|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2008‒01‒05
thirty-one papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Guido Heineck; Regina T. Riphahn |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades the German education system underwent numerous reforms in order to improve "equality of opportunity", i.e. to guarantee all pupils equal access to higher education. At the same time internationally comparative evidence yields that Germany features particularly low intergenerational mobility with respect to educational attainment. This study investigates the development in intergenerational education mobility in Germany for the birth cohorts 1929 through 1978 and tests whether the impact of parental background on child educational outcomes changed over time. In spite of massive public policy interventions and education reforms our results yield no significant reduction in the role of parental background for child outcomes over the last decades. |
| Keywords: | education transmission, intergenerational mobility, schooling, human capital transmission, Lohnungleichheit, Einkommensgleichung, Quantilsregression |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J11 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp37&r=edu |
| By: | Mika Maliranta; Satu Nurmi; Hanna Virtanen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : We examine the determinants of labour market status after the initial vocational basic education (ISCED 3) by use of unique linked register data on students, their parents, teachers, educational organisations and business companies in Finland. We distinguish between four outcomes : 1) employment 2) further studies 3) non-employment and 4) drop-out. The explanatory factors are classified into three main groups : the characteristics of 1) the educational organisation and their institutions, 2) the students and 3) the local business conditions. Teaching expenditures do not matter but teachers’ skills do. Parental background plays a central role. Local business development matters for boys. |
| Keywords: | education production, vocational education, employability, further studies, regional development, drop-out |
| JEL: | H52 I21 J23 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1111&r=edu |
| By: | Thomas Cornelißen; Christian Pfeifer |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of exercising sports during childhood and adolescence on educational attainment. The theoretical framework is based on models of allocation of time and educational productivity. Using the rich information from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), we apply generalized ordered probit models to estimate the effect of participation in sport activities on secondary school degrees and professional degrees. Even after controlling for important variables and selection into sport, we find strong evidence that the effect of sport on educational attainment is statistically significant and positive. |
| Keywords: | allocation of time, education, human capital, sport |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp68&r=edu |
| By: | Jens Høj |
| Abstract: | The tertiary education system has been transformed from an elite-oriented system to a system providing tertiary education to a much larger share of each new generation. This re-orientation has contributed to raising education attainment in Belgium. However, in many respects the organisation of the tertiary education systems has not been changed fundamentally and economic incentives are only to a minor extent in place for securing the supply and quality of tertiary education. The system has come under strain, as revealed in the high failure rate among first-year students and the high incidence of subject change. There is thus a need for the system to adapt to be able to continue to support the improvement in educational attainment. <P>Améliorer les systèmes d’incitation dans l’enseignement supérieur en Belgique <BR>Auparavant élitiste, l’enseignement supérieur a été transformé en un système devant permettre à une part plus importante de chaque nouvelle génération de faire des études supérieures. Cette réorientation a contribué à élever le niveau de formation en Belgique. Cela étant, à bien des égards, l’organisation du système d’enseignement supérieur n’a pas été fondamentalement modifiée et les conditions économiques permettant d’assurer une offre et une qualité d’enseignement suffisantes sont loin d’être réunies. Le système est en proie à des difficultés, comme en témoigne le taux d’échec élevé des étudiants de première année et les nombreux changements de filière. Il doit donc faire l’objet d’aménagements si l’on veut qu’il puisse continuer à améliorer le niveau de formation. |
| Keywords: | enseignement supérieur, higher education |
| JEL: | F21 F22 F23 |
| Date: | 2007–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:587-en&r=edu |
| By: | Bygren, Magnus (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS); Szulkin, Ryszard (Stockholm University Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS) |
| Abstract: | We ask whether growing up with persons of the same national background (which we refer to as coethnics), in the immediate neighbourhood, influences future educational careers of children of immigrants. We use administrative data to follow an entire cohort of immigrant children who graduated from Swedish compulsory schools in 1995. We have information on their parents and on their ethnic environment during the period they were 10 – 15 years old. The dependent variable studied is the highest completed education in years at age 24. We are able to account for unobserved heterogeneity with neighbourhood fixed effects and ethnic group fixed effects. We find that the effect of the quantitative side of the ethnic environment (the number of coethnics) on educational attainment is strongly conditioned by the qualitative side of this environment (the educational success of coethnics). The individual’s educational career is positively related to the number of young coethnics in the neighbourhood, but only if they can be characterized as being educationally successful. Growing up in a large ethnic community with average or poor educational success is harmful for the future educational success. The effect of the ethnic surrounding on the highest completed education is fully mediated by success in compulsory school. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic enclaves; education; neighborhood effects |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2007–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sulcis:2007_008&r=edu |
| By: | Marcus Tamm |
| Abstract: | The German schooling system selects children into different secondary school tracks already at a very early stage in life. School track choice heavily influences choices and opportunities later in life. It has often been observed that secondary schooling achievements display a strong correlation with parental income. We use sibling fixed effects models and information on a natural experiment in order to analyze whether this correlation is due to a causal effect of income or due to unobservable factors that themselves might be correlated across generations. Our main findings suggest that income has no positive causal effect on school choice and that differences between high- and low-income households are driven by unobserved heterogeneity, e.g. differences in motivation or preferences. |
| Keywords: | Child poverty, educational attainment, secondary schools, sibling differences, natural experiment |
| JEL: | D31 I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp41&r=edu |
| By: | Ana Oliveira-Brochado (EDGE – Faculdade de Economia do Porto, CESUR, DECIVIL-IST, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa); Rui Cunha Marques (CESUR, DECIVIL-IST – Universidade Técnica de Lisboa) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this work is to examine the performance of five alternative measures of service quality in the high education sector – SERVQUAL (Service Quality), Importance-weighted SERVQUAL, SERVPERF (Service Performance), Importance-weighted SERVPERF and HedPERF (Higher Education Performance). We aim at determining which instrument has the superior measurement capability. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire containing perception items enhanced from the SERVPERF and HEdPERF scales and expectation items from the SERVQUAL scale, both modified to fit into the higher education sector. The first draft of the questionnaire was subject to a pilot testing through a focus group and an expert evaluation. Data were gathered from a 360 students’ sample of a Portuguese university in Lisbon. Scales were compared in terms of unidimensionality, reliability, validity and explained variance. Managerial conclusions were also drawn. |
| Keywords: | service quality scales; higher education; reliability |
| JEL: | C10 C42 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:258&r=edu |
| By: | Joachim R. Frick; Markus M. Grabka; Olaf Groh-Samberg |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to estimate income advantages arising from publicly provided education and to analyse their impact on the income distribution in Germany. Using representative micro-data from the SOEP and considering regional and education-specific variation, from a cross-sectional perspective the overall result is the expected levelling effect. When estimating the effects of accumulated educational transfers over the life course within a regression framework, however, and controlling for selectivity of households with children as potential beneficiaries of educational transfers, we find evidence that social inequalities are increasing from an intergenerational perspective, reinforced in particular by public transfers for non-compulsory education, thus negating any social equalisation effects achieved within the compulsory education framework. |
| Keywords: | Education, Public Transfers, Income Distribution, Economic Wellbeing, SOEP |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp28&r=edu |
| By: | Alfonso Miranda (Keele University and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether family and community migration experience affect the probability of high school graduation in Mexico once unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for. Bivariate random effects dynamic probit models for cluster data are estimated to control for the endogeneity of education and migrant network variables. Correlation of unobservables across migration and education decisions as well as within groups of individuals such as the family are explicitly controlled for. Results show that migrant networks reduce the likelihood of high school graduation. Negative migrant selection is detected at the individual level while positive migrant selection is found at the family level. |
| Keywords: | migration, education, migrant selection, dynamic bivariate probit |
| JEL: | F22 I21 J61 C35 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3204&r=edu |
| By: | Michael Gebel; Friedhelm Pfeiffer |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the evolution of returns to education in the West German labour market over the last two decades. During this period, graduates from the period of educational expansion in the sixties and seventies entered the labour market and an upgrading of the skill structure took place. In order to tackle the issues of endogeneity of schooling and its heterogeneous returns we apply two estimation methods: Wooldridge’s (2004) approach that relies on conditional mean independence and Garen’s (1984) control function approach that requires an exclusion restriction. For the population of workers from the GSOEP, we find that both approaches produce estimates of average returns to education that decrease until the late 1990s and increase significantly afterwards. In the observation period, the gender gap in returns to education seems to vanish. Furthermore, we find that the so called “baby boomer” cohort has the lowest average return to education in young ages. However, this effect disappears when they become older. |
| Keywords: | Educational expansion, correlated random coefficient model, heterogenous returns to education, conditional mean independence |
| JEL: | J21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp13&r=edu |
| By: | Guyonne Kalb (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Sholeh A. Maani (Department of Economics, The University of Auckland) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use a recent panel data set from New Zealand to examine the link between the academic performance and the decision by teenagers to drop out of school before exams at the end of year 10. These choices have significant lifetime economic impacts, since early school leaving in many cases closes pathways to further education. We address endogeneity and error correlation of potential performance in national examinations and school-leaving choices prior to exams. Birth month provides an instrument used in the equation for drop out, because those born in particular months can legally leave school before the exam takes place, whereas the other students cannot. The analyses incorporate the effect of academic ability (childhood IQ), parental education, family resources at different points in time while the child is growing up, and school and peer characteristics. The results show that those who drop out early are unlikely to have performed well in the exam. The predicted difference between those who drop out or continue, at least up to their exam, is almost completely explained by observed factors. Leaving out those variables which are often not available in other datasets (such as childhood IQ, childhood family resources and teenage peer effects), we find that the unobserved factors in academic performance and early school leaving are correlated. It is found that beyond childhood IQ and family resources, teenage peer and school factors have additional and significant associations with grade outcomes. This has important policy implications. |
| Date: | 2007–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n05&r=edu |
| By: | Timothy J. Halliday (Department of Economics & John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa); Sally Kwak (Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa) |
| Abstract: | The potential influence of peers and social networks on individual outcomes is important to a variety of educational policy debates including school vouchers, special education, middle school grade configurations and tracking. Researchers usually address the identification problems associated with credibly estimating peer effects in these settings but often do not account for ad-hoc definitions of peer-groups. In this paper, we use extensive information on peer groups to demonstrate that accurate definitions of the peer network seriously impact estimation of peer effects. We estimate the effect of peers’ smoking, drinking, sexual behavior and educational achievement on a teen’s propensity to engage in like-minded behavior and address the major identification problems that plague estimation of these effects. |
| Keywords: | Peer Effects, Education, Adolescent Health |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:200730&r=edu |
| By: | Romina Boarini; Hubert Strauss |
| Abstract: | This study provides estimates of the private Internal Rates of Return (IRR) to tertiary education for women and men in 21 OECD countries, for the years between 1991 and 2005. IRR are computed by estimating labour market premia on cross-country comparable individual-level data. Labour market premia are then adjusted for fiscal factors and education cost. Returns to an additional year of tertiary education are, on average, above 8% and vary in a range from 4 to 15% in the countries and in the period under study. IRR are relatively homogenous across gender. Overall, a slightly increasing trend is observed over time. The study discusses various policy levers for shaping individual incentives to invest in tertiary education and provides some illustrative quantification of the impact of policy changes on those incentives. <P>Les taux de rendement privés de l’éducation supérieure : nouvelles estimations pour 21 pays de l’OCDE <BR>Cette étude fournit des estimations des taux de rendement privés de l'éducation supérieure, pour les hommes ainsi que pour les femmes, dans 21 pays de l'OCDE et pour les années comprises entre 1991 et 2005. Les rendements sont calculés en estimant les primes sur le marché du travail à partir de données individuelles comparables entre les pays. Ces primes sont ensuite corrigées par des facteurs fiscaux et par les coûts de l'éducation. Les rendements d'une année supplémentaire d'enseignement supérieur sont en moyenne supérieurs à 8%, et varient dans un intervalle de 4% à 15% entre pays et pour la période considérée. Les rendements sont à peu près les mêmes pour les hommes et pour les femmes. Dans l'ensemble, une légère tendance à la hausse apparaît dans la période d'observation. L'étude examine l’influence des différentes politiques sur les incitations individuelles à investir dans l'éducation supérieure et propose des estimations de l'impact des réformes sur ces incitations. |
| Keywords: | Investment in tertiary education, Returns to education, Rendements de l’éducation |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2007–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:591-en&r=edu |
| By: | Carlos Garriga; Mark P. Keightley |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effectiveness of three different types of education policies: tuition subsidies (broad based, merit based, and flat tuition), grant subsidies (broad based and merit based), and loan limit restrictions. We develop a quantitative theory of college within the context of general equilibrium overlapping generations economy. College is modeled as a multi-period risky investment with endogenous enrollment, time-to-degree, and dropout behavior. Tuition costs can be financed using federal grants, student loans, and working while at college. We show that our model accounts for the main statistics regarding education (enrollment rate, dropout rate, and time to degree) while matching the observed aggregate wage premiums. Our model predicts that broad based tuition subsidies and grants increase college enrollment. However, due to the correlation between ability and financial resources most of these new students are from the lower end of the ability distribution and eventually dropout or take longer than average to complete college. Merit based education policies counteract this adverse selection problem but at the cost of a muted enrollment response. Our last policy experiment highlights an important interaction between the labor-supply margin and borrowing. A significant decrease in enrollment is found to occur only when borrowing constraints are severely tightened and the option to work while in school is removed. This result suggests that previous models that have ignored the student's labor supply when analyzing borrowing constraints may be insufficient. |
| Keywords: | Education - Economic aspects ; College costs |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2007-051&r=edu |
| By: | Stéphane Carcillo; Victoria Gunnarsson; Marijn Verhoeven |
| Abstract: | Enhancing the efficiency of education and health spending is a key policy challenge in G7 countries. The paper assesses this efficiency and seeks to establish a link between differences in efficiency across countries and policy and institutional factors. The findings suggest that reforms aimed at increasing efficiency need to take into account the nature and causes of inefficiencies. Inefficiencies in G7 countries mostly reflect lack of cost effectiveness in acquiring real resources, such as teachers and pharmaceuticals. We also find that high wage spending is associated with lower efficiency. In addition, lowering student-teacher ratios is associated with reduced efficiency in the education sector, while immunizations and doctors' consultations coincide with higher efficiency in the health sector. Greater autonomy for schools seems to raise efficiency in secondary education. |
| Keywords: | Education , Health care , Wages , Public sector , Government expenditures , |
| Date: | 2007–11–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:07/263&r=edu |
| By: | Cecilia Elena Rouse; Jane Hannaway; Dan Goldhaber; David Figlio |
| Abstract: | While numerous recent authors have studied the effects of school accountability systems on student test performance and school "gaming" of accountability incentives, there has been little attention paid to substantive changes in instructional policies and practices resulting from school accountability. The lack of research is primarily due to the unavailability of appropriate data to carry out such an analysis. This paper brings to bear new evidence from a remarkable five-year survey conducted of a census of public schools in Florida, coupled with detailed administrative data on student performance. We show that schools facing accountability pressure changed their instructional practices in meaningful ways. In addition, we present medium-run evidence of the effects of school accountability on student test scores, and find that a significant portion of these test score gains can likely be attributed to the changes in school policies and practices that we uncover in our surveys. |
| JEL: | H75 I20 I21 I28 L38 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13681&r=edu |
| By: | Francesco Pastore (Seconda Università di Napoli and IZA) |
| Abstract: | The EU experience with youth unemployment has changed over recent years with the launch and re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy and the Bologna process. A dramatic shift has taken place from the 1990s emphasis on labour market flexibility as a tool to abate youth long term unemployment to the more recent stress on the importance of increasing the human capital endowment via a deep reform of education and training systems. This shift is also taking place worldwide, since, as recent studies show, labour market flexibility can increase employability when the human capital level of young people is sufficiently high. To reduce the "experience gap" between young and adult people, the education systems should become of a higher quality, more inclusive to reduce the dropout rate, homogeneous to other EU countries to favour labour mobility, flexible to allow young people to better find the best match, and contemplate the duality principle, by providing training together with education, to favour smoother school-to-work transitions. Apprenticeships schemes, fiscal incentives to hire the youth unemployed as well as on-the-job training schemes should help reach objectives that cannot be guaranteed simply via an increase in labour market flexibility. |
| Keywords: | Lisbon strategy, employment policy, young people, economic transition |
| JEL: | I2 J24 J68 P3 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3209&r=edu |
| By: | Hubert Strauss; Christine de la Maisonneuve |
| Abstract: | This paper presents cross-section estimates of gross hourly wage premia on tertiary education. They are based on a unified framework for 21 OECD countries from the 1990s to the early 2000s and use international household surveys to maximise international comparability. The results of the “augmented” Mincerian wage equations point to an average hourly gross wage premium on completed tertiary education of 55% in 2001 (country-gender average), translating into a premium of close to 11% per annum of tertiary education. Wage premia display little variation over time but huge cross-country variation: at 6% they are lowest in Greece and Spain (men and women) as well as in Austria and Italy (women) while reaching 14%-18% in Hungary, Portugal, and in most Anglo-Saxon countries. Given that the wage premium is the single most important driver of private returns to education, the results presented here have potentially important implications for policies that aim at increasing investment in human capital. <P>La prime salariale pour l’éducation supérieure : nouvelles estimations pour 21 pays de l’OCDE <BR>Cette étude présente des estimations transversales de la prime salariale horaire brute pour l’éducation supérieure qui reposent sur un cadre harmonisé pour 21 pays de l’OCDE entre les années 90 et le début des années 2000. L’étude est basée sur des enquêtes internationales auprès des ménages afin de maximiser la comparaison entre pays. L’ « extension » des équations salariales de Mincer donne comme résultat une prime salariale horaire moyenne brute à l’achèvement d’un diplôme d’éducation supérieure de 55% en 2001 (en moyenne pour les hommes et les femmes pour tous les pays), ce qui est équivalent à près de 11% par année d’éducation supérieure. Les primes salariales varient peu au cours du temps mais de manière significative à travers les pays : les plus faibles sont en Grèce et en Espagne à 6% (hommes et femmes) ainsi qu’en Autriche et en Italie (femmes) alors qu’elles atteignent 14%-18% en Hongrie, au Portugal et dans la plupart des pays anglo-saxons. Étant donné que la prime salariale est le déterminant le plus important du rendement privé de l’éducation supérieure, les résultats peuvent avoir des implications importantes pour les politiques visant l’augmentation du stock de capital humain. |
| Keywords: | primes salariales, Returns to education, Rendements de l’éducation |
| JEL: | I21 I22 J31 |
| Date: | 2007–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:589-en&r=edu |
| By: | Alejandra Mizala; Miguel Urquiola |
| Abstract: | The impact of competition on academic outcomes is likely to depend on whether parents are informed about schools' effectiveness or valued added (which may or may not be correlated with absolute measures of their quality), and on whether this information influences their school choices, thereby affecting schools' market outcomes. To explore these issues, this paper considers Chile's SNED program, which seeks to identify effective schools, selecting them from within "homogeneous groups" of arguably comparable institutions. Its results are widely disseminated, and the information it generates is quite different from that conveyed by a simple test-based ranking of schools (which in Chile, turns out to largely resemble a ranking based on socioeconomic status). We rely on a sharp regression discontinuity to estimate the effect that being identified as a SNED winner has on schools’ enrollment, tuition levels, and socioeconomic composition. Through five applications of the program, we find no consistent evidence that winning a SNED award affects these outcomes. This suggests that information on school effectiveness -- at least as it is calculated and delivered by the SNED -- might not much affect school markets. |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13676&r=edu |
| By: | George, Babu |
| Abstract: | Abilities to participate and communicate in different social settings is considered to be very important qualities for tourism graduates. Tourism educators are supposed to inculcate these qualities in the students and one the finest means of training. Yet, educators, especially those who belong to the ‘old school’ find it difficult to forego the teacher-dominant one-way lecture method. Thus, ‘student-centered learning’ and ‘teacher-as-facilitator’ are some of the vital-most values that are aimed to be imparted through training programs for in-service academic staff in tourism. Resource persons who handle tourism teacher training program sessions believe that these objectives could best be achieved by rewarding with higher grades those participants who interact more during the sessions. The basic assumption behind this is that encouraging teacher-participants who interact more shall instill in them the spirit of the aforesaid values, which they shall later enact in their professional lives as tourism teachers. The present study conducted in India critically examines this assumption and establishes that rewarding teacher-participants for their interaction might in fact defeat the very same purpose for which the scheme was primarily introduced. The astonishing finding is that those teacher-participants who participate more during the sessions of the in-service training programs constitute the most ‘dictatorial’ ones in their regular teaching roles along with their least participating colleagues. Those who participated moderately were noted to be the best tourism educators in terms of their facilitating student participation and encouraging student centered learning. |
| Keywords: | tourism education, in-service teacher training programs, the value of interaction in learning, interaction as a teacher-participant, interaction as a teacher, India |
| JEL: | M0 A2 L83 |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6360&r=edu |
| By: | FrŽdŽric, DOCQUIER (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Department of Economics); B. Lindsay, LOWELL; Abdeslam, MARFOUK |
| Abstract: | This paper updates and extends the Docquier-Marfouk data set on international migration by educational attainment. We use new sources, homogenize definitions of what a migrant is, and compute gender-dissaggregated indicators of the brain drain. Emigration stocks and rates are provided by level of schooling and gender for 195 source countries in 1990 and 2000. Our data set can be usded to capture the recent trend in womenÕs brain drain and to analyze its causes and consequences for developing countries. We show that women represent an increasing share of the OECD immigration stock and exhibit relatively higher rates of brain drain than men. The gender gap in skilled migration is strongly correlated with the gender gap in educational attainment at origin. Equating womenÕs and menÕs access to education would probably reduce gender differences in the brain drain. |
| Keywords: | Brain drain, Gender, Human capital, Migration |
| JEL: | F22 J61 |
| Date: | 2007–12–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvec:2007045&r=edu |
| By: | Bondonio, Daniele |
| Abstract: | L'obiettivo del presente lavoro è stimare l'impatto netto della riforma dei cicli e degli ordinamenti didattici universitari ( D.M. 509/99) su tre importanti fattori misurabili attraverso i micro-dati dell'Indagine sull'Istruzione Universitaria dell'Ufficio di statistica del MIUR: il volume delle immatricolazioni, la percentuale di studenti immatricolati che negli anni successivi permangono come iscritti nelle medesime sedi di facoltà e la percentuale di studenti che si laureano in corso. I modelli di analisi sviluppati nel lavoro mirano a separare la parte dei cambiamenti occorsi tra il periodo pre- e post-riforma imputabili all'impatto netto della riforma stessa rispetto ai cambiamenti che si sarebbero comunque prodotti anche in assenza di quest'ultima, per effetto di altri fattori ad essa non ascrivibili. I risultati delle analisi sono robusti rispetto ad una ampia gamma di diverse forme funzionali dei modelli di stima e permettono di quantificare con buona precisione statistica gli effetti della riforma al netto delle principali variazioni prodotte da altri concomitanti fattori di cambiamento. (English Abstract: This paper is aimed at evaluating the net impact of the recent "3+2" (D.M. 509/1999) Italian University reform which shortened to three academic years the length of most of the undergraduate "Laurea" programs and introduced two-year graduate "Laurea" programs open to students holding an undergraduate "Laurea" degree. The evaluation analysis develop in the paper focus on the following outcomes, measured using data from the "Indagine sull'Istruzione Universitaria" by the "Ufficio di statistica" of MIUR: number of student enrolled in the first year of an undergraduate "Laurea" University program; percent of students enrolled in the first year of a "Laurea" program that are still enrolled in the same college in the subsequent academic years; percent of students that earn a "Laurea" degree within the standard number of academic years indicated by the program curriculum. Impact estimates are retrieved using data covering the academic years from 1998/99 to 2003/04, aggregated at the college level. Under plausible impact identification assumptions, results highlight the effects of the reform net of the outcome variations due to factors independent from the reform. A large sensitivity analysis indicates that the significance and magnitude of the impact estimates are robust across a variety of different specifications of the model.) |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uca:ucapdv:96&r=edu |
| By: | Sebastian Braun; Nadja Dwenger; Dorothea Kübler |
| Abstract: | We investigate the matching algorithm used by the German central clearinghouse for university admissions (ZVS) in medicine and related subjects. This mechanism consists of three procedures based on final grades from school (“Abiturbestenverfahren”, “Auswahlverfahren der Hochschulen”) and on waiting time (“Wartezeitverfahren”). While these procedures differ in the criteria applied for admission they all make use of priority matching. In priority matching schemes, it is not a dominant strategy for students to submit their true preferences. Thus, strategic behaviour is expected. Using the full data set of applicants, we are able to detect some amount of strategic behaviour which can lead to inefficient matching. Alternative ways to organize the market are briefly discussed. |
| Keywords: | Matching, university admissions, strategic behaviour |
| JEL: | C78 D02 D78 I29 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2007-070&r=edu |
| By: | Mariana Marchionni (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata); Germán Bet (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata); Ana Pacheco (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata) |
| Abstract: | RESUMEN= La Encuesta de Educación y Empleo de los Jóvenes (INDEC-CEDLAS) es una nueva y original fuente de información que permite ahondar en el estudio de los determinantes de la educación y la inserción laboral de los jóvenes. Incluyendo preguntas sobre el primer empleo y una completa descripción de la historia educativa en los niveles primario y medio, así también como percepciones sobre el entorno social más allá del hogar, la EEEJ provee un conjunto de información más completo y relevante para estudiar las problemáticas de empleo y educación de los jóvenes. La EEEJ se aplicó en 2005 mediante una metodología de reentrevistas en hogares ya visitados por la EPH, a individuos entre 15 y 30 años del Gran Buenos Aires. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar información básica obtenida a partir de la EEEJ. Se ejemplifica el potencial de análisis de la EEEJ estimando modelos de inserción laboral de los jóvenes que incluyen una más completa lista de determinantes disponible en esta encuesta. ABSTRACT= The Survey of Employment and Education of Youth (Encuesta de Educación y Empleo de los Jóvenes, INDEC-CEDLAS) is a new and original source of information on labor and educational issues. The survey includes questions that allow a more complete characterization of employment and educational experiences of youth. Also, it gathers information on perceptions about the social and family environment. The EEEJ was carried out in the Greater Buenos Aires Area, Argentina, to young men and women between 15 and 30 years old, who have been already interviewed by the Permanent Household Survey. This paper presents basic information using data from the EEEJ, and estimates models of labor participation and employment using a more complete set of covariates not usually available in other household surveys. |
| Keywords: | encuesta, empleo, educación media, jóvenes |
| JEL: | J2 I2 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0061&r=edu |
| By: | Marcel Erlinghagen |
| Keywords: | Education, Public Transfers, Income Distribution, Economic Wellbeing, SOEP |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp27&r=edu |
| By: | Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT); Zinovyeva, N. (BETA, Université Louis Pasteur) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes empirically the channels through which university research affects industry innovation. We examine how the opening of new science, medicine and engineering departments in Italy during 1985-2000 affected regional innovation systems. We find that creation of a new university department increased regional innovation activity 3-4 years later. On average, an opening of a new department in a region has led to a ten percent change in the number of patents filed by regional firms. Given that this effect occurs within the first half decade of the appearance of a new department, it cannot be ascribed to improvements in the quality and quantity of graduates. At the same time, traditional measures of academic research activity can explain only around 30 percent of this effect. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Academic Research, R&D, Universities, University-Industry Linkages, Technology Transfer, Regional Innovation Systems. |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 I23 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2007037&r=edu |
| By: | Ilie, Livia; Horobet , Alexandra |
| Abstract: | The effective management of Romanian companies can represent an advantage in a competitive business environment, shaped by the end of transition, the EU membership and the globalization process. MBA programs represent, in our view, the key for the implementation of management theories and practices whose effectiveness has been validated by Western countries experience. The Romanian market developed slowly since 1993, with three major players dominating it: the Romanian-Canadian MBA, ASEBUSS Executive MBA and CODECS. These programs and the more recent entrants are facing legal recognition uncertainties and competition from the new professional master programs that will be developed under the Bologna framework, in addition to competition from European and American MBAs. The responses of Romanian MBAs to these challenges are critical for their future in an increasingly competitive environment. |
| Keywords: | management; MBA; competition; education |
| JEL: | I2 M1 |
| Date: | 2007–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6430&r=edu |
| By: | Richard W. Tresch (Boston College); Andrei Zlate (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the production characteristics of three important U.S. state government services--public higher education, public welfare, and state psychiatric hospitals—during the last half of the twentieth century. We estimate translog cost functions for the three services and find that their production attributes are similar in a number of respects. First, production exhibits substantial economies of scale; unexploited scale economies are so severe that the average state operates on the negative portion of its marginal cost curve. Second, the analysis of technical change indicates that public education, welfare, and hospitals are affected by severe technical regression in all states, in both the long run and short run. Third, production of all three services is overcapitalized in most states; the provision of these services is not long-run efficient. Finally, we show that the Baumol-Oates cost disease of lagging productivity growth is rampant in all three services; only the short-run productivity growth in education matches the performance of the private sector, as technical regression is more than offset by the productivity-enhancing scale effect of increased enrollments. |
| Keywords: | public services, translog cost function, scale economies, technical regression, long-run cost efficiency, technology growth |
| JEL: | D24 H41 H75 I18 I22 I38 |
| Date: | 2007–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:bocoec:679&r=edu |
| By: | Blidisel, Rodica |
| Abstract: | The diversity in public sector accounting is fairly significant in Europe. Different political, economic and cultural traditions give rise to great diversity between public sector accounting systems in different countries. In order to improve public accountability there were developed a series of recommended public sector accounting standards. The aim of the paper is the presentation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) approach and their adoption into the European accounting systems, emphasizing a particular case: the adoption of IPSAS by European Union institutions. The paper presents a literature review of the accounting principles and financial reporting in Europe, the financial statements and the relationship between financial and budgetary accounting and the weaknesses in the current accounting model. In the first and main part of the paper, the issues most pertinent in public debates and policies are identified and discussed. Information is collected from written and electronic sources as well as through consultation of national experts. The second part of the report is a comparative analysis. The IPSAS perhaps provide an opportunity for European accounting, and in future, national governments should attempt their accounting systems to the IPSAS. The paper contributes to the development of some points of view regarding the adoption of the IPSAS by the European countries accounting systems and the harmonisation of the European public accounting systems. |
| Keywords: | IPSAS; public sector; accrual accounting |
| JEL: | M4 |
| Date: | 2007–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:6379&r=edu |
| By: | Annamaria Lusardi (Dartmouth College) |
| Abstract: | Individuals are increasingly in charge of their own financial security after retirement. But how well-equipped are individuals to make saving decisions; do they possess adequate financial literacy, are they informed about the most important components of saving plans, do they even plan for retirement? This paper shows that financial illiteracy is widespread among the US population and particularly acute among specific demographic groups, such as those with low education, women, African-Americans and Hispanics. Moreover, close to half of older workers do not know which type of pensions they have and the large majority of workers know little about the rules governing Social Security benefits. Lack of literacy and lack of information can affect the ability to save and to secure a comfortable retirement; few individuals rely on the help of financial advisors and ignorance about basic financial concepts can be linked to lack of retirement planning and lack of wealth. Financial education programs can help improve saving and financial decision-making, but much more can be done to improve the effectiveness of these programs. |
| Date: | 2007–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:65&r=edu |
| By: | Oliver Busch |
| Abstract: | The present paper analyzes the out-migration of graduates to other German states or abroad based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). Applying duration analysis, it can be shown that, ten years after graduation, slightly more than seventy percent of the graduates still live in the state where they completed their studies. The parametric estimation model identifies personal characteristics that are highly correlated with out-migration and permanent residence respectively. The analysis confirms previous results that nonresident students exhibit a significantly higher emigration propensity than resident fellows. |
| Keywords: | Brain drain, nonresident students, fiscal externalities, duration analysis, GSOEP |
| JEL: | H52 I2 J61 R23 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp26&r=edu |