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on Education |
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Issue of 2007‒03‒24
twelve papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Pawan Agarwal (Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations) |
| Keywords: | India's higher education sector, reforms in education, financing of India's Education, Quality assurance in education, funding of higher education, regulating higher education |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I22 I28 O32 J44 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:icrier:180&r=edu |
| By: | Massimiliano Bratti (University of Milan and IZA); Daniele Checchi (University of Milan and IZA); Antonio Filippin (University of Milan and IZA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the existence and the size of territorial differences in Italian students’ mathematical competencies. Our analysis benefits from a new data set that merges the 2003 wave of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) with territorial data collected from several statistical sources and with administrative school data collected by the Italian Ministry of Education. We consider three different groups of educational inputs: individual characteristics (mainly family background), school types and available resources, and territorial features related to labour market, cultural resources and aspirations. In addition to the standard gradient represented by parental education and occupation, we find that student sorting across school types also plays a significant role. Among the local factors measured at province level, we find a significant impact of buildings maintenance and employment probabilities. When accounting for territorial differences, we find that most of the North-South divide (75%) is accounted for by differences in endowments, while the local school production functions account for the remaining fraction. |
| Keywords: | education, PISA, students, territorial differences |
| JEL: | J21 J24 H52 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2603&r=edu |
| By: | Sebastian Calonico (Inter-American Development Bank); Hugo Ñopo (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | The private provision of educational services has been representing an increasing fraction of the Peruvian schooling system, especially in recent last decades. While there have been many claims about the differences in quality between private and public schools, there is no complete assessment of the different impacts of these two type of providers on the labor markets. This paper is an attempt to provide such a comprehensive overview. We explore private-public differences in the individual returns to education in Urban Peru. Exploiting a rich pair of data sets (ENNIV 1997 and 2000) that include questions on type of education (public vs. private) for each educational level (primary, secondary, technical tertiary and university tertiary) to a representative sample of adults we are able to measure the differences in labor earnings for all possible educational trajectories. The results indicate higher returns to education for those who attended private schools than those who attended the public system. Nonetheless, these higher returns also show higher dispersion, reflecting wider quality heterogeneity within the private system. The private-public differences in returns are more pronounced at the secondary than at any other educational level. On the other hand, the private-public differences in returns from technical education are almost non-existent. A cohort approach paired with a rolling-windows technique allows us to capture generational evolutions of the private-public differences. The results indicate that these differences have been increasing during the last two decades. |
| Keywords: | Returns to schooling; wages. |
| JEL: | J31 I2 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:1028&r=edu |
| By: | Eleonora Patacchini (University of Rome "La Sapienza"); Yves Zenou (Research Institute of Industrial Economics, GAINS, CEPR and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We develop a model that analyzes the impact of residential neighborhood and parents’ involvement in education on children’s educational attainment and test it using the UK National Child Development Study. We find that the better the quality of the neighborhood, the higher the parents’ involvement in children’s education, indicating cultural complementarity. For high-educated parents, the child’s educational attainment is more affected by the parents’ involvement than by the neighborhood quality while, for low-educated parents, the neighborhood quality seems to play the major role. |
| Keywords: | education, cultural transmission, cultural substitution, peer effects |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2608&r=edu |
| By: | Sarah Brown; Karl Taylor (Department of Economics, The University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | We explore the effect of bullying at school on the educational attainment of a sample of individuals drawn from the British National Child Development Study (NCDS). Our empirical findings suggest that school bullying has an adverse effect on human capital accumulation both at and beyond school. Moreover, the impact of bullying on educational attainment at age sixteen is found to be similar in magnitude to class size effects, which have attracted recent attention in the economics literature. Furthermore, in contrast to class size effects, the adverse influence of bullying on human capital attainment remains during adulthood. In addition, being bullied at school directly influences wages received during adulthood as well as indirectly influencing wages via educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Bullying, Education, Harassment, Human Capital. |
| JEL: | J24 Z12 |
| Date: | 2005–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2005015&r=edu |
| By: | Antonio Spilimbergo |
| Abstract: | Do foreign-educated individuals play a role in promoting democracy in their home countries? Despite the large amount of private and public resources spent on foreign education, there is no systematic evidence that foreign-educated individuals foster democracy in their home countries. Using a unique panel dataset on foreign students starting from 1950, I show that, indeed, foreign-educated individuals promote democracy in their home country, but only if the foreign education is acquired in democratic countries. The results are robust to reverse causality, country-specific omitted variables, and inclusion of a variety of control variables. The results are stronger for small countries. |
| Keywords: | Education , democracy , development , institutions , international students , Education , Governance , |
| Date: | 2007–03–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:07/51&r=edu |
| By: | Marcelo Soto (Instituto de Análisis Económico, Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies find that changes in schooling are not correlated with changes in per capita income. Similarly, the estimation in levels also produces minor coefficients for years of schooling. Low social returns and measurement error in educational variables have been invoked as possible explanations for such findings. This paper shows that collinearity between physical and human capital stocks seriously undermines the ability of educational indicators to display significance in panel data estimates. On top of that, failure to cope with endogeneity has produced biased estimates. As opposed to the earlier empirical literature, the social return on schooling is positive and significant, but no Lucas-type externalities are observed. Finally, the quality of education emerges as a significant determinant of heterogeneity in social returns across countries. |
| Keywords: | human capital, education, income growth, GMM estimation. |
| JEL: | J10 O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iei:wpaper:0605&r=edu |
| By: | Hiroshi Sato (Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo); Li Shi (Beijing Normal University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the determinants of intergenerational correlation of education in rural China by using a data from a large survey of households. Three generations who completed education during the period from pre-1949 to the beginning of the 2000s are included. The focus is on the influence of family class status (chengfen) on offspring education. Our investigation suggests that family class status is still important for the intergenerational transmission of education. The offspring of landlord/rich peasant families are more likely to achieve higher educational attainment, even though parental education, family wealth, and other family characteristics are the same. The unique determinant of the intergenerational transmission of education in the postreform era is found to be an education-oriented family culture, created as an intergenerational cultural rebound against class-based social discrimination during the Maoist era. We have also found that the cultural reaction is a combination of class-specific effects with cohort-specific effects. |
| Keywords: | education, intergenerational correlation, social class, social discrimination, family culture |
| JEL: | D31 J24 N35 O15 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2642&r=edu |
| By: | Nil Demet Güngör (Atilim University); Aysit Tansel (Middle East Technical University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | The paper presents research findings on the return intentions of Turkish professionals residing abroad. The study uses a descriptive framework to establish the validity of several proposed models of non-return. The results are based on an internet survey of Turkish professionals abroad. Correspondence analysis is used to examine the relationship between return intentions and various factors that may affect this intention. The results emphasize the importance of student non-return versus traditional brain and appear to complement the various theories of student non-return. The respondents appear to come from relatively wellto- do families with highly educated parents. Many have earned their degrees from universities that have foreign language instruction. The recent economic crises in Turkey have negatively affected return intentions. We verify that return intentions are indeed linked closely with initial return plans, and that this relationship weakens with stay duration. Specialized study and work experience in the host country also all appear to contribute to explaining the incidence of non-return. Return intentions are weaker for those working in an academic environment. These results lead to important policy implications, some of which include the training of individuals for academic positions at domestic institutions, supporting study abroad for shorter periods and improving academic facilities in Turkey’s newly established universities. The government may support public and private R&D centers to increase the employability of returnees, but also to improve the quality of the higher education system in order to both reduce the need for education abroad and to increase the attractiveness of universities as prospective employment places for those acquiring education and experience abroad. |
| Keywords: | skilled migration, brain drain, return migration, return intentions, higher education, Turkey |
| JEL: | F22 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2617&r=edu |
| By: | Boubaker Hlaimi (LEST - Laboratoire d'économie et de sociologie du travail - [CNRS : UMR6123] - [Université de Provence - Aix-Marseille I][Université de la Méditerranée - Aix-Marseille II], LEN - Laboratoire d'Economie de Nantes - [Université de Nantes]) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores intergenerational educational mobility for three groups of individuals: Christian natives, Christian immigrants and Muslim immigrants. We develop an econometric specification for educational attainment which shows that a higher level of parent education increases differently the child education among the three groups with a special advantage for daughters. We find higher intergenerational correlation for Christian natives than for Muslims immigrants, but an intermediate level for Christian immigrants. For the three communities, we show an advantage for mother education; however this advantage differs between daughters and sons. Furthermore, we find significant effects of family variables such as birth order, family size or sibling composition which vary among the three groups. The gap between Christian and Muslim immigrants remains approximately low and a possible convergence of education levels is possible given an educational system mainly public and free |
| Date: | 2007–03–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:hal-00137920_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Oskar R. Harmon (University of Connecticut); James Lambrinos (Union University) |
| Abstract: | All previous studies comparing online and face-to-face format for instruction of economics compared courses that were either online or face-to-face format and regressed exam scores on selected student characteristics. This approach is subject to the econometric problems of self-selection omitted unobserved variables. Our study uses two methods to deal with these problems. First we eliminate self-selection bias by using students from a course that uses both instruction formats. Second, we use the exam questions as the unit of observation, and eliminate omitted variable bias by using an indicator variable for each student to capture the effect of differences in unobserved student characteristics on learning outcomes. We report the finding that students had a significantly greater chance of answering a question correctly if it came from a chapter covered online. |
| Keywords: | online, instruction, economics, face-to-face |
| JEL: | A2 A22 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2007-03&r=edu |
| By: | Christian Belzil (GATE CNRS) |
| Abstract: | This papers contains a survey of the recent literature devoted to the returns to schooling within a dynamic structural framework. I present a historical perspective on the evolution of the literature, from early static models set in a selectivity framework (Willis and Rosen, 1979) to the recent literature, stimulated by Keane and Wolpin (1997), and which uses stochastic dynamic programming techniques. After reviewing the literature thoroughly, I compare the structural approach with the IV (experimental) approach. I present their commonalities and I also discuss their fundamental di8erences. To get an order of magnitude, most structural estimates reported for the US range between 4% and 7% per year. On the other hand, IV estimates between 10% and 15% per year are often reported. The discrepancy prevails even when comparable (if not identical) data sets are used. The discussion is focussed on understanding this divergence. The distinction between static and dynamic model specifications is a recurrent theme in the analysis. I argue that the distinction between the IV approach and the structural approach may be coined in terms of a trade o8 between behavioral and statistical assumptions. For this reason, and unless one has very specific knowledge of the true data generating process, it is neither possible, nor sensible, to claim which approach to estimation is more flexible. More precisely, I show that structural and IV approaches differ mainly at the level of i) the compatibility of the underlying models with truly dynamic behavior, ii) the role of heterogeneity in ability and tastes, iii) the consideration of post-schooling opportunities, and (iv) the specification (and interpretation) of the Mincer wage equation. |
| Keywords: | ability bias, dynamic self-selection, human capital, IV estimations, natural experiments, returns to education |
| JEL: | J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:0609&r=edu |