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on Education |
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Issue of 2007‒06‒11
twelve papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Carmen Balan (School of Marketing, Academy of Economic Studies) |
| Abstract: | The major goal of the paper consists in designing new communication strategies for the School of Marketing of the Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest, Romania. This strategic approach is focused on the communication strategies with the high school graduates who are the future candidates to the status of university student. The paper emphasizes the relationship between the university and the future high school graduates due to the fact that a real bond between these parties does not exist before the moment when the candidates enroll for the admission examination for the first year. In addition, another significant reason is the fact that high schools and their students represent important stakeholders from the perspective of a higher education institution. |
| Keywords: | marketing, communication strategies, survey, higher education |
| JEL: | M30 M31 M39 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ase:wpaper:1010&r=edu |
| By: | Manacorda, Marco; Galiani, Sebastian; Berlinski, Samuel |
| Abstract: | The authors 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 pre-primary places. Using a within household estimator, they 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 with their untreated siblings. Instrumental variables estimates that control for nonrandom selection of siblings into preschool lead to similar results. The authors 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: | Primary Education,Education For All,Youth and Governance,Early Childhood Development,Educational Sciences |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4240&r=edu |
| By: | Blázquez Cuesta, Maite (Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.); García Pérez, José Ignacio (Universidad Pablo Olavide, FCEA & FEDEA) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we analyse how the decentralization process of the Spanish educational system has affected the school-to-work transition of youths over the last years. Using individual data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey for the period 1993-2002, we estimate a simultaneous equation model for the unemployment and employment hazard rates of these workers. We include public expenditure on education, at the regional level, as an explanatory factor in both hazards. Furthermore we account for cross-regional differences regarding the decision-making authority over education. Our results reveal that for both, university and non-university levels, public expenditure on education significantly improves the chances of Spanish youths in finding the first job after completing the educational system. However, it seems that the decentralization of university education has negative effects on youths’ labor market prospects in terms of exiting from unemployment, while no effects are observed for the case of non-university education. |
| Keywords: | connections, educational expenditure, decentralization, unemployment hazard, employment hazard |
| JEL: | I20 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uam:wpaper:200708&r=edu |
| By: | Nordin, Martin (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to examine if the returns to immigrants’ schooling are lower than the returns to natives’ schooling. In addition the paper tries to establish whether immigrants who invest in different amounts of Swedish education also differ in their returns to schooling. The results show that the difference in returns to schooling between immigrants and natives is generally quite small. Moreover, the returns to schooling are considerably higher for immigrants who arrived in Sweden during compulsory school age than for immigrants who arrived in Sweden after compulsory school age. Moreover, immigrants who complete their schooling in Sweden have, in general, much higher returns than immigrants with only foreign schooling. |
| Keywords: | Immigrants; return to schooling; incomes |
| JEL: | J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2007_012&r=edu |
| By: | Shane Mathew Worner |
| Abstract: | Using the first two waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, this paper explores the relationship between educational attainment and age at first marriage. Theory suggests that there are two effects driving the relationship, namely the Enrolment effect and the Human Capital effect. Using a Proportional Hazards model we analyse the effect of an individual’s education level on the timing of first marriage. Controlling for other institutional factors, cohort effect and social/ family background we find that the higher an individual’s education level, the older they are when they first marry. We find that the effect of education is much stronger for females than for males. |
| Keywords: | marriage, education, proportional hazard |
| JEL: | I2 J1 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:550&r=edu |
| By: | Robert B. Archibald (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary); David H. Feldman (Department of Economics, College of William and Mary) |
| Abstract: | Much of the literature on the causes of rising costs in higher education focuses on specific features and pathologies of decision-making within colleges and universities. We argue that this inward-looking focus on the specifics of higher education as an industry is a form of tunnel vision that can lead to poor public policy decisions. In this paper we show that cost disease and capital-skill complementarity are two crucially important causes of rising costs in higher education. These two economy-wide forces are something higher education shares with other skilled-labor-intensive services. |
| Keywords: | discrete games, cost disease, capital-skill complementarity |
| JEL: | I22 I23 |
| Date: | 2007–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwm:wpaper:53&r=edu |
| By: | Jean Bourdon (IREDU - Institut de recherche sur l'éducation : Sociologie et Economie de l'Education - [CNRS : FRE5211] - [Université de Bourgogne]); Markus Frölich (SIAW-HSG - [University of St. Gallen]); Katharina Michaelowa (Institut für Politikwissenschaft - [University of Zurich]) |
| Abstract: | Primary school enrolment rates are very low in francophone Africa. In order to enhance education supply, many<br />countries have launched large teacher recruitment programmes in recent years, whereby teachers are no longer engaged on civil servant positions, but on the basis of (fixed-term) contracts typically implying considerably lower salaries and a sharply reduced duration of professional training. While this policy has led to a boost of primary enrolment, there is a concern about a loss in the quality of education. In this paper we analyse the impact on educational quality, by estimating nonparametrically the quantile treatment effects for Niger, Togo and Mali, based on very informative data, comparable across these countries. We find that contract teachers do relatively better for low ability children in low grades than for high ability children in higher grades. When positive treatment effects were found, they tended to be more positive at the low to medium quantiles; when negative effects were found they tended to be more pronounced at the high ability quantiles. Hence, overall it seems that contract teachers do a relatively better job for teaching students with learning difficulties than for teaching the ‘more advanced' children. This implies that contract teachers tend to reduce inequalities in student outcomes. At the same time, we also observe clear differences between the countries. We find that, overall, effects are positive in Mali, somewhat mixed in Togo (with positive effects in 2nd and negative effects in 5th grade) and negative in Niger. This ordering is consistent with theoretical expectations derived from a closer examination of the different ways of implementation of the contract teacher programme in the three countries. In Mali and, to some extent, in Togo, the contract teacher system works more through the local communities. This may have led to closer monitoring and more effective hiring of contract teachers. In Niger, the system was changed in a centralized way with all contract teachers being public employees, so that there is no reason to expect much impact on local monitoring. In addition, the extremely fast hiring of huge numbers of contract teachers may also have contributed to relatively poor performance in Niger. These results are expected to be relevant for other sub-Saharan African countries, too, as well as for the design of new contract teacher programmes in the future. |
| Keywords: | Subsaharan Africa ; Primary school ; Enrolment ; Teachers ; Recruitment programme ; Civil servants ; Teacher training ; Quality of education ; Mali ; Togo ; Niger |
| Date: | 2007–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00150147_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Markus Froelich; Jean Bourdon; Katharina Michaelowa |
| Abstract: | Primary school enrolment rates are very low in francophone Africa. In order to enhance education supply, many countries have launched large teacher recruitment programmes in recent years, whereby teachers are no longer engaged on civil servant positions, but on the basis of (fixed-term) contracts typically implying considerably lower salaries and a sharply reduced duration of professional training. While this policy has led to a boost of primary enrolment, there is a concern about a loss in the quality of education. In this paper we analyse the impact on educational quality, by estimating nonparametrically the quantile treatment effects for Niger, Togo and Mali, based on very informative data, comparable across these countries. We find that contract teachers do relatively better for low ability children in low grades than for high ability children in higher grades. When positive treatment effects were found, they tended to be more positive at the low to medium quantiles; when negative effects were found they tended to be more pronounced at the high ability quantiles. Hence, overall it seems that contract teachers do a relatively better job for teaching students with learning difficulties than for teaching the ‘more advanced’ children. This implies that contract teachers tend to reduce inequalities in student outcomes. At the same time, we also observe clear differences between the countries. We find that, overall, effects are positive in Mali, somewhat mixed in Togo (with positive effects in 2nd and negative effects in 5th grade) and negative in Niger. This ordering is consistent with theoretical expectations derived from a closer examination of the different ways of implementation of the contract teacher programme in the three countries. In Mali and, to some extent, in Togo, the contract teacher system works more through the local communities. This may have led to closer monitoring and more effective hiring of contract teachers. In Niger, the system was changed in a centralized way with all contract teachers being public employees, so that there is no reason to expect much impact on local monitoring. In addition, the extremely fast hiring of huge numbers of contract teachers may also have contributed to relatively poor performance in Niger. These results are expected to be relevant for other sub-Saharan African countries, too, as well as for the design of new contract teacher programmes in the future. |
| JEL: | O15 I C14 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:dp2007:2007-20&r=edu |
| By: | Cordula Zabel (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how well imputed educational histories perform in the analysis of first birth rates in the West German context. The focus here is on the quality of estimates when only rudimentary information on the timing of education is available. In many surveys, information on respondents’ educational histories is restricted to the highest level of educational attained by the time of interview and the date at which this highest degree was attained. Skeleton educational histories can be imputed simply from such rudimentary information. The German Life History Study has complete educational histories. We use these to compare estimates based on the complete histories with estimates based on corresponding imputed histories. We find that the imputed histories produce relatively reliable estimates of the effect on first-birth rates of having a university degree vs. having a vocational certificate. Estimating corresponding rates for women who have no such education proved to cause greater difficulties. |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2007–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2007-022&r=edu |
| By: | Boris Vujčić (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb and Croatian National Bank); Vedran Šošić (Croatian National Bank) |
| Abstract: | Countries of Central and Eastern Europe experienced a rapid increase of return to education with the advent of the transition. This is well-documented for most of the countries but, until now, there were no empirical studies of the dynamics of wage premiums in post-transition Croatia. This paper, therefore, intends to fill in that gap. We look at the dynamics of wage premiums in Croatia and estimate how much the return to education has changed between 1996 and 2004 on the basis of labor force survey data. We compare these results with similar ones for selected transition countries and then we look at some possible explanations of our findings. Contrary to most transition countries, premiums for education in Croatia began to grow only at the end of the 1990's. In a way, wage adjustment in Croatia has been delayed. However, by 2004, it reached the level of premiums found in other transition countries and advanced market economies, thus creating market incentives for investment in education. We also look at additional features of the wage structure, such as non-linearities in the return to education associated with attainment of credentials and return to experience. |
| Keywords: | Croatia, human capital, returns to education |
| JEL: | J31 P23 P52 |
| Date: | 2007–05–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zag:wpaper:0708&r=edu |
| By: | Dorothee Schmidt (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | One possible solution to mitigate the negative influences of conflict which has been proposed in the literature is to subject the relevant parties to education. Education can take two forms: increasing an individual's human capital on the one hand, increasing her social capital on the other hand. Using a stylized model of a two-individual economy, we derive that increasing an individual's social capital will lead her to reduce her conflict effort, whereas increasing her human capital can induce her to increase her conflict effort. We then analyze which conditions need to be present to induce the individuals to invest into their social capital. |
| Keywords: | Contests, conflict reduction, education, human capital, social capital, morality |
| JEL: | D72 D74 I28 K42 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2007_5&r=edu |
| By: | Bouckenooghe,D.; Devos,G. |
| Abstract: | This inquiry, by means of the case study method, explored how the conceptions of principals about their role of school leader contribute to a better understanding of their behavior and the impact on school climate. The results showed that differences of how principals conceive their role as a leader affect indirectly through their leadership practices (i.e. initiating structure and supportive leadership), the unity in vision, collegial relations, collaboration, innovativeness and satisfaction of teachers. Based on a content analysis of interviews with 46 Belgian school leaders we distinguished three profiles: (1) the ‘people minded profile’ with an emphasis on people, educational matters and thus on creating a professional teaching community; (2) the ‘administrative minded profile’ with the focus on paperwork and the implementation of formal procedures and rules; and (3) the ‘moderate minded profile’ with no explicit preference for people, educational or administrative matters. Drawing on three prototypical cases we described in depth that these types of principals often work under different school climate conditions. We relied on semi-structured interviews to gather data on principals’ thoughts about their role as school leaders. Also, survey questionnaires were administered among 700 teachers in 46 schools to assess several features of school climate (i.e. goal orientedness, participation, formal and informal relationships, innovativeness), satisfaction of teachers, and leadership role behavior (i.e. initiating structure and supportive leadership behavior). |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vlg:vlgwps:2007-15&r=edu |