nep-edu New Economics Papers
on Education
Issue of 2008‒03‒15
27 papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
University of the Beira Interior

  1. Childhood Educational Disruption and Later Life Outcomes: Evidence from Prince Edward County By Paul Heaton
  2. Does the Expansion of Higher Education Increase the Equality of Educational Opportunities? Evidence from Italy By Bratti, Massimiliano; Checchi, Daniele; de Blasio, Guido
  3. Vouchers, tests, loans, privatization: Will they help (fight) higher education corruption in Russia? By Osipian, Ararat
  4. Income Inequality and Education from ECHP data By Marco LILLA
  5. Earnings Functions and Rates of Return By Heckman, James J.; Lochner, Lance; Todd, Petra E.
  6. An Analysis of FEE-HELP in the Vocational Education and Training Sector By Bruce Chapman; Mark Rodrigues; Chris Ryan
  7. What Happened to the PISA 2000 Participants Five Years Later? By Bertschy, Kathrin; Cattaneo, Alejandra; Wolter, Stefan
  8. Inequality of Learning amongst Immigrant Children in Industrialised Countries By Schnepf, Sylke V.
  9. Identifying the Most Research Intensive Faculties of Business in Australia: A Multidimensional Approach By Valadkhani, Abbas; Ville, Simon
  10. The World is Flat: Modeling Educators’ Misconduct with Cellular Automata By Osipian, Ararat
  11. What Is a Peer? The Role of Network Definitions in Estimation of Endogenous Peer Effects By Halliday, Timothy; Kwak, Sally
  12. How Interethnic Marriages Affect the Educational Attainment of Children: Evidence from a Natural Experiment By van Ours, Jan C.; Veenman, Justus
  13. Corruption in Russian Higher Education as Reflected in the Media By Osipian, Ararat
  14. White discrimination in provision of black education: plantations and towns By Canaday, Neil; Tamura, Robert
  15. Productivity differences: the importance of intra-state black-white schooling differences across the United States, 1840-2000 By Turner, Chad; Tamura, Robert; Mulholland, Sean
  16. La educación durante la primera infancia en México : expansión, mejora de la calidad, y reforma curricular By Robert G. Myers; Hirokazu Yoshikawa; Kathleen McCartney; Kristen L. Bub; Julieta Lugo-Gil; Maria A. Ramos; Felicia Knaul
  17. The role of education for the duration of unemplyment in Gorj County By Danacica, Daniela-Emanuela; Babucea, Ana-Gabriela
  18. The Cognitive Link Between Geography and Development: Iodine Deficiency and Schooling Attainment in Tanzania By Erica M. Field; Omar Robles; Máximo Torero
  19. The Rise and Fall of the American Jewish PhD By Chiswick, Barry R.
  20. Education and Labor Market Consequences of Teenage Childbearing: Evidence Using the Timing of Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Fixed Effects By Jason M. Fletcher; Barbara L. Wolfe
  21. Remittances, Liquidity Constraints and Human Capital Investments in Ecuador By Calero, Carla; Bedi, Arjun S.; Sparrow, Robert
  22. Economic Growth: Education as a Factor of Production By Osipian, Ararat
  23. How Do Very Open Economies Absorb Large Immigration Flows? Recent Evidence from Spanish Regions By Gonzalez, Libertad; Ortega, Francesc
  24. Brain Drain and Productivity Growth: Are Small States Different? By Schiff, Maurice; Wang, Yanling
  25. Regional Unemployment and Human Capital in Transition Economies By Stepan Jurajda; Katherine Terrell
  26. International Mobility of the Highly Skilled, Endogenous R&D, and Public Infrastructure Investment By Grossmann, Volker; Stadelmann, David
  27. The Visibility of Ukrainian Economists 1969-2005 By Tom Coupe

  1. By: Paul Heaton
    Abstract: Beginning in 1959 the public schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia were closed for five years in opposition to court-ordered integration. The author combines data from numerous administrative sources to examine the effects of the school closings on the educational attainment and economic outcomes of affected Black children. Although exposed students obtained an average of one fewer year of schooling than peers in surrounding counties, they do not exhibit substantially worse material, health, and incarceration outcomes. These findings may result from 1) the provision of substitute educational opportunities for many students and 2) flat returns at levels of educational attainment typical for southern Virginia Blacks during this period.
    Keywords: education, discrimination, Virginia
    JEL: J15 I20
    Date: 2008–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:552&r=edu
  2. By: Bratti, Massimiliano (University of Milan); Checchi, Daniele (University of Milan); de Blasio, Guido (Bank of Italy)
    Abstract: This paper studies the role of the expansion of higher education (HE) in increasing the equality of tertiary education opportunities. It examines Italy’s experience during the 1990s, when policy changes prompted HE institutions to offer a wider range of degrees and to open new sites in neighbouring provinces. Our analysis focuses on non-mature full-time students and the results suggest that the expansion might have had only limited effects in terms of reducing existing individual inequality in HE achievement as the greater availability of courses had a significantly positive impact only on the probability of university enrolment but not on that of obtaining a university degree.
    Keywords: family background, higher education, Italy
    JEL: I2
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3361&r=edu
  3. By: Osipian, Ararat
    Abstract: Russian higher education is in the process of reforming. Introduction of the standardized computer-graded test and educational vouchers was intended to increase accessibility of higher education, make its funding more effective, and reduce corruption in admissions to public colleges. The idea of vouchers failed while the test faces furious opposition and crises. This paper considers vouchers, standardized tests, educational loans, and privatization as related to educational corruption. The test is criticized by many for being a cause of the further increase in educational corruption. However, the test is needed to replace the outdated admissions policy based on the entry examinations. This paper considers the growing de facto privatization of the nation’s higher education as a fundamental process that should be legalized and formalized. It suggests further restructuring of the higher education industry, its decentralization and privatization, and sees educational loans as a necessary part of the future system of educational funding.
    Keywords: corruption; education; loans; privatization; reform; Russia; vouchers
    JEL: D73 P36
    Date: 2007–05–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7595&r=edu
  4. By: Marco LILLA (Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia)
    Abstract: This paper analyses income inequality and its changes over the period 1993-2000 for a set of 13 Countries in European Community Household Panel (ECHP) survey. Focusing on wages and incomes of workers in general, inequality is related to education as a proxy of individual abilities, skills. Estimation of education premia is performed by quantile regressions to stress dikerences in income distribution and questioning the true impact of education. The same estimates are used to decompose income inequality and show the rise in residual inequality.
    Keywords: education premium, inequality, quantile regression
    JEL: D31 J24 J31
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:anc:wpaper:311&r=edu
  5. By: Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago); Lochner, Lance (University of Western Ontario); Todd, Petra E. (University of Pennsylvania)
    Abstract: The internal rate of return to schooling is a fundamental economic parameter that is often used to assess whether expenditure on education should be increased or decreased. This paper considers alternative approaches to estimating marginal internal rates of return for different schooling levels. We implement a general nonparametric approach to estimate marginal internal rates of return that take into account tuition costs, income taxes and nonlinearities in the earnings-schooling-experience relationship. The returns obtained by the more general method differ substantially from Mincer returns in levels and in their evolution over time. They indicate relatively larger returns to graduating from high school than from graduating from college, although both have been increasing over time.
    Keywords: schooling, marginal internal rate of return, nonparametric estimation
    JEL: C31
    Date: 2008–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3310&r=edu
  6. By: Bruce Chapman; Mark Rodrigues; Chris Ryan
    Abstract: The public vocational education and training (VET) system is now one of the few areas in Australia’s tertiary education system where students are required to pay up-front fees without access to loan assistance. These arrangements may lead to sub-optimal educational outcomes to the extent that prospective students reject a VET education on the basis of short-term financial constraints. In this paper we analyse some of the important issues related to the adoption of FEE-HELP (a 2005 Federal Government financial instrument based on the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS)). It is argued that income contingent loans of this kind are associated with the advantages of both default-protection and consumption smoothing. Using data from the first three waves of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we examine various empirical issues associated with the adoption of FEE-HELP in VET, including the extent of private salary returns to VET qualifications. As well, we explore issues related to the public subsidies inherent in the adoption of FEE-HELP in VET, and illustrate the time periods involved in loan repayments for various assumptions concerning the size of the charge and the future income of VET graduates. Administrative issues are considered, as are the implications for the Commonwealth Government with respect to potential subsidies associated with the design parameters.
    Keywords: educational finance, educational economics, vocational education
    JEL: I22 I28
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:570&r=edu
  7. By: Bertschy, Kathrin (University of Bern); Cattaneo, Alejandra (Swiss Co-ordination Center for Research in Education); Wolter, Stefan (Swiss Co-ordination Center for Research in Education)
    Abstract: The transition from school-to-work has been a burning issue in most countries for the last decades. So far research on this topic has not been conclusive, and it is still not clear whether transition problems are just individual, linked to the type of education followed at upper-secondary level, or just a prolongation of problems arising from poor school performance during compulsory education. This paper uses a unique Swiss longitudinal data-set, which includes information on PISA 2000 scores and the pathways chosen after completing compulsory school. Descriptive results show that students in vocational training, who obtained lower PISA results, are significantly more likely to be in an inadequate employment situation two years after finishing vocational training. Further analysis shows, however, that it is the type of vocational training followed at upper-secondary level that is decisive for the success in the transition. Nevertheless, individual PISA scores have an indirect impact on the transition results, as they are an important factor explaining which pupils are more likely to get into an intellectually demanding vocational training and which ones are not.
    Keywords: vocational training, transition, PISA
    JEL: I2 J24
    Date: 2008–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3323&r=edu
  8. By: Schnepf, Sylke V. (University of Southampton)
    Abstract: Literature examining immigrants’ educational disadvantage across countries focuses generally on average differences in educational outcomes between immigrants and natives disguising thereby that immigrants are a highly heterogeneous group. The aim of this paper is to examine educational inequalities among immigrants in eight high immigration countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA. Results indicate that for almost all countries immigrants’ educational dispersion is considerably higher than for natives. For most countries higher educational dispersion derives from very low achieving immigrants. Quantile regression results reveal that at lower percentiles language skills impact more on educational achievement than at the top of the achievement distribution. Results are presented separately for immigrants of different age cohorts, varying time of immigrants’ residence in the host country and subject examined (maths and reading) highlighting thereby the different patterns found by immigrant group and achievement measure.
    Keywords: education, educational inequalities, immigration, PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS
    JEL: I21 J15 O15
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3337&r=edu
  9. By: Valadkhani, Abbas (University of Wollongong); Ville, Simon (University of Wollongong)
    Abstract: There is a growing policy focus in Australian higher education on quantitative research performance assessment. However, most of the analysis has addressed aggregate performance at the institutional level, an approach inconsistent with recent policy emphasis on diversity among universities, and one that ignores performance variations across disciplines. Using averaged and all available data for 2000-2004, cluster analysis is used to classify Australian Commerce Faculties into groups that exhibit similar research performance, measured by publication, PhD completion and secured competitive research grant funding. We also use factor analysis to generate full-multidimensional rankings within the resulting two or three clusters. It is found that in terms of total research output, with the exception of Adelaide all the Go8 members plus UTS and Griffith always belong to “Clusters A”. However, when research performance is expressed in per academic staff terms, an additional eleven universities join this same cluster. Our results additionally show that eight Australian faculties of Commerce not only possess low total research output but their per capita performance is also poor.
    Keywords: Faculties of Business, Australian higher education, Cluster analysis, Factor analysis
    JEL: A11 A19 C63 I29
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uow:depec1:wp08-03&r=edu
  10. By: Osipian, Ararat
    Abstract: Misconduct in education is a serious problem internationally. As the education sector grows, so does the scale of misconduct. The large bureaucratic apparatus, overregulation, outdated and unclear rules, and poor audit create opportunities for abuse. The blending of public sector, private firms, and personal interests of educators and education bureaucrats leads to collusion and evolvement of different forms of misconduct, especially widespread in large university systems and school districts. Corruption and other forms of misconduct may be modeled in large educational organizations with strong vertical and horizontal ties with the help of cellular automata. This paper offers a theoretical framework and a methodology based on cellular automata to study corruption in large educational organizations, including school districts and state university systems. The presented methodology is based on cellular automata. In the essence of cellular automata are different programming characteristics designed to predict future misconduct. Starting with different cases or combinations of behavior on the workplace and working environment as initial conditions, the process of cellular automation simulates behavior of educators and results in images that depict likely future developments in educators’ misconduct within educational and bureaucratic organizations. Applicability of the offered methodology and its value is in modeling, simulation, and control.
    Keywords: cellular automata; corruption; education; methodology; misconduct; modeling
    JEL: D73 C61 K42
    Date: 2008–01–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7592&r=edu
  11. By: Halliday, Timothy (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Kwak, Sally (University of Hawaii at Manoa)
    Abstract: We employ a standard identification strategy from the peer effects literature to investigate the importance of network definitions in estimation of endogenous peer effects. We use detailed information on friends in the Adolescent Longitudinal Health Survey (Add Health) to construct two network definitions that are less ad hoc than the school-grade cohorts commonly used in the educational peer effects literature. We demonstrate that accurate definitions of the peer network seriously impact estimation of peer effects. In particular, we show that peer effects estimates on educational achievement, smoking, sexual behavior, and drinking are substantially larger with our more detailed measures than with the school-grade cohorts. These results highlight the need to further understand how friendships form in order to fully understand implications for policy that alters the peer group mix at the classroom or cohort level.
    Keywords: peer effects, education, adolescent health
    JEL: I12 I20
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3335&r=edu
  12. By: van Ours, Jan C. (Tilburg University); Veenman, Justus (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
    Abstract: The allocation of Moluccan immigrants across towns and villages at arrival in the Netherlands and the subsequent formation of interethnic marriages resemble a natural experiment. The exogenous variation in marriage formation allows us to estimate the causal effect of interethnic marriages on the educational attainment of children from such marriages. We find that children from Moluccan fathers and native mothers have a higher educational attainment than children from ethnic homogeneous Moluccan couples or children from a Moluccan mother and a native father.
    Keywords: interethnic marriages, educational attainment
    JEL: I21 J15
    Date: 2008–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3308&r=edu
  13. By: Osipian, Ararat
    Abstract: This paper considers corruption in higher education in Russia as reflected in the national media, including such aspects as corruption in admissions to higher education institutions and corruption in administering the newly introduced standardized test. The major focus is on the opinions of the leading figures of the education reform as related to corruption in education. The national media presents points of view of both supporters of the reform and those in opposition to the reform. Despite all the opposition that the standardized test faces among the leading educators and legislators, including The Chairman of The Council of Federation and numerous other Members of the Russian parliament and rectors of higher education institutions, the government continues implementation of the reform. Even though, as follows from the media reports and comments, the standardized test will not solve the problem of corruption in education, its full scale country-wide implementation at this point appears to be a question of time.
    Keywords: corruption; higher education; media; reform; national test; Russia
    JEL: P36 D73 P37
    Date: 2007–05–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7594&r=edu
  14. By: Canaday, Neil; Tamura, Robert
    Abstract: We present a model of public provision of education for blacks in two discriminatory regimes, white plantation controlled, and white town controlled. We show that the ability to migrate to a non-discriminating district constrains the ability of both types of whites to discriminate. The model produces time series of educational outcomes for whites and blacks that mimic the behavior seen in Post Reconstruction South Carolina to the onset of the Civil Rights Act. It also fits the Post World War II black-white income differentials.
    Keywords: discriminatory education provision; black-white education differences
    JEL: J71 J24 J42
    Date: 2007–07–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7723&r=edu
  15. By: Turner, Chad; Tamura, Robert; Mulholland, Sean
    Abstract: Using newly created data containing real output per worker, real physical capital per worker, and human capital per worker for US states from 1840 to 2000, Turner et. al (2007) analyze the growth rates of aggregate inputs and total factor productivity (TFP). We continue this line of work by documenting the importance of TFP differences in explaining cross sectional variation in the levels of (log) output. We construct plausible upper bounds on the fraction of the variance in output levels that can be explained by TFP and inputs. Similar to the growth rate analysis, we find that TFP can, on average, explain nearly 90% of output variance while inputs can explain up to only 50% of output variance. We then consider the possibility that one major institutional difference across states, the extent to which blacks were denied access to formal education, might explain TFP differences across states. To this end, we generate and present a years of schooling measures, by race, at the state level from 1840 to 2000. While directly exploiting this series has very little impact on the upper bound of the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, we do find that the size of the gap between white and black years of schooling is negatively related to TFP in the period from 1840 to 1950. We also consider the extent to which time-varying rates of return on education alters the upper bound on the fraction of output variation that can be explained by inputs, finding that time-varying rates have little impact. Finally, we find some evidence for external effects of higher education and physical capital.
    Keywords: black-white schooling differences; state productivity differences
    JEL: J7 O4
    Date: 2008–01–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7718&r=edu
  16. By: Robert G. Myers; Hirokazu Yoshikawa; Kathleen McCartney; Kristen L. Bub; Julieta Lugo-Gil; Maria A. Ramos; Felicia Knaul
    Abstract: Los Innocenti Working Papers de UNICEF tienen como objetivo divulgar los resultados iniciales de la investigación llevada a cabo en el programa de trabajo del Centro que traten sobre aspectos sociales, económicos e institucionales de la aplicación de los derechos de los niños. Los hallazgos, interpretaciones y conclusiones recogidos en este documento pertenecen al/los autor/es y no reflejan, necesariamente, las políticas o puntos de vista de UNICEF. Siempre que se haga debida mención de la fuente, así como de UNICEF, queda permitida la libre reproducción de extractos de esta publicación.
    Keywords: early childhood; early childhood development; early childhood education; educational evaluation; educational reforms; preschool education; right to care and protection; right to child care services;; Mexico;
    JEL: I21
    Date: 2008
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa08/47&r=edu
  17. By: Danacica, Daniela-Emanuela; Babucea, Ana-Gabriela
    Abstract: In this paper are presented the results of the ASO international project “The Role of Education for the Duration of Unemployment” for Gorj County. Using techniques to estimate models for duration data, like the Kaplan Meier method and Cox’s proportional hazard model, this project answer to the following question: does the education level influence the duration of unemployment in Gorj County? The influences of age and gender on duration of unemployment spells are also estimated
    Keywords: unemployment education level labour market gender
    JEL: J45 J40
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7570&r=edu
  18. By: Erica M. Field; Omar Robles; Máximo Torero
    Abstract: An estimated 20 million children born each year are at risk of brain damage from in utero iodine deficiency, the only micronutrient deficiency known to have significant, non-reversible effects on cognitive development. Cognitive damage from iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) has potentially important implications for economic growth through its effect on human capital attainment. To gauge the magnitude of this influence, we evaluate the impact of reductions in fetal IDD on child schooling attainment that resulted from an intensive distribution of iodized oil capsules (IOC) in Tanzania. We look for evidence of improvements in cognitive ability attributable to the intervention by assessing whether children who benefited from IOC in utero exhibit higher rates of grade progression at ages 10 to 14 relative to siblings and older and younger children in the district who did not. Our findings suggest that reducing fetal IDD has significant benefits for child cognition: Protection from IDD in utero is associated with 0.36 years of additional schooling. Furthermore, the effect appears to be substantially larger for girls, consistent with new evidence from laboratory studies indicating greater cognitive sensitivity of the female fetus to maternal thyroid deprivation. There is no indication that IOC improved rates of illness or school absence due to illness, suggesting that IOC improves schooling through its effect on cognition rather than its effect on health. However, there is weak evidence that the program also reduced child but not fetal or infant mortality, which may bias downward the estimated effect on education. Cross-country regression estimates corroborate the results from Tanzania, indicating a strong negative influence of total goiter rate and strong positive influence of salt iodization on female school participation. Together, these findings provide micro-level evidence of the direct influence of ecological conditions on economic development and suggest a potentially important role of variation in rates of learning disability in explaining cross-country growth patterns and gender differences in schooling attainment.
    JEL: I1 I21 O12 O55
    Date: 2008–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13838&r=edu
  19. By: Chiswick, Barry R. (University of Illinois at Chicago)
    Abstract: This paper is concerned with trends over the post-WWII period in the employment of American Jews as College and University teachers and in their receipt of the PhD. The empirical analysis is for PhD production from 1950 to 2004 and Jews are identified by the Distinctive Jewish Name (DJN) technique. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses are reported. Central roles are played in the regression analysis by variables for military conscription, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and US government funding for research and development. Among the DJNs, the simple data show that male PhD graduates increased in number in the post-war period up to early 1970s, and declined thereafter. Among DJN women, however, annual PhD production increased throughout the period. The ratio of DJN to all PhDs declined throughout the period for both men and women. Other variables the same, male DJN PhD production increased to about 1967 and then declined, while for DJN females it increased throughout the period. The ratio of DJN to all PhDs started to decline among men in the 1950s and continued thereafter, while among women the DJN share increased until about 1979, and then declined. These data are consisted with the hypothesis that discrimination against Jews in salaried professional occupations declined in the post-WWII period earlier in College and University teaching than in other sectors of the economy that do not require a PhD degree for employment.
    Keywords: American Jews, education, discrimination, gender
    JEL: I21 J71 J44
    Date: 2008–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3384&r=edu
  20. By: Jason M. Fletcher; Barbara L. Wolfe
    Abstract: The question of whether giving birth as a teenager has negative economic consequences for the mother remains controversial despite substantial research. In this paper, we build upon existing literature, especially the literature that uses the experience of teenagers who had a miscarriage as the appropriate comparison group. We show that miscarriages are not random events, but rather are likely correlated with (unobserved) community-level factors, casting some doubt on previous findings. Including community-level fixed effects in our specifications lead to important changes in our estimates. By making use of information on the timing of miscarriages as well as birth control choices preceding the teenage pregnancies we construct more relevant control groups for teenage mothers. We find evidence that teenage childbearing likely reduces the probability of receiving a high school diploma by 5 to 10 percentage points, reduces annual income as a young adult by $1,000 to $2,400, and may increase the probability of receiving cash assistance and decrease years of schooling.
    Keywords: teen pregnancy, economic consequences, human capital
    JEL: J24 J13
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:573&r=edu
  21. By: Calero, Carla (Ministerio de Coordinación de Desarrollo Social- SIISE); Bedi, Arjun S. (Institute of Social Studies); Sparrow, Robert (Institute of Social Studies)
    Abstract: Over the last decade Ecuador has experienced a strong increase in financial transfers from migrated workers, amounting to 6.4 percent of GDP and 31.5 percent of total exports of goods and services in 2005. This paper investigates how remittances via trans-national networks affect human capital investments through relaxing resource constraints and facilitate households in consumption smoothing by reducing vulnerability to economic shocks. In particular, we explore the effects of remittances on school enrolment and child work in Ecuador. Identification relies on instrumental variables, exploiting information on source countries of remittances and regional variation in the availability of bank offices that function as formal channels for sending remittances. Our results show that remittances increase school enrolment and decrease incidence of child work, especially for girls and in rural areas. Furthermore, we find that aggregate shocks are associated with increased work activities, while remittances are used to finance education when households are faced with these shocks. This suggests that liquidity constraints and vulnerability to covariate risk are especially relevant in rural areas, as it affects household’s investments in human capital of school age children. In this context both child labour supply and transnational remittances serve as coping mechanisms.
    Keywords: migration, remittances, trans-national networks, education, child labour, Ecuador
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3358&r=edu
  22. By: Osipian, Ararat
    Abstract: This book presents theoretical and empirical investigation of the possible impact of human capital on economic growth in transition economies of Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Hungary during the period of 1990-2007. This research defines place and role of human capital in the process of transition from the exogenous to the endogenous forms of growth and socio-economic development. Substantial part of the book is devoted to the integrative scholarly synthesis with the special emphasis on theoretical aspects of economic growth. The research presents both exogenous and endogenous models of growth, including Harrod-Domar, Solow, Solow-Swan, Leontief, Mankiw, Barro, and other models.
    Keywords: economic growth; human capital; transition
    JEL: O47 P24 J24
    Date: 2007–12–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:7593&r=edu
  23. By: Gonzalez, Libertad (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Ortega, Francesc (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
    Abstract: In recent years, Spain has received unprecedented immigration flows. Between 2001 and 2006 the fraction of the population born abroad more than doubled, increasing from 4.8% to 10.8%. For Spanish provinces with above-median inflows (relative to population), immigration increased the high school dropout population by 24%, while only increasing the number of college graduates by 11%. We study the different channels by which regional labor markets have absorbed the large increase in the relative supply of low educated (foreign-born) workers. We identify the exogenous supply shock using historical immigrant settlement patterns by country of origin. Using data from the Labor Force Survey and the decennial Census, we find a large expansion of employment in high immigration regions. Specifically, most industries in high-immigration regions experienced a large increase in the share of low-education employment. We do not find an effect on regions’ sectoral specialization. Overall, and perhaps surprisingly, Spanish regions have absorbed immigration flows in the same fashion as US local economies.
    Keywords: immigration, open economies, Rybcszynski, instrumental variables
    JEL: J2 F1 O3
    Date: 2008–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3311&r=edu
  24. By: Schiff, Maurice (World Bank); Wang, Yanling (Carleton University)
    Abstract: This paper examines the impact of North-South trade-related technology diffusion on TFP growth in small and large states in the South. The main findings are: i) TFP growth increases with North-South trade-related technology diffusion, with education, and with the interaction between the two, and it decreases with the emigration of skilled labor (brain drain); ii) these effects are substantially (over three times) larger in small states than in large ones. Small states also exhibit a much higher brain drain level. Consequently, the brain drain generates greater losses in terms of TFP growth both because of its greater sensitivity to the brain drain and because the brain drain is substantially larger in small than in large states.
    Keywords: trade, technology diffusion, brain drain, productivity growth
    JEL: F22 J61
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3378&r=edu
  25. By: Stepan Jurajda; Katherine Terrell
    Abstract: Differences in regional unemployment in post-communist economies are large and persistent. We show that inherited variation in human-capital endowment across the regions of four such economies explains the bulk of regional unemployment variation there and we explore potential explanations for this outcome through related capital and labor mobility patterns. The evidence suggests that regions with high inherited skill endowments attract skilled workers as well as FDI. This mobility pattern, which helps explain the lack of convergence in regional unemployment rates, is consistent with the presence of complementarities in skill and capital. Nevertheless, we find no supporting evidence of human capital wage spillovers implied by the complementarities story. Unemployment of the least-skilled workers appears lower in areas with a higher share of college-educated labor and future research is needed to see if this finding as well as the observed migration pattern arise from different adjustments to regional shocks by education level brought about in part by Central European labor-market institutions, such as guaranteed welfare income raising effective minimum wages.
    Keywords: Unemployment, Human capital, Regional labor markets, Transition economies, Labor Mobility, Complementarities, Spillovers, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine.
    JEL: E24 J0 J61
    Date: 2007–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cer:papers:wp345&r=edu
  26. By: Grossmann, Volker (University of Fribourg); Stadelmann, David (University of Fribourg)
    Abstract: This paper theoretically and empirically analyzes the interaction of emigration of highly skilled labor, an economy’s income gap to potential host economies of expatriates, and optimal public infrastructure investment. In a model with endogenous education and R&D investment decisions we show that international integration of the market for skilled labor aggravates between-country income inequality by harming those which are source economies to begin with while benefiting host economies. When brain drain increases in source economies, public infrastructure investment is optimally adjusted downward, whereas host economies increase it. Evidence from 77 countries well supports our theoretical hypotheses.
    Keywords: brain drain, cross-country evidence, educational choice, public infrastructure investment, R&D investment
    JEL: F22 O30 H40
    Date: 2008–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3366&r=edu
  27. By: Tom Coupe (Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv Economics Institute)
    Abstract: This article studies the visibility of Ukrainian economists. It shows that the number of Ukrainians trained at Western universities is increasing fast and that these economists now start publishing in international journals. At the same time, Ukrainian economists residing and educated in Ukraine still rarely publish in international economics journals. An explanation for both findings is offered.
    Keywords: ranking, Ukraine, economists
    JEL: A10
    Date: 2008–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kse:dpaper:6&r=edu

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