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on Education |
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Issue of 2007‒04‒21
nineteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Stephen Gibbons (CEP, London School of Economics); Olmo Silva (CEP, CEE, London School of Economics and IZA) |
| Abstract: | We explore the association between urban density and pupil attainment using three cohorts of pupils in schooling in England. Although - as widely recognised - attainment in dense urban places is low on average, this is not because urban environments disadvantage pupils, but because the most disadvantaged pupils with low average attainments attend the most urbanised schools. To control for this, we exploit changes in urban density faced by pupils during compulsory transition from Primary to Secondary school, and measure educational progress at the end of the Secondary phase, relative to attainment at the end of Primary schooling. Our results suggest that there are small but significant benefits from education in schools in more densely urbanised settings. We detect this density advantage even amongst pupils moving relatively short distances between Primary and Secondary schools within urban areas, so we cannot attribute it to broad urbanisation effects experienced by pupils making rural-urban school moves. A more likely explanation lies in greater school choice and competition between closely co-located educational providers. |
| Keywords: | urban density and agglomeration, school choice and competition, pupil achievement |
| JEL: | I20 R20 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2728&r=edu |
| By: | Samuel Berlinski; Sebastian Galiani; Paul Gertler |
| Abstract: | Although the theoretical case for universal pre-primary education is strong, the empirical foundation is weak. In this paper, we contribute to the empirical case by investigating the effect of a large expansion of universal pre-primary education on subsequent primary school performance in Argentina. We estimate that one year of preprimary school increases average third grade test scores by 8 percent of a mean or by 23 percent of the standard deviation of the distribution of test scores. We also find that preprimary school attendance positively affects student’s self-control in the third grade as measured by behaviors such as attention, effort, class participation, and discipline. |
| Keywords: | Preschool, Pre-primary education, Primary school performance |
| JEL: | I2 J1 |
| Date: | 2006–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2006-838&r=edu |
| By: | Made Torokoff (University of Tartu, Pärnu College) |
| Abstract: | One third of Estonian schools have been teaching business in one form or another since 1992, mostly using a Junior Achievement programme. Estonian universities have not had programmes for teachers of business or economics in comprehensive schools until now. How can we implement business teaching in the general education system on a larger scale and how can we promote enterprising behaviour? Research into business teaching is currently at an initial stage in Estonia. In order to establish the steps which must be taken for implementing programmes for business teaching, it is essential to identify our current situation. What are the general attitudes towards business in general? What do business people expect from schools? The author of the paper conducted surveys in both schools and companies in 2003-2005. This paper focuses on the issues of competitiveness and enterprises covered in the surveys. Using the data from the surveys, the paper aims to analyse the attitudes and views of teachers, students and parents towards studies in the general education system, and towards competitiveness in the labour market and enterprises. The teachers’ view is that their students are competitive on the labour market as long as their level of academic knowledge is good. Most students do not see business as a career option. However, the parents’ responses allow us to draw the conclusion that their interest in and need for knowledge in economics has risen sharply. The paper points out that even while there is no systematic training of business teachers, enterprising behaviour and mindset, and students’ leadership skills can be shaped in regular classes by all teachers at a pre-school level (kindergartens), along with primary, basic and secondary education |
| Keywords: | Estonian school, entrepreneurship education, enterprising behaviour, leader |
| JEL: | A2 I21 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:153&r=edu |
| By: | Sebastián Calónico (Inter-American Development Bank); Hugo Ñopo (Inter-American Development Bank and IZA) |
| 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 nonexistent. 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: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2711&r=edu |
| By: | Sam Berlinksi; 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 in the context of a rapid expansion in the supply of preprimary places. Using a within household estimator, we find small gains from preschool attendance at early ages that magnify as children grow up. By age 15, treated children have accumulated 0.8 extra years of education and are 27 percentage points more likely to be in school compared to their untreated siblings. Instrumental variables estimates that control for non random selection of siblings into pre-school lead to similar results. 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. |
| Keywords: | Preschool, Pre-primary education, Primary school performance |
| JEL: | I2 J1 |
| Date: | 2007–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2007-860&r=edu |
| By: | Alison Booth; Melvyn Coles |
| Abstract: | This paper considers educational investment, wages and hours of market work in an imperfectly competitive labour market with heterogeneous workers and home production. It investigates the degree to which there might be both underemployment in the labour market and underinvestment in education. A central insight is that the ex-post participation decision of workers endogenously generates increasing marginal returns to education. Although equilibrium implies underinvestment in education, optimal policy is not to subsidise education. Instead it is to subsidise labour market participation which we argue might be efficiently targeted as state-provided childcare support. |
| JEL: | H24 J13 J24 J31 J42 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:acb:camaaa:2007-07&r=edu |
| By: | Paula Kyrö (School of Economics and Business Administration at University of Tampere) |
| Abstract: | The discussion between entrepreneurship and education strengthened towards the end of the 20th century due to the increasing impact of small businesses on societies. It is therefore reasonable to as¬sume that present-day students may soon experience the small business context in some form as their future work environment. The supply of entrepreneurship courses is, in fact, one of the fastest growing themes in university teaching in both sides of the Atlantic. The Finnish government has also taken this fact as one of the key issues in its policy programme and committed to entrepreneurship education throughout its school system. The dilemma will be faced however when it comes to the current contribution of the education to the educational theories. The discussion of how to learn entrepreneurship and develop pedagogy for it has only taken very preliminary steps. So far the focus has changed from the trait theories of biological heritage, i.e. assuming that we are born to be entrepreneurs, towards the belief that we learn to be en¬trepreneurs and we learn how to behave like entrepreneurs. This education-oriented focus has, how¬ever, generated studies in entrepreneurship research rather than attracted education researchers. This article suggests that the lack of this contribution appears as an apparent shortage of pedagogical dis¬cussion. In order to encourage this debate as an interplay between these two sciences, this paper deline¬ates some elements of entrepreneurial pedagogy, compares them to the available learning paradigms and thus gives some ideas for further enhancing entrepreneurial learning in different levels of school system |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial learning, Educational system in Finland, Finnish Society, entrepreneurial qualities, learning paradigms, entrepreneurial learning paradigm |
| JEL: | A2 R5 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:152&r=edu |
| By: | AZAM, Jean-Paul; THELEN, Véronique |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ide:wpaper:6890&r=edu |
| By: | Voigtländer, Christine; Breitner, Michael H. |
| Abstract: | Contemporary lifelong learning (L3) concepts require permeability between higher and further education. Today, human resources development is a critical success factor in a global environment. Shorter innovation cycles and the challenges of the service economy imply the alignment of further education concepts to the employees’ working situation. Standardized content offers are no longer sufficient to meet the needs of both learners and companies. Public and private education providers have to collaborate to meet the customers’ learning needs. Providers can and should establish dynamic business webs – so-called dynamic education webs – in this collaborative process. These partnerships are temporary in nature and are based mainly on incentives instead of contracts. We will focus on this new phenomenon and present research results with high practical relevance. The core questions arise: What promotes dynamic education webs? Who are the key players? What are critical success factors? These questions are answered based on literature, market studies and expert questionings of important market players. The recommendations derived can help the management to participate successfully in dynamic education webs. A glance at trends and market potentials as stated by the experts concludes the paper. |
| Keywords: | Business Webs, Business Models, E-Learning, Further Education |
| JEL: | I23 M53 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-362&r=edu |
| By: | Sumon Kumar Bhaumik; Manisha Chakrabarty |
| Abstract: | Few researchers have examined the nature and determinants of earnings differentials among religious groups, and none has been undertaken in the context of conflict-prone multi-religious societies like the one in India. We address this lacuna in the literature by examining the differences in the average (log) earnings of Hindu and Muslim wage earners in India, during the 1987-2004 period. Our results indicate that education differences between Hindu and Muslim wage earners, especially differences in the proportion of wage earners with tertiary education, are largely responsible for the differences in the average (log) earnings of the two religious groups across the years. By contrast, differences in the returns to education do not explain the aforementioned difference in average (log) earnings. Citing other evidence about persistence of educational achievements across generations, however, we argue that attempts to narrow this gap using quotas for Muslim households at educational institutions might be counterproductive from the point of view of conflict avoidance. |
| Keywords: | earnings gap, education, decomposition, religion |
| JEL: | J31 J15 I28 |
| Date: | 2007–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2007-858&r=edu |
| By: | Urve Venesaar (School of Economics and Business Administration at Tallinn University of Technology); Ene Kolbre (School of Economics and Business Administration at Tallinn University of Technology); Toomas Piliste (School of Economics and Business Administration at Tallinn University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The objective of the current paper is to identify the students’ attitudes and intentions toward entrepreneurship, their personal characteristics and future plans in connection with entrepreneurship. The results of the empirical study are brought to evaluate the preparation of bachelor programme graduates and master students from Tallinn University of Technology (different specialities) for starting with entrepreneurship. The Likert scale is used for measurement of students’ attitudes based on their own opinions about motivations to start in business, the statements about their entrepreneurial characteristics and behavioural habits connected with business relations and organisations. In this context, the opinions of respondents about the obstacles met in starting a business and possible support needs are also a subject of this analysis, including the role of university to foster entrepreneurial initiative among students. The research results showed that despite a considerable share of respondents thinking about entrepreneurship, most of them do not want to start business after graduation, but postpone this to a more distant future. Based on the students’ previous thoughts about and connections with entrepreneurship, or their plans for the future, we can identify differences in the motives to start a business (e.g. ambition for freedom, self-realisation, and pushing factors), as well as in personal characteristics, skills to participate in business relations and behaviour in organisation. The personal characteristics and behaviour typical of entrepreneur are correlated positively with the intention to start a new venture in the near future. However, we can also find some exceptions and interesting connections based on the student’s status, specialty (economic or technical specialities) and degree of study. The paper seeks to provide clarification so as to understand these differences, as well as suggestions for increasing the role of universities in developing students’ entrepreneurial behaviour and improving entrepreneurship policies in order to stimulate entrepreneurial initiative among students |
| Keywords: | attitudes, intentions, entrepreneurship education, personality traits, support needs |
| JEL: | A2 D8 I21 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:154&r=edu |
| By: | Per Blenker (School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus); Poul Dreisler (Department of Management, School of Business, University of Aarhus); John Kjeldsen (Department of Marketing and Statistics, School of Business, University of Aarhus) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship has been declared the most significant driver in the future development of societal welfare. Businesses, organisations and the individual person should be motivated for – and develop competence in – perceiving new opportunities through reflective action and hence participate in the creation of change and growth in society. This capacity and inclination for change and innovation is thus conceived as an important human trait, which has come to be known as “enterprising behaviour” in international research. In which ways do these demands challenge the universities and its role in regional and societal context? Interaction between universities, business sector and political system through the so-called “triple-helix-model” is said to be the basis for growth and innovation. Does it mean that knowledge creation and exchange should be based on the concept of the entrepreneurial university? Related to that, what are then the internal challenges for the entire education culture and for the role of the teacher / researcher? It is some of the questions the paper tries to answer or at least give some deeper insight to |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial university, triple-helix, enterprising behaviour, entrepreneurial culture, role of teacher / researcher |
| JEL: | A2 D8 I21 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:151&r=edu |
| By: | Hartmut Egger (University of Zurich, CESifo and GEP); Josef Falkinger (University of Zurich, CESifo and IZA); Volker Grossmann (University of Fribourg, CESifo and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a two-country model with integrated markets for high-skilled labor to analyze the opportunities and incentives for national governments to provide higher education. Countries can differ in productivity, and education is financed through a wage tax, so that brain drain affects the tax base and has agglomeration effects. We study unilateral possibilities for triggering or avoiding brain drain and compare education policies and migration patterns in non-cooperative political equilibria with the consequences of bilateral cooperation between countries. We thereby demonstrate that bilateral coordination tends to increase public education expenditure compared to non-cooperation. At the same time, it aims at preventing migration. This is not necessarily desirable from the point of view of a social planner who takes account of the interests of migrants. |
| Keywords: | brain drain, educational choice, public education policy, locational competition |
| JEL: | F22 H52 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2747&r=edu |
| By: | Gerald Braun (Hanseatic Institute of Entrepreneurship and Regional Development (HIE-RO) at Rostock University, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The new quality of international competition changes the function of universities dramatically. They have to ? in addition to their traditional role as sources of ideas, knowledge and intellectual capital ? become agents of innovations, i.e. entrepreneurial universities, enhance regional development and international competitiveness. The transformation of university produced knowledge into market-oriented innovations depends on the quality of academic entrepreneurship. The article analyses two competing approaches to promote academic entrepreneurship: The 'knowledge container' and the 'entrepreneurial learning' approach ? and their foundations in neoclassical and evolutionary growth theory. The obstacles to introduce entrepreneurial learning as an educational innovation are being analysed (non-innovative university culture/history/attitudes, bureaucratic over-regulation, defence of vested rights). The article finally discusses some conditions for successful academic entrepreneurship (corporate university entrepreneurs, change agents, inter-university competition, entrepreneurial universities as learning organisations) |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurial university, academic entrepreneurship, container knowledge accumulation, entrepreneurial learning, educational innovations |
| JEL: | E1 E3 F2 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ttu:wpaper:150&r=edu |
| By: | Roland G. Fryer; Michael Greenstone |
| Abstract: | Until the 1960s, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were practically the only institutions of higher learning open to Blacks in the US. Using nationally representative data files from 1970s and 1990s college attendees, we find that in the 1970s HBCU matriculation was associated with higher wages and an increased probability of graduation, relative to attending a Traditionally White Institution (TWI). By the 1990s, however, there is a wage penalty, resulting in a 20% decline in the relative wages of HBCU graduates between the two decades. We also analyze the College and Beyond's 1976 and 1989 samples of matriculates which allows us to focus on two of the most elite HBCUs. Between the 1970s and 1990s, HBCU students report statistically significant declines in the proportion that would choose the same college again, preparation for getting along with other racial groups, and development of leadership skills, relative to black students in TWIs. On the positive side, HBCU attendees became relatively more likely to be engaged in social, political, and philanthropic activities. The data provide modest support for the possibility that HBCUs' relative decline in wages is partially due to improvements in TWIs' effectiveness at educating blacks. The data contradict a number of other intuitive explanations, including relative decline in pre-college credentials (e.g., SAT scores) of students attending HBCUs and expenditures per student at HBCUs. |
| JEL: | I23 J15 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13036&r=edu |
| By: | Sebastian Galiani (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Washington University in St. Louis); Daniel Heymann (CEPAL); Carlos Dabus (Universidad del Sur); Fernando Tohme (CONICET) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the emergence of large-scale education systems in a framework where growth is associated with changes in the conguration of the economy. We model the incentives that the economic elite could have (collectively) to accept taxation destined to nance the education of credit-constrained workers. Contrary to previous work, in our model this incentive does not necessarily arise from a complementarity between physical and human capital in manufacturing. Instead, we emphasize the demand for human-capital-intensive services by highincome groups. Our model seems capable to account for salient features of the development of Latin America in the 19th century, where, in particular, land-rich countries such as Argentina established an extensive public education system and developed a sophisticated service sector before starting signicant manufacturing activities. |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0049&r=edu |
| By: | Kırdar, Murat G.; Dayıoğlu, Meltem; Tansel, Aysıt |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of sibship size, birth order and sibling sex composition on children’s school enrollment in urban Turkey. Moreover, we examine how the effects of these variables vary by household income and the gender of the children. We utilize an instrumental variables estimation method in order to address parents’ joint fertility and schooling decisions where we use twin-births as instruments. In addition, we generate careful measures for birth order and siblings’ sex composition in order to purge the impact of these variables from that of sibship size. We find no causal impact of sibship size on school enrollment. However, there is evidence for a parabolic impact of birth-order where middle-born children fare worse. The parabolic impact of birth order is more pronounced in poorer families. Sex composition of siblings matters only for female children. A higher fraction of older male siblings decreases the enrollment probability of female children in poorer households. In the wealthiest families, on the contrary, a higher fraction of male siblings increases the enrollment probability of female children. The finding that birth order and sibling sex composition matters more for poorer households suggests that scarce financial resources are the underlying cause of the sibling composition effects. |
| Keywords: | Educational Attainment; Sibship Size; Birth Order; Sibling Sex Composition; Instrumental Variables |
| JEL: | J10 I21 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:2755&r=edu |
| By: | Alison Booth; Melvyn Coles |
| Abstract: | This paper considers optimal educational investment and labour supply with increasing returns to scale in the earnings function. In so doing we develop the work of Rosen (1983), who first highlighted the increasing returns argument that arises because private returns to human capital investment are increasing in subsequent utilization rates. We demonstrate that increasing returns generates task specialisation - individuals choose to become either home specialists or work specialists. With heterogeneous workers, we show for certain types, that a tax on labour income leads to large, non-marginal substitution effects; i.e. those with a comparative advantage in home production are driven out of the market sector. Tax deadweight losses are consequently large. Consistent with the theory, our empirical results, using a cross-country panel, find that gender differences in labour supply responses to tax policy can play an important role in explaining differences in aggregate labour supply across countries. |
| JEL: | H24 J13 J24 J31 J42 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:acb:camaaa:2007-08&r=edu |
| By: | James J. Heckman (University of Chicago, American Bar Foundation, University College Dublin and IZA); Dimitriy V. Masterov (University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a productivity argument for investing in disadvantaged young children. For such investment, there is no equity-efficiency tradeoff. |
| Keywords: | early childhood investment, noncognitive skills, cognitive skills |
| JEL: | H52 I28 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2725&r=edu |