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on Education |
| By: | Lupi, Claudio; Ordine, Patrizia |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the reasons that determine students’ mobility in Italy and tries to explain why in the presence of quality differentials among universities the majority of students choose to remain in their regions of origin. We find that low mobility is related to family income and other financial and background characteristics. Low mobility in turn implies the existence of little competition among universities, and hence little incentive for improvement in either teaching or research. A crucial issue is therefore to evaluate if and how the government may affect this process and improve the supply of higher education quality and the degree of competition among academic institutions. |
| Keywords: | Higher education, University choice, Liquidity constraints |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2008–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mol:ecsdps:esdp08047&r=edu |
| By: | Patrinos, Harry Anthony |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits unique information on cognitive ability to examine the importance of schooling and non-schooling cognitive skills for heterogeneous individuals using instrumental variables estimation. Using a binary instrument based on the 1981 reform in Chile, the authors find that the main beneficiaries of the reform were those who at the time were pupils in basic schooling (ages 6-13). For this treated group of pupils, only a negligible part of the estimated return to schooling is due to classical ability bias. The labor market reward to an additional year of schooling is a measure of the"true"non-cognitive return to schooling. However, once the treated group is expanded to include secondary school students, the pure return to schooling decreases dramatically, while the return to schooling cognitive and non-schooling cognitive skills increases accordingly, suggesting that a large part of the estimated return in an earnings function is due to classical ability bias. For this treated group (mixture of basic school and secondary school age students), the labor market rewarded cognitive skills (especially those acquired through schooling) significantly. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Primary Education,Secondary Education,Teaching and Learning,Access&Equity in Basic Education |
| Date: | 2008–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4617&r=edu |
| By: | Martin Gustafsson (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Alejandro Morduchowicz (International Institute for Educational Planning, Buenos Aires) |
| Abstract: | An existing accounting framework to describe an education system is elaborated and used as a framework for understanding and comparing the resource allocation policies of the South African and Argentinean schooling systems. The comparison highlights how, by paying fewer teachers more (relative to GDP per capita), South Africa is structurally forced to deal with relatively large class sizes. Both countries have attempted to use production function studies to understand ways of improving pupil performance, and in both countries the utilisation of education human resources appears particularly important. The economic case for expanding secondary schooling is perhaps not as strong as the policies, especially those in Argentina, suggest. Whilst rates of return to secondary schooling do not appear to offer concrete policy direction, a cross-country analysis that takes into account a secondary school completion ratio (a statistic calculated for this analysis) suggests that more policy emphasis should go towards improving the quality of secondary schooling. |
| Keywords: | South Africa, Argentina, education policy, education financing, school, education, secondary school, educational quality |
| JEL: | D20 H52 I22 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers65&r=edu |
| By: | Akresh, Richard; de Walque, Damien |
| Abstract: | Civil war, and genocide in particular, are among the most destructive of social phenomena, especially for children of school-going age. In Rwanda school enrollment trends suggest that the school system recovered quickly after 1994, but these numbers do not tell the full story. Two cross-sectional household surveys collected before and after the genocide are used to compare children in the same age group who were and were not exposed to the genocide - and their educational outcomes are substantially different. Children exposed to the genocide experienced a drop in educational achievement of almost one-half year of completed schooling, and are 15 percentage points less likely to complete third or fourth grade. Sustained effort is needed to reinforce educational institutions and offer a"second chance"to those youth most affected by the conflict. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Youth and Governance,Primary Education,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Education For All |
| Date: | 2008–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4606&r=edu |
| By: | Barrera-Osorio, Felipe; Bertrand, Marianne; L. Linden, Leigh; Perez-Calle, Francisco |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an evaluation of multiple variants of a commonly used intervention to boost education in developing countries - the conditional cash transfer - with a student level randomization that allows the authors to generate intra-family and peer-network variation. The analysis tests three treatments: a basic conditional cash transfer treatment based on school attendance, a savings treatment that postpones a bulk of the cash transfer due to good attendance to just before children have to re-enroll, and a tertiary treatment where some of the transfers are conditional on students'graduation and tertiary enrollment rather than attendance. On average, the combined incentives increase attendance, pass rates, enrollment, graduation rates, and matriculation to tertiary institutions. Changing the timing of the payments does not change attendance rates relative to the basic treatment but does significantly increase enrollment rates at both the secondary and tertiary levels. Incentives for graduation and matriculation are particularly effective, increasing attendance and enrollment at secondary and tertiary levels more than the basic treatment. There is some evidence that the subsidies can cause a reallocation of responsibilities within the household. Siblings (particularly sisters) of treated students work more and attend school less than students in families that received no treatment. In addition, indirect peer influences are relatively strong in attendance decisions with the average magnitude similar to that of the direct effect. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Access to Finance,Primary Education,Secondary Education, |
| Date: | 2008–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4580&r=edu |
| By: | Donald Boyd; Pamela Grossman; Hamilton Lankford; Susanna Loeb; James Wyckoff |
| Abstract: | There are fierce debates over the best way to prepare teachers. Some argue that easing entry into teaching is necessary to attract strong candidates, while others argue that investing in high quality teacher preparation is the most promising approach. Most agree, however, that we lack a strong research basis for understanding how to prepare teachers. This paper is one of the first to estimate the effects of features of teachers' preparation on teachers' value-added to student test score performance in math and English Language Arts. Our results indicate variation across preparation programs in the average effectiveness of the teachers they are supplying to New York City schools. In particular, preparation directly linked to practice appears to benefit teachers in their first year. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 J24 J45 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14314&r=edu |
| By: | Abhijit Banerjee; Rukmini Banerji; Esther Duflo; Rachel Glennerster; Stuti Khemani |
| Abstract: | Participation of beneficiaries in the monitoring of public services is increasingly seen as a key to improving their efficiency. In India, the current government flagship program on universal primary education organizes both locally elected leaders and parents of children enrolled in public schools into committees and gives these groups powers over resource allocation, and monitoring and management of school performance. However, in a baseline survey we found that people were not aware of the existence of these committees and their potential for improving education. This paper evaluates three different interventions to encourage beneficiaries' participation through these committees: providing information, training community members in a new testing tool, and training and organizing volunteers to hold remedial reading camps for illiterate children. We find that these interventions had no impact on community involvement in public schools, and no impact on teacher effort or learning outcomes in those schools. However, we do find that the intervention that trained volunteers to teach children to read had a large impact on activity outside public schools -- local youths volunteered to be trained to teach, and children who attended these camps substantially improved their reading skills. These results suggest that citizens face substantial constraints in participating to improve the public education system, even when they care about education and are willing to do something to improve it. |
| JEL: | I21 O12 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14311&r=edu |
| By: | Jordahl, Henrik (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Poutvaara, Panu (University of Helsinki); Tuomala, Juha (Government Institute for Economic Research (VATT)) |
| Abstract: | In a recent paper, García-Mainar and Montuenga-Gómez (2005) apply the generalized IV model of Hausman and Taylor to estimate education returns of wage earners and the self-employed in Portugal and in Spain. Our examination reveals several problems which relate to the validity and documentation of the instrumental variables, as well as the robustness of the results. |
| Keywords: | Education; Entrepreneurship; Human capital; EGIV estimator |
| JEL: | C23 I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–08–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0762&r=edu |
| By: | Cory Koedel (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether educational production in secondary school involves joint production among teachers across subjects. In doing so, it also provides insights into the reliability of value-added modeling. Teacher value- added to reading test scores is estimated for four different teacher types: English, math, science and social studies. While the initial results indicate that reading output is jointly produced by math and English teachers, post-estimation falsification tests debunk the math-teacher effects - that is, there is in fact no evidence of joint production in secondary school. The results offer a mixed review of the value-added methodology, suggesting that it may be useful in some contexts but not others. . |
| Keywords: | value-added, teacher quality, secondary school teachers, educational production |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2008–07–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0808&r=edu |
| By: | Docquier, Frederic; Faye, Ousmane; Pestieau, Pierre |
| Abstract: | Assuming a given educational policy, the recent brain drain literature reveals that skilled migration can boost the average level of schooling in developing countries. This paper introduces educational subsidies determined by governments concerned by the number of skilled workers remaining in the country. The theoretical analysis shows that developing countries can benefit from skilled emigration when educational subsidies entail high .fiscal distortions. However when taxes are not too distortionary, it is desirable to impede emigration and subsidize education. The authors investigate the empirical relationship between educational subsidies and migration prospects, obtaining a negative relationship for 105 countries. Based on this result, the analysis revisits the country specific effects of skilled migration upon human capital. The findings show that the endogeneity of public subsidies reduces the number of winners and increases the magnitude of the losses. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Access to Finance,International Migration,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2008–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4614&r=edu |
| By: | Das, Jishnu; Zajonc, Tristan |
| Abstract: | This paper uses student answers to publicly released questions from an international testing agency together with statistical methods from Item Response Theory to place secondary students from two Indian states -Orissa and Rajasthan -on a worldwide distribution of mathematics achievement. These two states fall below 43 of the 51 countries for which data exist. The bottom 5 percent of children rank higher than the bottom 5 percent in only three countries-South Africa, Ghana and Saudi Arabia. But not all students test poorly. Inequality in the test-score distribution for both states is next only to South Africa in the worldwide ranking exercise. Consequently, and to the extent that these two states can represent India, the two statements"for every ten top performers in the United States there are four in India"and"for every ten low performers in the United States there are two hundred in India"are both consistent with the data. The combination of India's size and large variance in achievement give both the perceptions that India is shining even as Bharat, the vernacular for India, is drowning. Comparable estimates of inequalities in learning are the building blocks for substantive research on the correlates of earnings inequality in India and other low-income countries; the methods proposed here allow for independent testing exercises to build up such data by linking scores to internationally comparable tests. |
| Keywords: | Secondary Education,Educational Sciences,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Tertiary Education |
| Date: | 2008–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4644&r=edu |
| By: | Docquier, Frederic; Lowell, B. Lindsay; Marfouk, Abdeslam |
| Abstract: | This paper updates and extends the Docquier-Marfouk data set on inter-national migration by educational attainment. The authors use new sources, homogenize definitions of what a migrant is, and compute gender-disaggregated 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. The data set can be used to capture the recent trend in women's skilled migration and to analyze its causes and consequences for developing countries. The .findings 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 women's and men's access to education would probably reduce gender differences in the brain drain. |
| Keywords: | Population Policies,Gender and Development,Access to Finance,International Migration,Anthropology |
| Date: | 2008–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4613&r=edu |
| By: | Edmonds, Eric V.; Schady, Norbert |
| Abstract: | Does child labor decrease as household income rises? This question has important implications for the design of policy on child labor. This paper focuses on a program of unconditional cash transfers in Ecuador. It argues that the effect of a small increase in household income on child labor should be concentrated among children most vulnerable to transitioning from schooling to work. The paper finds support for this hypothesis. Cash transfers have small effects on child time allocation at peak school attendance ages and among children already out of school at baseline, but have large impacts at ages and in groups most likely to leave school and start work. Additional income is associated with a decline in paid work that takes place away from the child's home. Declines in work for pay are associated with increases in school enrollment, especially for girls. Increases in schooling are matched by an increase in education expenditures that appears to absorb most of the cash transfer. However, total household expenditures do not increase with the transfer and appear to fall in households most impacted by the transfer because of the decline in child labor. |
| Keywords: | Street Children,Youth and Governance,Gender and Law,Labor Policies,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2008–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4702&r=edu |
| By: | David M. Brasington; Donald R. Haurin |
| Abstract: | Previous research has established that people bid more for houses in high-performing school districts. But what is it about school outcomes that drive house prices: the parents, the peers, or the school inputs? We study the extent that house values are affected by each of the components of an education production function. Based on 123 school districts and 26,000 house transactions, we find the primary component of school outcomes that is capitalized into house prices is the amount of parental inputs. In the explanation of variations in house prices, variations in parental characteristics are eight times more important than similar variations in school inputs, and twelve times more important than variations in peer groups. This result suggests that land values in a particular community will be increased more by attention to zoning laws that influence the mix of renters to homeowners and the type of households entering a community compared to investing in additional public school inputs. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cin:ucecwp:2008-09&r=edu |
| By: | Tanja Kirjavainen |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the views of the staff members of nine upper secondary schools in Finland that were in the upper or lower tails of the efficiency distribution measured with stochastic frontier analysis. Teachers and principals were interviewed on their views about the students, staff relations, school management, curriculum work, parent-school relations, teacher training, and evaluation .In efficient schools, views concerning the students were caring, appreciating all students. Respecting views were also present, with students? own initiative being appreciated. In inefficient schools there was more often frustration or disappointment at the low performance of the students. In efficient schools, staff relations were professional, whereas in some inefficient schools it was characterized as tense. Management and decision making were participative in efficient schools and teachers were happy with their possibilities to influence school matters. In inefficient schools, there were disappointments and frustrated views about the management and possibilities to have an influence. Curriculum work was seen as way to develop the school and the work in efficient schools. In inefficient schools, it was considered as an administrative measure. |
| Keywords: | Efficiency, upper secondary schools, school management, staff relations, stochastic frontier analysis |
| Date: | 2008–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:450&r=edu |
| By: | Gregory Lilly (Department of Economics, Elon University); Thomas Tiemann (Department of Economics, Elon University) |
| Abstract: | Seventeen years ago, a blue-ribbon committee of economists asserted that the “ideal” program for an economics major should include “a capstone experience, whereby students apply their knowledge and skills in creative and systematic ways through research and writing.” (Seigfried, Bartlett, Hansen, Kelley, McCloskey, and Tietenberg (1991)) Yet we are not aware of a data-driven assessment of an implemented senior capstone experience in the economics education literature. We have been experimenting with a senior capstone experience – based on research and writing – for more than a decade. In this paper we describe the history of our senior capstone experience, and provide a data-driven assessment of student performance in this experience. Our primary objective for this senior capstone has been to create a system that will result in all of our majors writing a competent senior thesis. In other words, we want to attain universal competence in a complex skill. This simple objective has, however, been very difficult to achieve. We will argue that undesired variation in student motivation has been our primary obstacle in attaining universal competence. |
| JEL: | A22 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:elo:wpaper:2008-06&r=edu |
| By: | Cory Koedel (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Julian Betts |
| Abstract: | Value-added measures of teacher quality may be sensitive to the quantitative properties of the testing instruments upon which they are based. This paper focuses on the sensitivity of value-added to a particularly relevant testing-instrument property test-score-ceiling effects. Test-score ceilings are likely to be increasingly common in testing instruments across the country as education policy continues to emphasize proficiency-based reform. Encouragingly, we show that over a wide range of test-score- ceiling severity, teachers value-added estimates are only negligibly influenced by ceiling effects. However, as ceiling conditions approach those found in minimum-competency testing environments, value-added results are significantly altered. |
| Keywords: | Value Added, Test Score Ceiling, Ceiling Effects, Teacher Quality, Teacher Value Added |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0807&r=edu |
| By: | Daniel L. Millimet; Rusty Tchernis; Muna Husain |
| Abstract: | In light of the recent rise in childhood obesity, the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP) have received renewed attention. Using panel data on over 13,500 primary school students, we assess the relationship between SBP and NSLP participation and (relatively) long-run measures of child weight. After documenting a positive association between SBP participation and child weight, and no association between NSLP participation and child weight, we present evidence indicating positive selection into the SBP. Allowing for even modest positive selection is sufficient to alter the results, indicating that the SBP is a valuable tool in the current battle against childhood obesity, whereas the NSLP exacerbates the current epidemic. |
| JEL: | C13 H51 I18 I28 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14297&r=edu |
| By: | Ahmed Tritah |
| Abstract: | This paper uses the 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2006 U.S. micro censuses data to document the magnitude and nature of European human capital outflow to the United States. I found that while emigration is about a small number of individuals, the share of Europeans who are leaving is increasing as one moves along the educational distribution and ladder of occupations that matter the most in the knowledge economy. Next, using productivity based brain drain indices it is found that aggregate human capital conveyed by emigrants has increased since the 1990s. Finally, as a better understanding on the nature of human capital embodied in European emigrants, I show that the Europeans earn a positive wage premium relative to the US natives. Moreover, this premium is higher for the most recent expatriates cohorts, providing further evidence that the quality of European emigrants has increased. |
| Keywords: | Emigration; brain-drain; human capital; knowledge economy; Europe-US |
| JEL: | F22 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2008-08&r=edu |
| By: | Tarmo Räty; Bondas; Micke |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a publication activity model that calculates a research aggregate for the study fields of Finnish universities. The aggregate is expressed in terms of full-time equivalent research years conditional to the actual number of publications in each publication category. The key problem of the model is estimating the effort coefficients for each field and category. We use a nonparametric estimator that combines information from the KOTA dataset on FTE research years, the number of publications, and responses to our questionnaire on research effort, which was targeted to all researchers in all Finnish universities. Given our results, it appears that a reliable quantitative valuation of research work cannot be based on international journal articles alone or on any common subset of categories for all the fields. Some of the fields are rather concentrated, with only one or two publication categories, but in the fields of the humanities and social sciences all the categories count. In the fields of law and education, the humanities, theology and social sciences, national categories are also important. The resulting research aggregate is useful as a measure of research output in total productivity calculations. |
| Keywords: | Publication activity, Research effort, Publication categories, Universities |
| Date: | 2008–09–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fer:dpaper:448&r=edu |
| By: | Fox, Louise; Oviedo, Ana Maria |
| Abstract: | Using recent matched employer-employee data from the manufacturing sector in 20 Sub-Saharan African countries, the authors analyze how the supply of skills and legal origin of the country affect the wage setting process. The wage analysis yields three main findings. First, increasing returns to education, especially for older workers, suggest that the expansion of education in Africa has reduced returns to education for entrants in the labor market. Second, age effects matter not just for returns to education, but also for the wage setting process more generally. In particular, in civil-law countries, returns to seniority are rewarded only after a certain age. Third, workers exercise some power in the wage setting process but their influence varies by linguistic group. In common-law countries, union presence benefits all workers equally, not just members, whereas in civil-law countries, only older members enjoy higher wages. The authors also contrast wage premia with relative marginal productivities for different age, occupation, and education categories. The findings show that in general, older, highly educated, and highly ranked workers receive wage premia that do not reflect a higher relative marginal productivity. |
| Keywords: | Labor Markets,,Labor Policies,Access&Equity in Basic Education,Banks&Banking Reform |
| Date: | 2008–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4688&r=edu |
| By: | Mishra, SK |
| Abstract: | The IDEAS publishes every month the rankings of economists (and departments of economics including research institutions working in the related areas) in different countries. These rankings are based on a large number of measures. It is observed that economists of some countries participate more vigorously in academic and professional activities. This paper investigates into the factors responsible for variations in participation of economists of different countries in academic and professional activities reflected in their intellectual output. |
| Keywords: | Economist; participation; rankings; IDEAS; RePEc; intellectual output; human development; less developed countries; journal articles; working papers; SSRN |
| JEL: | A11 A14 |
| Date: | 2008–09–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10338&r=edu |
| By: | Ferreira, Francisco H. G.; Schady, Norbert |
| Abstract: | Do aggregate economic shocks, such as those caused by macroeconomic crises or droughts, reduce child human capital? The answer to this question has important implications for public policy. If shocks reduce investments in children, they may transmit poverty from one generation to the next. This paper uses a simple framework to analyze the effects of aggregate economic shocks on child schooling and health. It shows that the expected effects are ambiguous, because of a tension between income and substitution effects. The paper then reviews the recent empirical literature on the subject. In richer countries, like the United States, child health and education outcomes are counter-cyclical: they improve during recessions. In poorer countries, mostly in Africa and low-income Asia, the outcomes are pro-cyclical: infant mortality rises, and school enrollment and nutrition fall during recessions. In the middle-income countries of Latin America, the picture is more nuanced: health outcomes are generally pro-cyclical, and education outcomes counter-cyclical. Each of these findings is consistent with the simple conceptual framework. The paper discusses possible implications for expenditure allocation. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Health Systems Development&Reform,Labor Policies |
| Date: | 2008–08–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4701&r=edu |
| By: | Woźny, Łukasz; Growiec, Jakub |
| Abstract: | We analyze an economy populated by a sequence of generations who decide over their consumption levels and the levels of investment in human capital of their immediate descendants. The objective of the paper is to identify the impact of strategic interactions between consecutive generations on the time path of human capital accumulation. To this end, we characterize the Markov perfect equilibrium (MPE) in such an economy and derive the sufficient conditions for its existence and uniqueness. The equilibrium path is computed using a novel constructive approach: extending Reffett and Woźny (2008), we put forward an iterative procedure which converges to the MPE as its limit. To benchmark our results, we also calculate the optimal human capital accumulation paths for (i) a Ramsey-type model with dynastic optimization, and (ii) a model with joy-of-giving altruism. We prove analytically that human capital accumulation is unambiguously lower in the "strategic" model than in the Ramsey-type dynastic model. We complement our results with a series of numerical exercises. |
| Keywords: | human capital; intergenerational interactions; Markov perfect equilibrium; stochastic transition; constructive approach |
| JEL: | I20 J22 C73 |
| Date: | 2008–07–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:10308&r=edu |