|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2007‒11‒17
eighteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Merike Darmody (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Emer Smyth (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Selina McCoy (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp213&r=edu |
| By: | Sinan Sarpça (Department of Economics, Koç University); Kuzey Yılmaz (Department of Economics, Koç University); Eric Hanushek (Stanford University) |
| Abstract: | We develop a multi-community urban land use framework to investigate the implications of increasing school choice opportunities on educational and residential choices of a city's residents. When deciding on the location and the size of land, the households care about the distance to the business district, and a local public good: education. There is a private education alternative that breaks the link between choosing a residence area and choosing a school. The households differ in their incomes and preferences for education. In five models that differ in various aspects of choice and financing, we study the housing and education choices of the city residents, and the endogenously determined education provision levels in equilibrium. The results of the article support reformist arguments: We ¯rst show that the presence of a private alternative benefits every household, whereas school district consolidation hurts everyone. We then examine two policies that aim to increase choice. An untargeted local government support (financed by property taxes) that can be used at the private school can improve things for talented poor. A policy that supports the talented poor (using city income taxes) with funds that can be used for public as well as private schools can also improve welfare of all talented students, rich or poor. |
| Keywords: | Tiebout Model, Urban Location Model, School Choice. |
| JEL: | H4 H7 I2 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:0709&r=edu |
| By: | Simon Burgess; Ron Johnston; Tomas Key; Carol Propper; Deboarh Wilson |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the transitions from primary to secondary school for a contemporary cohort of children moving between state schools in England. It uses data on over 12,000 primary schools, over 2000 secondary schools and around 400,000 pupils. The results suggest that the experiences of poor (FSM) pupils at age 11 may be quite different, on average, to their non-poor peers. Poor pupils’ primary peer groups are more fractured at the age of 11 and these pupils tend to find themselves more concentrated within lower performing secondary schools. High ability pupils are more likely to go to the modal secondary school if it is better than average; the reverse is true for low ability pupils. Poor pupils are less likely to go to the modal school when it is better than average but more likely to go when it is worse. Finally, we find that primary schools which have high academic test scores have more bifurcated flows: poor and non-poor pupils are dispersed across different secondary schools, with the former more likely to attend a low performing secondary school. |
| Keywords: | Primary to secondary school transitions; England; regression and graphical analysis |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:07/172&r=edu |
| By: | Djavad Salehi-Isfahani; Daniel Egel |
| Abstract: | Youth Exclusion in Iran: The State of Education, Employment and Family Formation |
| Keywords: | Youth Exclusion in Iran: The State of Education, Employment and Family Formation |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vpi:wpaper:e07-2&r=edu |
| By: | Adriana Sánchez Hugalde (Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB); Universitat de Barcelona (UB)) |
| Abstract: | This empirical work studies the influence of immigrant students on individuals’ school choice in one of the most populated regions in Spain: Catalonia. It has estimated, following the Poisson model, the probability that a certain school, which immigrant students are already attending, may be chosen by natives as well as by immigrants, respectively. The information provided by the Catalonia School Department presents school characteristics of all the primary and secondary schools in Catalonia during the 2001/02 and 2002/03 school years. The results obtained support the evidence that Catalonia native families avoid schools attended by immigrants. Natives certainly prefer not to interact with immigrants. Private schools are more successful in avoiding immigrants. Finally, the main reason for non-natives’ choice is the presence of other non-natives in the same school. |
| Keywords: | School Choice, Immigration |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2007/11/doc2007-4&r=edu |
| By: | Nekby, Lena (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS); Rödin, Magnus (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS); Özcan, Gülay (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the identity formation of a cohort of students with immigrant backgrounds in Sweden and the consequences of identity for subsequent educational attainment. Unique for this study is that identity is defined according to a two-dimensional acculturation framework based on both strength of identity to the (ethnic) minority and to the (Swedish) majority culture. Results indicate that integrated men are associated with significantly higher levels of education than assimilated men. No differences in educational attainment are found between the assimilated and the integrated for women. These results put into question the premise of oppositional identities, i.e., a trade-off between ethnic identity and educational achievement, among immigrants in Sweden. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic Identity; Acculturation; Ethnic minorities; Education |
| JEL: | J15 J16 J21 Z13 |
| Date: | 2007–11–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sulcis:2007_006&r=edu |
| By: | Joseph Kaboski; Trevon D. Logan |
| Abstract: | The existing literature on skill-biased technical change has not considered how the technological endowment itself plays a role in the returns to skill. This paper constructs a simple model of skill biased technical change which highlights the role that resource endowments play in the returns to education. The model predicts variation in returns to education with skill biased technological change if there is significant heterogeneity in resource endowments before the technological change. Using a variety of historical sources, we document the heterogeneous technology levels by region in the American past. We then estimate the returns to education of high school teachers in the early twentieth century using a new data source. a report from the U.S. Commissioner of Education in 1909. Overall, we find significant regional variation in the returns to education that match differences in resource endowments, with large (within-occupation) returns for the Midwest and Southwest (7%), but much lower returns in the South (3%) and West (0.5%). We also show that our results are generalizable to returns to education in the United States and that returns to education for teachers tracked quite closely with the overall returns to education from 1940 onward. |
| JEL: | I2 J2 J3 N3 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13589&r=edu |
| By: | Olusegun A. Akanbi (Department of Economics, University of Pretoria); Niek J. Schoeman (Bureau for Economic Policy and Analysis (BEPA)) |
| Abstract: | This paper reports on research aimed at measuring the determinants of education spending in Africa and secondly, investigates whether expenditure on education in Africa optimizes social welfare. The empirical estimations are carried out using a public choice model on a panel of 29 selected African countries over the period 1995-2004. The results show that government expenditure on education is not resilient to shocks and the education sector is not seriously affected by allocative changes that favour corruption. However, expenditure on education in Africa does not comply with the rules outlined by the IMF in terms of their fiscal adjustment program. |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pre:wpaper:200707&r=edu |
| By: | Fredriksson, Peter (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation); Öckert, Björn (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation) |
| Abstract: | This paper utilizes a policy change to estimate the effect of teacher density on student performance. We find that an increase in teacher density has a positive effect on student achievement. The baseline estimate – obtained by using the grade point average as the outcome variable – implies that resource increases corresponding to the class-size reduction in the STAR-experiment (i.e., a reduction of 7 students) improves performance by 2.6 percentile ranks (or 0.08 standard deviations). When we use test score data for men, potentially a more objective measure of student performance, the effect of resources appears to be twice the size of the baseline estimate. |
| Keywords: | Student performance; teacher/student ratio; policy reform; differences-in-differences |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–10–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2007_026&r=edu |
| By: | Merike Darmody (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Emer Smyth (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); Selina McCoy (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the way in which truancy levels are structured by individual social class and the social mix of the school within the Republic of Ireland. Drawing on a national survey of young people, truancy levels are found to be higher among orking-class and Traveller students. Truancy is more prevalent in predominantly working-class schools, mainly because young people see them as less supportive and more disorderly environments. The mpirical analyses are situated within the context of the concepts of individual and nstitutional habitus as well as resistance theory. Our findings suggest the institutional habitus of the school is a strong factor in influencing truancy levels among young people. While truancy operates as a form of student resistance to the school system, it serves to reproduce social class inequalities since it is associated with more negative educational and labour market outcomes in the longer term. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp212&r=edu |
| By: | Baalen, P.J. van; Karsten, L. (Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), RSM Erasmus University) |
| Abstract: | Management research and education are often characterized as being interdisciplinary. However, most discussions on what interdisciplinarity in management studies means have bogged down in ideological fixations. In this paper we alternatively take a historical perspective and analyze the evolution of the interdisciplinarity concept in management studies during the last decades in the Netherlands. We distinguish between two opposite versions of interdisciplinarity: a synoptic (conceptual) and an instrumental (pragmatic) one. Both versions resulted from different knowledge strategies (boundary-work) of competing and cooperating disciplines. We conclude that in the Netherlands instrumental versions of interdisciplinarity in management research and education prevailed. |
| Keywords: | Interdisciplinarity;disciplinarity;management science;management education;history of management education; |
| Date: | 2007–09–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:300011799&r=edu |
| By: | Acocella Nicola; Tomassi Federico |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ter:wpaper:0032&r=edu |
| By: | Christoph Winter |
| Abstract: | Assessing the importance of borrowing constraints for college entry is key for education policy analysis in the U.S. economy. I present a computable dynamic general equilibrium model with overlapping generations and incomplete markets that allows me to measure the fraction of households constrained in their college entry decision. College education is financed by family transfers and public subsidies, where transfers are generated through altruism on part of the parents. Parents face a trade-off between making transfers to their children and own savings. Ceteris paribus, parents who expect lower future earnings transfer less and save more. Data from the 1986 Survey of Consumer Finances give support to this mechanism. I show that this trade-off leads to substantially higher estimates of the fraction of constrained households compared to the results in the empirical literature (18 instead of 8 percent). The model also predicts that an increment in parents' earnings uncertainty decreases their willingness to provide transfers. In combination with rising returns to education, which makes college going more attractive, this boosts the number of constrained youths and explains why family income has become more important for college access over the last decades in the U.S. economy. |
| Keywords: | College Enrolment, Borrowing Constraints,Parental Transfers, Household Savings, Dynamic General Equilibrium Models |
| JEL: | I20 I22 D58 D91 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eui:euiwps:eco2007/49&r=edu |
| By: | Ryo Arawatari (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Tetsuo Ono (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on how education costs affect the political determination of redistribution policy via individual decision-making on education. For cases of high costs, there are multiple equilibria: the high-tax equilibrium featured by the minority of highly educated individuals and a large size of the government, and the low-tax equilibrium featured by the majority of highly educated individuals and a small size of the government. For cases of low costs, there is a unique equilibrium featured by the majority of highly educated individuals and a large size of the government. |
| Keywords: | Markov perfect equilibrium; Dynamic political economy; Redistribution policy; Education costs |
| JEL: | D72 D78 E62 |
| Date: | 2007–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:0731r&r=edu |
| By: | Carolyn J. Heinrich (La Follette School of Public Affairs); Yeri Lopez (La Follette School of Public Affairs) |
| Abstract: | Social investment funds, a widely used tool of development efforts, aim to support and strengthen local capacity for effective implementation of social and economic infrastructure projects through participatory, community-driven approaches. We investigate whether these participatory methods improve the outcomes of education projects and community members' perceptions of their effectiveness using data from an impact evaluation of the third phase of the Fondo Hondureño de Inversión Social (FHIS). We also make an important contribution with more carefully defined and explicit measures of individuals' participation in community projects. We do not find statistically significant effects of the education projects on academic outcomes of school-aged youth, but we do observe positive, statistically significant relationships between the use of participatory methodologies and household opinions of the projects, as well as between households' level of participation and their opinions of the projects. |
| Keywords: | -- |
| JEL: | N36 |
| Date: | 2007–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:ovewps:0107&r=edu |
| By: | Christopher Bruce; Daniel Gordon |
| Date: | 2007–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2007-11&r=edu |
| By: | Lourdes Espinoza (SIRESE, Bolivia); Carlos Gustavo Machicado (Institute for Advanced Development Studies, Bolivia); Katia Makhlouf (ILADES/Georgetown at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile) |
| Abstract: | El estudio realiza un análisis estadístico de la enseñanza de la economía a nivel de pre-grado en Bolivia y Chile respondiendo una serie de interrogantes relativas a la estructura de la carrera, los métodos de enseñanza, la percepción de los alumnos con respecto a la universidad, a los economistas, a las perspectivas laborales, la intención de hacer post-grados y otros temas que hacen a la enseñanza de economía tanto en universidades públicas como privadas. Se presenta un análisis exhaustivo de una serie de tópicos que son comparados entre universidades de cada país así como entre países, resaltando las semejanzas y diferencias. El estudio cuenta con una importante Base de Datos, recopilada a través de encuestas a estudiantes y egresados y/o titulados en economía, que significó una tarea de alto valor agregado, tanto para el caso boliviano como chileno. Asimismo se realizaron encuestas y entrevistas a profesores, y se organizaron grupos focales para el caso de Bolivia. |
| Keywords: | Enseñanza de Economía, Inserción Laboral |
| JEL: | A11 A22 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adv:wpaper:200710&r=edu |
| By: | Elizabeth Washbrook |
| Abstract: | This study explores the effects of exposure to regular paternal childcare (without the mother present) in the first three years of life on the academic and social capabilities of boys and girls when they begin school. Innovations in this paper are the use of data on children’s early attributes to explore the issue of reverse causation, and a bootstrap technique that allows us to estimate standard errors on the change in the paternal care coefficient when additional groups of controls are included. The rich nature of our data (the ALSPAC UK cohort) allows us to eliminate many potential sources of bias in the estimates, and identify effects that are robust to numerous different specifications. Fathers are the most widely used form of non-maternal childcare in this period. We find that the effects of paternal childcare, relative to maternal-only parental care, depend on the gender of the child, the age at which care occurred and the weekly hours of paternal care. We find evidence that children’s social development may be enhanced by time alone with fathers, but that boys seem to suffer academically from long hours of paternal care when they are toddlers. Our findings show that the changing social roles of mothers and fathers may have implications for child as well as adult well being. |
| Keywords: | fathers, childcare, school readiness |
| JEL: | D13 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2007–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:07/175&r=edu |