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on Education |
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Issue of 2008‒03‒01
seven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Mislav Ante Omazić (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb); Dario Blažeković |
| Abstract: | Access to advanced ideas, specific information, advanced expertise, accumulated experience and applicable knowledge are key competitive determinants of those that want to prosper in knowledge based society. In other words human capital is principal competitive advantage of knowledge based economies. Trends in today’s world are making us rethink the methods of delivering knowledge. In order to answer to those trends and as a proactive effort to foster their global competitiveness top students from two most influenced graduate schools (Faculty of Economics and Business and Faculty Electrical Engineering and Computing both within University of Zagreb) in Croatia gathered within eSTUDENT initiative and they have started project “Virtual Mentorship”. Its primary goal is to initialize and organize cooperation between senior undergraduate students from Croatian universities and acknowledged members of academic society and business world who live abroad but do have originated from Croatia. Purpose of the project is to establish mentor-protégé relationship between these two parties that will enable students to learn and improve their knowledge as well as gain new skills through quality virtual communication with respectable scientists and professionals. This project has a great potential and significance for development of Croatian system of education as well as for improvement of Croatian labor competitiveness in general. Its significance lies primarily on impacts that Virtual Mentorship has on educational system. |
| Keywords: | mentorship, virtual, knowledge sharing, networking, distance learning |
| Date: | 2008–01–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zag:wpaper:0801&r=edu |
| By: | Giles, John; de Brauw, Alan |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates how reductions of barriers to migration affect the decision of middle school graduates to attend high school in rural China. Change in the cost of migration is identified using exogenous variation across counties in the timing of national identity card distribution, which made it easier for rural migrants to register as temporary residents in urban destinations. The analysis first shows that timing of identification card distribution is unrelated to local rainfall shocks affecting migration decisions, and that timing is not related to proxies reflecting time-varying changes in village policy or administrative capacity. The findings show a robust negative relationship between migrant opportunity and high school enrollment. The mechanisms behind the negative relationship are suggested by observed increases in subsequent local and migrant non-agricultural employment of high school age young adults as the size of the current village migr ant network increases. |
| Keywords: | Access to Finance,Population Policies,Education For All,Tertiary Education,Secondary Education |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4526&r=edu |
| By: | Claus Portner |
| Abstract: | Despite a large literature on fertility and education there has been little research on how these joint decisions are affected by risks and shocks. This paper uses data on hurricanes in Guatemala combined with a household survey to analyse how households' decisions on fertility and investments in education respond to both risk and shocks. The data on hurricanes cover the period 1880 to 1997 and allow for the calculation of hurricane risk by municipality. An increase in risk leads to higher fertility for households with land, while households without land reduce fertility. For both types of households higher risk is associated with higher education but the effect is largest for households without land. Negative shocks lead to decreases in both fertility and education. There is a compensatory effect later in life for fertility, but not for education, indicating that births "lost" to shocks can be made up but lost schooling cannot. The most convincing explanation for these patterns is parents' need for insurance. |
| Date: | 2006–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udb:wpaper:uwec-2006-19-r&r=edu |
| By: | Kaiserfeld, Thomas (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | The work of the Education Commission from 1745 is one of the more thoroughly studied investigations in Swedish administrative history in general, and the most studied in the Swedish history of education in particular. The aim here is therefore not to provide new empirical results. My hope instead is to be able to provide a different and broader interpretation of its activities than has thus far characterised historical writings on the work of the Commission. As our educational institutions – possibly with the exception of the family in all its various forms – are the most important agents for the vertical or inter-generational transfer of information in Western culture, reforms within this area are extremely valuable for understanding processes of change in our society. Changes to curricula are even more important than the appropriation of new knowledge through the transfer or production of knowledge, for example through research. Changes in education namely create dynamics in one of our most conservative cultural institutions, and are therefore decisive for the development of society in the longer term. For this reason, the battle for the content of education is important, not only for those who conduct it and those affected by it, but also for everyone who has an interest in historical change in general. |
| Keywords: | education; institutions; institutional change |
| JEL: | B15 |
| Date: | 2008–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0113&r=edu |
| By: | Chen, Li-Ju (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the influence of women's participation in politics on decision making. I take educational expenditure as the target. The results suggest that an increase by one percentage point in the share of female legislators increases by 0.034 percentage points the ratio of educational expenditure to GDP. Moreover, one percentage point increases in the fraction of female legislators would lead to an estimated 0.54% rise in total educational expenditure per capita. The positive effect of female legislators on educational policies is strengthened by forms of government. This study also supports the hypothesis that the identity of legislators matter for policy. |
| Keywords: | Education; female legislator; political economy |
| JEL: | H52 J16 P48 |
| Date: | 2008–02–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2008_0001&r=edu |
| By: | Broström, Anders (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | R&D managers at 50 firms randomly selected from all firms who have formal relations with two research universities in Stockholm are being interviewed about their rationales for collaboration. Drawing on this material, a distinctive typology of rationales and the therewith associated effects from cooperative relations is presented. As expected, rationales related to innovation, in terms of invented or improved products or processes, are found to be the main drivers for interaction. As regards the nature of the innovation process leading to innovation, most respondents indicate that “indirect” relationships between collaboration outcomes and successful innovation dominate over “direct” appropriation of results. Contrasting open ended search rationales with pursuit of defined objectives, we find that both types are strongly represented among the studied collaborative linkages. We also find that interaction rationales often go beyond the pursuit of innovation per se; firms also work with university researchers to access academic networks, to develop its human capital and to realise direct business opportunities. The consequences of these findings for policy measures steered towards the strengthening of collaborative university-industry linkages are discussed. |
| Keywords: | R&D collaboration; technology transfer; university-industry linkages; innovation collaboration |
| JEL: | O32 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2008–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0115&r=edu |
| By: | Ted Bergstrom (University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| Abstract: | This paper describes techniques that I use to teach economics principles "interactively". These techniques include classroom experiments and classroom clickers. The paper describes an experiment on market entry and gives examples of applications of classroom clickers. Clicker applications include the collection data about student preferences that can be used to construct demand curves and supply curves. Check on students' knowledge of central concepts. Play interactive games that illustrate economic concepts. |
| Keywords: | teaching economics, classroom clickers, classroom experiments, active learning, |
| Date: | 2007–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsbec:2007c&r=edu |