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on Education |
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Issue of 2007‒10‒13
fifteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Servaas van der Berg (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University); Megan Louw (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University) |
| Abstract: | In regional context, South African students benefit from above average levels of public and private education resources. However, their performance on international tests – including SACMEQII (Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality, 2000) – is extremely weak. The first part of the paper positions South Africa within southern and eastern Africa on the basis of SACMEQII Grade 6 mathematics test scores. Hierarchical linear modelling techniques are then employed to model the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and schooling in this highly unequal country. Three important drivers of inequity in test scores emerge: principal concern with monitoring student progress, teacher absenteeism and teacher quality. These interact with SES to give richer students a strong advantage. |
| Keywords: | education quality, inequality, South Africa, Southern Africa, Hierarchical Linear Modelling |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers47&r=edu |
| By: | John Dolan |
| Abstract: | This article explains how Ireland has incorporated low energy design into primary and post-primary schools and gives an overview of projects that have helped inform this approach. |
| Keywords: | educational buildings, energy management, energy savings, school infrastructure |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2007/10-en&r=edu |
| By: | Strawinski, Pawel |
| Abstract: | In the article private rate of return to higher education in the 1998-2004 period is considered. The model is based on comparative advantage theory and extended Mincerian wage equation. The extension is made to account for non-random decision to undertake studies at university level. The estimate of private rate of return in Poland is roughly 9.5%, and it is among the highest in Europe. In addition, the unexpected rise in rate of return is observed. This change has been linked to labour market transformation and Skill Bias Technological Change phenomenon. Also the influence of financing tertiary education is considered. The rate of return to higher education has risen and graduation has positively affected the obtained wages. |
| Keywords: | Return to education; private returns; skill biased technical change; sample selection |
| JEL: | I22 |
| Date: | 2007–08–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5185&r=edu |
| By: | Masayuki Mori |
| Abstract: | Since 1997 several ministries in Japan have collaborated on an eco-school programme, which applies to both newly constructed and renovated school buildings, in an effort to make its schools more environmentally friendly. |
| Keywords: | sustainable development, environment, learning environment, educational buildings |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2007/8-en&r=edu |
| By: | Kelchtermans, Stijn; Verboven, Frank |
| Abstract: | Public systems of higher education have recently attempted to cut costs by providing financial incentives to institutions who reduce the diversity of their programs. We study the profit and welfare effects of reducing product diversity in higher education, against the background of a funding system reform in Flanders (Belgium). We find that dropping duplicated programs at individual institutions tends to be socially undesirable, due to the limited fixed cost and variable cost savings and the students' low willingness to travel to other institutions. Furthermore, we find that the financial incentives offered to drop programs may be very ineffective, leading to both undesirable reform and undesirable status quo. These findings emphasize the complexities in regulating product diversity in higher education, and serve as a word of caution towards the various decentralized financial incentive schemes that have recently been introduced. |
| Keywords: | higher education; product diversity |
| JEL: | C25 I2 I23 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6508&r=edu |
| By: | Aliprantis, Dionissi |
| Abstract: | In their justification for using entrance cutoff dates and compulsory education laws as a natural experiment, the authors of Angrist and Krueger (1991) rightly give much attention to the effectiveness of compulsory attendance laws. However, the authors do not give proper attention to the decisions made by parents. If redshirting is commonplace and nonrandom, as it is in the ECLS-K data set, then the identifying assumption of monotonicity does not hold, and their identification scheme does not work. This problem is distinct from those discussed in Bound and Jaeger (2000). |
| JEL: | I20 I21 |
| Date: | 2007–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5168&r=edu |
| By: | Carneiro, Pedro; Meghir, Costas; Parey, Matthias |
| Abstract: | We study the intergenerational effects of maternal education on children's cognitive achievement, behavioural problems, grade repetition and obesity. We address endogeneity of maternal schooling by instrumenting with variation in schooling costs when the mother grew up. Using matched data from the female participants of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and their children, we can control for mother's ability and family background factors. Our results show substantial intergenerational returns to education. For children aged 7-8, for example, our IV results indicate that an additional year of mother's schooling increases the child's performance on a standardized math test by almost 0.1 of a standard deviation, and reduces the incidence of behavioural problems. Our data set allows us to study a large array of channels, which may transmit the effect of maternal education to the child, including family environment and parental investments at different ages of the child. We find that income effects, delayed childbearing, and assortative mating are likely to be important, and we show that maternal education leads to substantial differences in maternal labour supply. We investigate heterogeneity in returns, and we present results focusing both on very early stages in the child's life as well as adolescent outcomes. We present a falsification exercise to support the validity of our instruments, and our results are found to be robust in a sensitivity analysis. We discuss policy implications and relate our findings to intergenerational mobility. |
| Keywords: | Child Development; Education; Intergenerational Mobility |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6505&r=edu |
| By: | Panagiotis Al. Patargias; Kalianou Angela; George Galanis; Marina Vassilopoulou; Maria Drosou; Christos Protogeropoulos |
| Abstract: | Greece’s School Buildings Organisation (SBO) is developing bioclimatic pilot schemes which are yielding positive results. Bioclimatic action has been one of the principal priorities of Greek school infrastructure planning since 2004. Among the activities undertaken by SBO to use renewable energy sources in school buildings is a pilot project to design and install a photovoltaic system in a secondary school in Athens. |
| Keywords: | environment, school building design, learning environment, educational buildings, energy savings |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2007/9-en&r=edu |
| By: | LEONOR MORA AGUDO; JOSÉ ÁNGEL RIVERO MENÉNDEZ |
| Abstract: | Resumen El presente trabajo realiza una aproximación al uso de los recursos públicos destinados a la financiación de las Instituciones de Educación Superior desde la perspectiva de la eficiencia financiera. Describe una propuesta de modelo para la determinación de las aportaciones públicas a percibir por las Universidades públicas españolas diferenciando dos tramos de financiación: el destinado a cubrir los gastos por la actividad docente y, aquel que permitirá satisfacer los gastos por la actividad investigadora. Esta propuesta se fundamenta en el resultado de una investigación realizada desde la Fundación de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos para el Consejo de Coordinación Universitaria del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia español. El modelo propuesto se basa en la selección, definición, cuantificación y valoración de un conjunto de variables que, a nuestro juicio, permiten captar y valorar la circulación interna de valores que se dan en la actividad universitaria. Abstract An efficient model for the public financing of university: Spanish case The present study approaches to the use of the public resources assigned to the financing of the institutions of Higher Education from the financial efficiency perspective. It describes a proposal of the model for the determination of the public contributions for the public Spanish Universities, differentiating between two financing sections: the one destined to cover the expenses of the teaching activity and the one that allow to pay the expenses of the investigation activity. This proposal is based on the outcome of the investigation carried out by the Rey Juan Carlos University Foundation for the Spanish Coordination Board of the Ministry of Education and Sciences. The proposed model is based on the selection, definition, quantifying and assessment of a group of variables that, in our opinion, make possible to get and to evaluate the internal propagation of the values in the university activity. |
| Date: | 2007–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000155:004202&r=edu |
| By: | Aliprantis, Dionissi |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the average treatment effect (ATE) of delaying children's enrollment in kindergarten by six months using the variation in birth dates that is exogenous in the ECLS-K data set. Estimates of the Math and Reading test score ATE start in the fall of kindergarten at 0.28 and 0.13 standard deviations and decline to 0.05 and 0.10 standard deviations by the spring of fifth grade. Unlike estimating the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) as done in the recent literature, estimating the ATE allows us to examine the effect of delaying enrollment by demographic characteristics. These estimates indicate that delayed enrollment could help explain the racial test score gap, and provide support for the hypothesis that the production of test scores is a cumulative process. |
| JEL: | J13 J24 I28 I21 |
| Date: | 2007–10–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5196&r=edu |
| By: | Mari Rege, Kjetil Telle and Mark Votruba (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Using Norwegian register data we estimate how children’s school performance is affected by their parents’ exposure to plant closure. Fathers’ exposure leads to a substantial decline in children’s graduation-year grade point average, but only in municipalities with mediocre-performing job markets. The negative effect does not appear to be driven by a reduction in father’s income and employment, an increase in parental divorce, or the trauma of relocating. In contrast, mothers’ exposure leads to improved school performance. Our findings appear to be consistent with sociological “role theories,” with parents unable to fully shield their children from the stress caused by threats to the father’s traditional role as breadwinner, and mothers responding to job loss by allocating greater attention towards child rearing. |
| Keywords: | educational outcomes; downsizing; job loss; layoffs; plant closure |
| JEL: | I20 J63 J65 |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:517&r=edu |
| By: | Petri, Böckerman |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses polytechnic graduate placement in Finnish manufacturing. The paper uses a register-based data source covering white-collar manufacturing workers over the period 1995-2004. Taken together, the results show that wages and job classification are higher for polytechnic graduates, once other covariates are controlled for. Despite this, almost 20% of graduates from polytechnics have been forced to take a position in manufacturing in which they can be considered to be ‘overeducated’. Interestingly, Bachelors of Business Administration are not as well placed as Bachelors of Engineering. |
| Keywords: | Polytechnic education reform; placement; job quality |
| JEL: | A23 I21 |
| Date: | 2006–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:5159&r=edu |
| By: | Ueyama, Mika |
| Abstract: | "A tremendous increase in the number of orphans associated with a sharp rise in prime-age adult mortality due to AIDS has become a serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, more than 30 percent of school-aged children have lost at least one parent in Malawi. Lack of investments in human capital and adverse conditions during childhood are often associated with lower living standards in the future. Therefore, if orphans face an increased risk of poverty, exploitation, malnutrition, and poorer access to health care and schooling, early intervention is critical so as to avoid the potential poverty trap. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of orphanhood/parental death on children's mortality risks, migration behaviors, and schooling outcomes, by using household panel data from Malawi, which has the eighth-highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. A number of studies have analyzed the relationship between parental death and children's school enrollment, but very few have considered mortality and mobility of orphans. This study uses the Malawi Complementary Panel Survey (CPS) conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and another institution between January 2000 and July 2004. Since these panel data do not track individuals that move to other households, we take into account sample attritions of children. This study uses three estimation methodologies to explore different aspects of impacts. First, we analyze regression models with controls for various sets of household and child characteristics and for village fixed effects to examine heterogeneous impacts of orphanhood across different types of households. Second, we employ household fixed-effect models to test the differential effects of orphanhood on welfare outcomes among different types of orphans living in the same household. Third, we examine the impact of recent parental death—parental death between 2000 and 2004—on schooling outcomes. Empirical results show that maternal orphans, as well as double orphans, tend to face higher mortality risks and lower schooling outcomes than paternal and non-orphans do. This is especially so for boys. Similarly, maternal and double orphans tend to move to other households more frequently. Compared to adolescent orphans, the impact on younger orphans who enrolled in school after the introduction of universal free primary education in 1994 is more muted, suggesting that free primary education policies may have mitigated adverse shocks from parental death. More interestingly, the impacts of orphanhood on schooling outcomes are significantly gender-dependent: boys face severer negative impacts of being orphans than girls do. These empirical results are robust to sample attrition due to mortality and mobility." from Authors' Abstract |
| Keywords: | Orphans, Mortality, HIV/AIDS, Mobility, Sample attrition, Education, |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:00710&r=edu |
| By: | LUIS EDUARDO SANDOVAL |
| Abstract: | Resumen El presente documento realiza un análisis comparativo entre los resultados obtenidos por las Universidades Privadas con Jornada Diurna y Nocturna, así como en las Universidades Públicas para luego analizar estos resultados en términos de la población evaluada en el programa de economía de la Universidad Militar Nueva Granada en la prueba ECAES realizada en el periodo comprendido entre 2004-2006, con esto se busca conocer el comportamiento de la población de estudiantes en cada uno de los componentes de manera que se puedan analizar las diferencias según el tipo de jornada y de institución. Abstract ECAES result analysis at the program of economy of the Universidad Militar Nueva Granada (2004-2006) The present document carries out a comparative analysis among the results obtained by the Private Universities with Day and Night Day, as well as in the Public Universities it stops then to analyze these results in the population's terms evaluated in the program of economy of the University Military New Granada in the test ECAES carried out in the period understood among 2004-2006, with this it is looked for to know the population's of students behavior in each one of the components so that the differences can be analyzed according to the day type and of institution |
| Date: | 2007–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000155:004206&r=edu |
| By: | HERNANDO RODRÍGUEZ ZAMBRANO |
| Abstract: | Resumen En el presente artículo trabaja el paradigma de las competencias en el ámbito de la educación superior, haciendo un recorrido exploratorio de la concepción y definición del término de competencia y el estado del arte desde diferentes visiones, estas definen las diversas clases de competencias y sus tendencias en los campos laboral y educativo. Con ello, se busca una aproximación a las siguientes preguntas: ¿qué es una competencia?, ¿qué es una competencia académica?, ¿qué es una competencia laboral?, ¿cuáles son los atributos de la competencia?, ¿cuáles son las evidencias que demuestran las competencias?, ¿cuáles son los indicadores o criterios de comparación del desempeño?, ¿cuál es la ventaja competitiva con el uso de las competencias?, entre otras. Abstract The competences paradigm from high level education The present article works about the competences paradigm of the competences in the superior education, making an exploratory route of the conception and definition of the competence term and since different visions, that define a diverse classes of competences and tendencies for the labor and educative fields. With it, we are looking an approach to the following questions: ¿What is a competence? ¿What is an academic competence? ¿What is a labor competence?, ¿Which are the attributes of the competence? ¿Which are the evidences that demonstrate the competences? ¿Which are the comparison indicators of the performance? ¿Which is the competitive advantage with the use of the competences?, among others. |
| Date: | 2007–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000155:004203&r=edu |