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on Education |
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Issue of 2008‒04‒04
nine papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Jimenez, Emmanuel; Patrinos, Harry Anthony |
| Abstract: | Cost-benefit analysis in education is an important tool in the economists ' arsenal. However, it is essential that research, especially on the social benefits of education, make further progress to make cost-benefit more analysis. There is a need for more research on the effects of policy interventions on outcomes beyond access to a year in school and what they earn as a result, such as on what children actually learn. Such research should focus on en suring that the interventions are attributable to outcomes. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to go through the discipline of noting the benefits and costs, even if social rates of return cannot be calculated robustly. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Primary Education,,Teaching and Learning,Access & Equity in Basic Education |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4568&r=edu |
| By: | Lewis, Maureen; Lockheed, Marlaine |
| Abstract: | Despite a sharp increase in the share of girls who enroll in, attend, and complete various levels of schooling, an educational gender gap remains in some countries. This paper argues that one explanation for this gender gap is the degree of social exclusion within these countries, as indicated by ethno-linguistic heterogeneity, which triggers both economic and psycho-social mechanisms to limit girls ' schooling. Ethno-linguistic heterogeneity initially was applied to explaining lagging economic growth, but has emerged in the literature more recently to explain both civil conflict and public goods. This paper is a first application of the concept to explain gender gaps in education. The paper discusses the importance of female education for economic and social development, reviews the evidence regarding gender and ethnic differences in schooling, reviews the theoretical perspectives of various social science disciplines that seek to explain such differences, and tests the relevance of ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity in explaining cross-country differences in school attainment and learning. The study indicates that within-country ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity partly explains both national female primary school completion rates and gender differences in these rates, but only explains average national learning outcomes when national income measures are excluded. |
| Keywords: | Primary Education,Education For All,Gender and Education,Population Policies,Disability |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4562&r=edu |
| By: | Boppart, Timo (University of Zurich); Falkinger, Josef (University of Zurich); Grossmann, Volker (University of Fribourg); Woitek, Ulrich (University of Zurich); Wüthrich, Gabriela (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of religious denomination for human capital formation. We employ a unique data set which covers, inter alia, information on numerous measures of school inputs in 169 Swiss districts for the years 1871/72, 1881/82 and 1894/95, marks from pedagogical examinations of conscripts (1875-1903), and results from political referenda to capture conservative or progressive values in addition to the cultural characteristics language and religion. Catholic districts show on average significantly lower educational performance than Protestant districts. However, accounting for other sociocultural characteristics qualifies the role of religion for educational production. The evidence suggests that Catholicism is harmful only in a conservative milieu. We also exploit information on absenteeism of pupils from school to separate provision of schooling from use of schooling. |
| Keywords: | culture, educational production, plural identity, religious denomination, school inputs |
| JEL: | I20 H52 O10 N33 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3408&r=edu |
| By: | Oosterbeek, Hessel; Patrinos, Harry Anthony |
| Abstract: | This paper describes and analyzes different financial schemes to promote lifelong learning. Considered are financial instruments to stimulate successful early learning, financial aid schemes and subsidization mechanisms. Theoretical analyses about funding of early learning have mainly focused on vouchers. Yet, the available empirical evidence is more ambiguous about the effects of vouchers than about the effects of conditional cash transfers and financial incentives for pupils and teachers. Positive effects of financial incentives to pupils are not restricted to high ability pupils, as low ability students also seem to benefit. The evidence regarding the effects of subsidy forms is limited. The most prominent knowledge gaps regarding the effects o f various financing schemes related to lifelong learning are the effects of vouchers in compulsory education; financial aid schemes for students; and entitlements and individual learning accounts. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,,Access to Finance,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4569&r=edu |
| By: | Stocké, Volker (Sonderforschungsbereich 504) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the relative importance of primary and secondary effects of both parents’ educational and occupational status on whether an upper or a less ambitious secondary school track is chosen after primary school in Germany. We compare standardized test scores, parents’ achievement beliefs, and teachers’ marks as conceptually different indicators for children’s academic competencies with respect to how completely they capture the strength and temporal development of primary effects. We found all measures, but in particular the teachers’ evaluations, to be strongly affected by the children’s social origin. Furthermore, teachers’ marks had the strongest effect on educational decisions, explained status differences in this respect to the largest extent, and proved to be the best single indicator for primary effects. However, each of the other measures and the children’s competency development in the past exert significant additional effects on the educational decision. The failure to take the full set of competency measures into account leads to a substantial underestimation of primary effects. Taking the cumulative effect of all competency indicators into account, we found 50 percent of the initially significant net-effects of the mothers’ education and 70 percent of the effects of their social class to be attributable to primary effects. |
| Date: | 2007–08–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:sfbmaa:07-60&r=edu |
| By: | Cuong Le Van (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris-1, CNRS - Paris School of Economics); Manh-Hung Nguyen (THEMA, Université Cergy-Pontoise); Thai Bao Luong (CEPN Université Paris 13); Tu Anh Nguyen (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris-1, CNRS) |
| Abstract: | We consider a transitional country with three sectors in economy: con- sumption goods, new technology, and education. Productivity of the con- sumption goods sector depends on new technology and skilled labor used for production of the new technology. Then there might be three stages of economic growth. In the first stage the country concentrates on produc- tion of consumption goods; in the second stage the country imports both physical capital and new technology capital; in the last stage the country imports new technology capital and invests in training and education of high skilled labor in the same time. |
| Keywords: | Optimal growth model, New technology capital, Human Capital, Developing country. |
| JEL: | D51 E13 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2008-07&r=edu |
| By: | Stocké, Volker (Sonderforschungsbereich 504) |
| Abstract: | Several theoretical approaches assume that the motive for status maintenance, that is the desire to avoid intergenerational status downward mobility, explains educational decisions and effects of the families’ social status hereon. Not much is known about whether this assumption is empirically valid, and it is completely an open question which of the parents’ social status provides the reference point when evaluating educational options with respect to their suitability for status maintenance. We utilize data from the Mannheim Educational Panel Study to test whether the beliefs about how likely secondary school degrees ensure the maintenance of the mothers’ and fathers’ status explain the decision between school tracks leading to these degrees in Germany. We compare the explanatory power of altogether nine measures, assuming the reference status to be determined by different models about how the families’ status is mentally represented. Results have shown that the motive for status maintenance exerts in all versions significant effects on educational decisions. However, it proved to be strongest when the fathers’ status was assumed to define success in avoiding intergenerational status demotion. After controlling for the effect of this measure, direct effects of the families’ educational and occupational status were substantially reduced, but not completely explained. |
| Date: | 2007–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrs:sfbmaa:07-20&r=edu |
| By: | Mario Pomini (University of Padua); Gianfranco Tusset (University of Padua) |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the theoretical contributions of two eminent representatives of the Italian Paretian School, namely Luigi Amoroso and Giulio La Volpe. Both contributed to the most ambitious project undertaken by the Paretian School, that is, dynamization of the general economic equilibrium. This research programme was grounded on two pillars. The first concerned the use of then sophisticated mathematical instruments, such as functional, differential equations, and the calculus of variations. The second pillar involved maintenance of a strict analogy with physics and mechanics. But whilst Amoroso mainly used a theory based on the past, La Volpe founded his proposal on the future. |
| Keywords: | general economic equilibrium, economic dynamics, Pareto |
| JEL: | B31 D50 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0069&r=edu |
| By: | Rosa, Julio M. (Statistics Canada); Mohnen, Pierre (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines whether the transfer of knowledge flows from universities to enterprises in Canada is hampered by the geographical distance that separates them. The transfer of knowledge flows are measured by the amount of R&D payments from business enterprises to universities that are directly reported in Statistics Canada's survey on Research and Development in Canadian Industry. We use data from the 1997 to 2001 surveys. After controlling for unobserved individual heterogeneity, selection bias as well as for other covariates that could affect the extent of industry-university R&D transactions such as absorptive capacity, foreign control, belonging to the same province, past experience with a given university and other firm and university characteristics, it is found that a 10% increase in distance decreases the proportion of total R&D paid to a university by 1.4 percent for enterprises that do not report any codified transfer of knowledge flow, and by half as much for enterprises that report codified knowledge flows. |
| Keywords: | knowledge transfer, university-industry relationships, codified knowledge, tacit knowledge, spatial proximity |
| JEL: | O31 O33 D83 D85 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2008017&r=edu |