in a wage equation, it appears that the higher the proportion of graduates in an occupation the lower the salary each individual receives, even controlling for education. This suggests a social rather than a material explanation of the expansion of higher education. |
| Keywords: | education, labour supply, wages |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-58&r=edu |
| By: | Subramanian Saravanan |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the quantum jump in the number of two-year management programmes in India. It examines the quality adherence by taking institutions approved and affiliated by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), University Grants Commision (UGC), Central Government Autonomus Institue (NIT,Trichy) and Deemed universities, which offers two-year management programmes over the past fifteen years from Tamilnadu as a sample unit. The objective is to identify the key reasons for increase in numbers and initiative in quality implementations process. It enables us to understand the qualitative terms of inorganic growth and its impact on quality of management education. It provides experiential understanding of quality implementation process and suggestions to increase its effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | Two-year management programme, Quantum jump, Quality initiative, Management education and Quality control |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2007-02-01&r=edu |
| By: | Pietro Garibaldi; Francesco Giavazzi; Andrea Ichino; Enrico Rettore |
| Abstract: | For many students throughout the world the time to obtain an academic degree extends beyond the normal completion time while college tuition is typically constant during the years of enrollment. In particular, it does not increase when a student remains in a program beyond the normal completion time. Using a Regression Discontinuity Design on data from Bocconi University in Italy, this paper shows that a tuition increase of 1,000 euro in the last year of studies would reduce the probability of late graduation by 6.1 percentage points with respect to a benchmark average probability of 80%. We conclude suggesting that an upward sloping tuition profile is efficient in situations in which effort is suboptimally supplied, for instance in the presence of public subsidies to education, congestion externalities and/or peer effects. |
| JEL: | C31 I2 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12863&r=edu |
| By: | Marcus Tamm (RWI Essen and Ruhr-University Bochum) |
| Abstract: | The German schooling system selects children into different secondary school tracks already at a very early stage in life. School track choice heavily influences choices and opportunities later in life. It has often been observed that secondary schooling achievements display a strong correlation with parental income. We use sibling fixed effects models and information on a natural experiment in order to analyze whether this correlation is due to a causal effect of income or due to unobservable factors that themselves might be correlated across generations. Our main findings suggest that income has no positive causal effect on school choice and that differences between high- and low-income households are driven by unobserved heterogeneity, e.g. differences in motivation. |
| Keywords: | Child poverty, educational attainment, secondary schools, sibling differences, natural experiment. |
| JEL: | D31 I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2007-58&r=edu |
| By: | Merrouche, Ouarda (Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In 1980, seven out of the seventeen Spanish regions were devolved education spending responsibility. Using a difference-in-differences approach, which I show to be particularly credible in this context, I evaluate the long term effect of this reform on human capital. I find no robust evidence to corroborate the theoretically predicted benefits of decentralization. |
| Keywords: | Decentralization; Education; Difference-in-differences estimator |
| JEL: | E61 E65 |
| Date: | 2007–01–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2007_003&r=edu |
| By: | Doyle, Orla (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin); Harmon, Colm (UCD Geary Institute University College Dublin and IZA); Walker, Ian |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the robustness of recent findings on the effect of parental education and income on child health. We are particularly concerned about spurious correlation arising from the potential endogeneity of parental income and education. We adopt an instrumental variables approach and our results suggest that the parental income and education effects are generally larger than are suggested by the correlations observed in the data. Moreover, we find strong support for the causal effect of income effect being large for the poor but small at the average level of income. |
| Keywords: | Child health ; intergenerational transmission |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:788&r=edu |
| By: | Bertoli Simone |
| Abstract: | This paper provides an analysis of the impact of migration and remittances on the inter-generational evolution of human capital in an economy that is characterized by the existence of a poverty trap at a low level of human capital. The analysìs is conducted within an overiapping generation model, where parental investment in education are driven by weakly altruistic motivations. Remittances boost educational expenditure in recipient households, and they can determine a decisive impact on the long-term dynamics of human capitai under favourabie assumptions on the wage differential and on migration costs. Under these assumptions, an exogenous probability to migrate represents an equal probabìlity of moving out of the poverty trap, that fades away in the long run, as remittances lead ali households to converge towards the equilíbríum at a high level of human capítal. Although this modei does not analyze the generai equilibrium effects of remittances - as it ìs grounded on the independence of households' dynamics - it provides a framework that is open to such an extension, that is called for by the literature on the Dutch Disease effects of remittances. |
| Date: | 2006–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:200607&r=edu |
| By: | Gustavo Crespi (SPRU, University of Sussex and University of Chile); Aldo Geuna (SPRU, University of Sussex); Bart Verspagen (Eindhoven University of Technology and TIK) |
| Keywords: | university patenting, public-private technology transfer, european universities |
| JEL: | O3 I28 |
| Date: | 2007–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:154&r=edu |
| By: | Stefano Breschi (Cespri, Bocconi University, Milano, Italy.); Francesco Lissoni (Cespri, Bocconi University, Milano; Università degli studi di Brescia, Italy.); Fabio Montobbio (Cespri, Bocconi University, Milano; Università degli studi dell’Insubria, Varese,Italy.) |
| Abstract: | Based on longitudinal data for a matched sample of 592 Italian academic inventors and controls, the paper explores the impact of patenting on university professors’ scientific productivity, as measured by publication and citation counts. Academic inventors (university professors who appear as designated inventors on at least one patent application) publish more and better quality papers than their colleagues with no patents, and increase their productivity after patenting. Endogeneity problems are addressed using instrumental variables and applying inverse probability of treatment weights. The beneficial effect of patenting on publication rates last longer for academic inventors with more than one patent. |
| Keywords: | scientific productivity, university patents, technology transfer. |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cri:cespri:wp189&r=edu |
| By: | Goktepe, Devrim |
| Abstract: | One of the most interesting indicators to show the change in the socio-economic role of universities in the last several decades has been the use of university patenting. However except some individual studies in European countries (e.g. Finland, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Germany and France) there has been no such a comprehensive data available for Sweden and most other European countries. The main motivation of this paper is therefore to obtain a systematic database on university patenting activities in Sweden. The main method of this research is data-matching between the EPO-patents and Lund University Faculty registers, and manual controls. The methodology of this research underlines the importance of searching for university-patents by the name of university inventors rather their affiliated university. The rate of patenting activity showed a positive trend between the years 1990 and 2004. 458 patents have been filed by Lund University researchers. The total number of inventors is 250. Although the number of large firms is lesser than the SMEs, the former group (e.g. Ericsson, Astra-Zeneca) has applied for a larger number of patents than the total number of patents of SMEs. |
| Keywords: | university patents; technology transfer; innovation; Swedish Model |
| JEL: | O3 O38 O34 |
| Date: | 2006–01–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1628&r=edu |