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on Education |
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Issue of 2008‒04‒12
nineteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Traag Tanja; Velden Rolf K.W. van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | The role of student-, family- and school factors for early school-leaving in lower secondary educationMost studies on early school-leaving address only partial causes of why some students leave school early. This study aims to develop a more elaborate model to explain early school-leaving in lower secondary education, taking into account individual, family and school factors at the same time. By using a longitudinal dataset we are able to attribute clear causal relations between the different factors. We distinguish four groups of school-leavers, separating ‘dropouts’ (those without any qualification) from those who left school after attaining a diploma in lower secondary education (‘low qualified’), those who pursued education as an apprentice (‘apprentices’) and the ones who continued education and received a full upper secondary qualification (‘full qualification). Discerning these four groups shows clear differences in the background of different types of early school-leavers and in the effects of school factors. |
| Keywords: | labour market entry and occupational careers; |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2008003&r=edu |
| By: | Oriol Aspachs-Bracons; Irma Clots-Figueras; Paolo Masella |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the relationship between schooling and political behaviour in ethnically divided societies. It draws on survey data from Catalonia to investigate how the introduction in 1983 of a bilingual education system affects political behaviour. Using within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school, we find that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to declare to have voted in 1999 regional elections and to have chosen a Catalanist party. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we077747&r=edu |
| By: | Dinand Webbink; Nicholas G. Martin; Peter M. Visscher |
| Abstract: | The prevalence of overweight and obesity is growing rapidly in many countries. Education policies might be important for reducing this increase. This paper analyses the causal effect of education on the probability of being overweight by using longitudinal data of Australian identical twins. The data include self-reported and clinical measures of body size. Our crosssectional estimates confirm the well-known negative association between education and the probability of being overweight. For men we find that education also reduces the probability of being overweight within pairs of identical twins. The estimated effect of education on overweight status increases with age. Remarkably, for women we find no negative effect of education on body size when fixed family effects are taken into account. Identical twin sisters that differ in educational attainment do not systematically differ in body size. This finding is robust to differences in employment and number of children. |
| Keywords: | education; overweight; body size |
| JEL: | I12 I18 I20 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:102&r=edu |
| By: | Khovanskaya, Irina; Sonin, Konstantin; Yudkevich, Maria |
| Abstract: | We study hiring decisions made by competing universities in a dynamic framework, focusing on the structure of university finance. Universities with annual state-approved financing underinvest in high-quality faculty, while universities that receive a significant part of their annual income from returns on endowments hire fewer but better faculty and provide long-term contracts. If university financing is linked to the number of students, there is additional pressure to hire low-quality short-term staff. An increase in the university's budget might force the university to switch its priorities from `research' to `teaching' in equilibrium. We employ our model to discuss the necessity for state-financed endowments, and investigate the political economics of competition between universities, path-dependence in the development of the university system, and higher-education reform in emerging market economies. |
| Keywords: | dynamic game; economics of education; tenure |
| JEL: | C73 I20 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6744&r=edu |
| By: | Devereux, Paul J.; Hart, Robert A |
| Abstract: | Do students benefit from compulsory schooling? Researchers using changes in compulsory schooling laws as instruments have typically estimated very high returns to additional schooling that are greater than the corresponding OLS estimates and concluded that the group of individuals who are influenced by the law change have particularly high returns to education. That is, the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) is larger than the average treatment effect (ATE). However, studies of a 1947 British compulsory schooling law change that impacted about half the relevant population have also found very high instrumental variables returns to schooling (about 15%), suggesting that the ATE of schooling is also very high and higher than OLS estimates suggest. We utilize the New Earnings Survey Panel Data-set (NESPD), that has superior earnings information compared to the datasets previously used and find instrumental variable estimates that are small and much lower than OLS. In fact, there is no evidence of any positive return for women and the return for men is in the 4-7% range. These estimates provide no evidence that the ATE of schooling is very high. |
| Keywords: | compulsory schooling; return to education |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6679&r=edu |
| By: | van Ours, Jan C; Veenman, Justus |
| 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: | Educational Attainment; Interethnic marriages |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6688&r=edu |
| By: | Marco Pitzalis; Isabella Sulis; Mariano Porcu |
| Abstract: | The role played by ‘Cultural Capital’ is crucial in shaping students’ decisions with respect to the school university transition. This work is based on an ad hoc survey carried out on a sample of students enrolled in 2006 in the University of Cagliari. The ‘cultural capital’ is a latent variable which students are supposed to possess at a greater or lesser degree. It has been here operationalized in four sub-components: (i) built-up by activities made by students themselves; (ii) built up by activities made by students’ parents; (iii) transmitted by students’ parents; (iv) built-up by formal education experiences. Each sub-component has been evaluated via students’ responses to a battery of items in a questionnaire. Latent Class Analysis has been adopted in order to provide non arbitrary scaling of some of the sub-components and to sort out mutually exclusive classes of students, characterized by a different intensity of the latent variable. Moreover, Item Response Models have been used to assess the calibration of the questionnaire as an instrument to measure the cultural capital of the targeted population. |
| Keywords: | cultural capital, students’ transition, university, school, item response models, latent class analysis. |
| JEL: | C25 C49 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:200805&r=edu |
| By: | Blanca Zuluaga |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses pecuniary and non-pecuniary effects of education on poverty. Two are the main contributions: first, the pecuniary analysis employs the recently developed technique of instrumental variable quantile regression, very helpful method when one is interested in the lowest or highest extremes of the distribution function of the dependent variable. In fact, quantile regression offers coefficient estimations for any conditional quantile. The second contribution derives from our purpose to highlight the non-pecuniary returns to education: resources invested in education bring future returns to individuals, not only reflected in monetary earnings, but also in higher levels of satisfaction of basic needs. |
| Keywords: | education, poverty, quantile regression, Colombia |
| JEL: | I30 I20 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces0702&r=edu |
| By: | Oriol Aspachs-Bracons; Irma Clots-Figueras; Paolo Masella |
| Abstract: | The process of individual identity formation is still an enigma, as it is the capacity of public bodies to intervene on it. In 1983 the Catalan education system became bilingual, and Catalan, together with Spanish, was taught in schools. Using survey data from Catalonia and exploiting within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school, results show that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan are more likely to say that they feel more Catalan than Spanish. Interestingly, the effect appears to be present also among individuals whose parents do not have Catalan origins. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to analyze how policies affect individual identity. |
| Date: | 2007–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we077746&r=edu |
| By: | Duflo, Esther; Hanna, Rema; Ryan, Stephen |
| Abstract: | This paper combines a randomized experiment and a structural model to test whether monitoring and financial incentives can reduce teacher absence and increase learning. In 57 schools in India, randomly chosen out of 113, a teacher’s daily attendance was verified through photographs with time and date stamps, and his salary was made a non-linear function of his attendance. The teacher absence rate changed from 42 percent in the comparison schools to 21 percent in the treatment schools. To separate the effects of the monitoring and the financial incentives, we estimate a structural dynamic labour supply model that allows for heterogeneity in preferences and auto-correlation of external shocks. The teacher response was almost entirely due to the financial incentives. The estimated elasticity of labour with respect to the incentive is 0.306. Our model accurately predicts teacher attendance in two out-of-sample tests on the comparison group and a treatment group that received different financial incentives. The program improved child learning: test scores in the treatment schools were 0.17 standard deviations higher than in the comparison schools. |
| Keywords: | education; financial incentives; India |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J13 J30 O10 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6682&r=edu |
| By: | Kalenkoski, Charlene Marie (Ohio University); Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) |
| Abstract: | Using nationally representative data from the NLSY97 and a simultaneous equations model, this paper analyzes the financial motivations for and the effects of employment on U.S. college students’ academic performance. The data confirm the predictions of the theoretical model that lower parental transfers and greater costs of attending college increase the number of hours students work while in school, although students are not very responsive to these financial motivations. They also provide some evidence that greater hours of work lead to lower grade point averages (GPAs). |
| Keywords: | employment, transfers, GPA |
| JEL: | D1 I2 J2 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bls:wpaper:ec080020&r=edu |
| By: | Galor, Oded; Moav, Omer; Vollrath, Dietrich |
| Abstract: | This paper suggests that inequality in the distribution of land ownership adversely affected the emergence of human capital promoting institutions (e.g., public schooling) and thus the pace and the nature of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy, contributing to the emergence of the great divergence in income per capita across countries. The prediction of the theory regarding the adverse effect of the concentration of land ownership on education expenditure is established empirically based on evidence from the beginning of the 20th century in the US. |
| Keywords: | Geography; Great Divergence; Growth; Human capital; Institutions; Land Inequality |
| JEL: | O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6751&r=edu |
| By: | Filip Verwimp |
| Abstract: | I use an extended version of Mincer's original model to estimate the returns to schooling in rural Ethiopia. In a first step, a multinomial logit model is applied to distinguish between four groups of people, (1) full-time farmers, (2) part-time farmers, part time wage workers, (3) part-time farmers, part time traders and (4) full-time non-farmers. In a second step, a correction for sample selectivity is made using the Lee-Heckman method and the returns are estimated. The results show that returns on schooling are high in group (4) and lower in groups (2) and (3). Entry in well-paid jobs is constrained for non educated people. Women are particularly well represented in the third group but strongly underrepresented in the fourth group. The estimation shows that education is a worthwile investment in rural Ethiopia and the fact that households underinvest in education can be attributed to the lack of resources at the household level. |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces9903&r=edu |
| By: | Nohora Y. Forero Ramírez; Manuel Ramírez Gómez |
| Abstract: | Teniendo como referente la teoría del capital humano y la de señalización en el mercado laboral, el documento aborda la influencia de variables socioeconómicas, laborales y algunas relacionadas con las características de las Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES), sobre el ingreso laboral que devengan los recién graduados universitarios en Colombia. Se utiliza la información del Observatorio Laboral de la Educación (OLE, 2005) porque, a diferencia de otras encuestas, permite analizar detenidamente el grupo específico de graduados universitarios y obtener información sobre la profesión estudiada y sobre las IES que otorgan los diplomas. Utilizando estimaciones de Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios (MCO), Probit Ordenado (PO) y Regresión Intervalo (RI), se encuentra que factores como vivir en Bogotá, ser hombre, tener padres más educados y haber obtenido el título en instituciones privadas o acreditadas, se relacionan positivamente con la probabilidad de devengar ingresos laborales mayores. El área de conocimiento de la profesión estudiada, la posición ocupacional y el tipo de vinculación laboral, también explican los ingresos de la población estudiada. ********************************************************************************************************* Using Human Capital and Signaling theories, this paper seeks to explain recent graduates' labor income in Colombia. Since usual household surveys do not provide specific information to analyze wage determinants (such as field of study, characteristics of the institution where the degree was obtained…) this paper uses data from a National Education Ministry’s survey. The main result is that being man, living in Bogotá, having parents with higher levels of education, or having gotten a degree from a private institution, enhance the probability of obtaining a higher labor income. Field of study and occupational position also explain wage levels. |
| Date: | 2008–01–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:004591&r=edu |
| By: | Ben-David, Dan |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a comparative examination of how public universities in two countries, the United States and Israel, have evolved over the past few decades - and how differences between the two have culminated in a rate of academic brain drain from the latter to the former that is unparalleled in the western world. The number of Israelis in the top 40 American departments in physics, chemistry, philosophy, computer science and economics, as a percentage of their remaining colleagues in Israel, is over twice the overall academic emigration rates (at all levels) from European countries. Signs of what is currently occurring in Israel have already begun to appear in other developed countries as well, though on a completely different scale - still - making the country an important case study that other countries should study, understand and prepare against a similar eventuality. |
| Keywords: | brain drain; higher education; migration |
| JEL: | A11 F22 H52 H83 I23 J31 J61 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6717&r=edu |
| By: | de Rassenfosse, Gaétan; van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether patent counts can be taken as indicators of macroeconomic innovation performance. The empirical model explicitly accounts for the two components of patenting output: research productivity and patent propensity. The empirical analysis aims at explaining the `correct' number of priority filings in 34 countries. It confirms that the two components play a substantial role as witnessed by the impact of the design of several policies, namely education, intellectual property and science and technology policies. A major policy implication relates to the design of patent systems, which ultimately induces, or allows for, aggressive patenting strategies. |
| Keywords: | education policy; patent policy; propensity to patent; R&D productivity; S&T policy |
| JEL: | O30 O38 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6716&r=edu |
| By: | Bauwens, Luc; Mion, Giordano; Thisse, Jacques-François |
| Abstract: | Using a data set of highly cited researchers in all fields of science, we show that the gap in scientific performance between Europe, especially continental Europe, and the USA is large. We model the number of highly cited researchers in a sample of countries as a function of physical and human capital and a country-specific, factor-augmenting Hicks-neutral productivity term. We find that differences in productivity between Anglo-Saxon countries and other countries are not solely due to differences in the levels of inputs. Not surprisingly, our results reveal the importance of English proficiency. However, they also show that the governance and design of research institutions that characterize Anglo-Saxon countries, as well as a few other countries that have similar institutions, is another critical factor for research output. |
| Keywords: | citations; knowledge economics; research performance; university governance |
| JEL: | C25 I23 |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6625&r=edu |
| By: | Galor, Oded; Mountford, Andrew |
| Abstract: | This research argues that the differential effect of international trade on the demand for human capital across countries has been a major determinant of the distribution of income and population across the globe. In developed countries the gains from trade have been directed towards investment in education and growth in income per capita, whereas a significant portion of these gains in less developed economies have been channelled towards population growth. Cross-country regressions establish that indeed trade has positive effects on fertility and negative effects on education in non-OECD economies, while inducing fertility decline and human capital formation in OECD economies. |
| Keywords: | Demographic Transition; Growth; Human Capital; International Trade |
| JEL: | F11 F43 J10 N30 O40 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6678&r=edu |
| By: | Bernardo L. Queiroz (Cedeplar-UFMG); André B. Golgher (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the distribution of more educated and skilled people in Brazilian municipalities and states. Previous evidence shows a high concentration of college educated and high skilled workers in some areas of the country. We investigate whether the increase in the number of high skill workers is faster in municipalities with high initial levels of human capital than in municipalities with lower initial levels. We develop a theoretical model to explain the convergence/divergence of regional skill levels In Brazil. We estimate OLS models based on the theoretical model to explain empirically wage differentials in Brazil. Last, we compute standard segregation and isolation measures to show the trends in the distribution of skilled workers across states and cities in Brazil. We find that educated and qualified workers are concentrated in some areas of the country and recent decades show a higher concentration of them across states and cities. |
| Keywords: | human capital, segregation, regional differences, Brazil |
| JEL: | J21 J24 R23 |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td330&r=edu |