|
on Education |
| By: | László Limbacher |
| Abstract: | Hungary’s Belvárosi Tanoda Secondary School offers an informal, flexible environment and alternative teaching methods for students who have had problems in other schools. The Belvárosi Tanoda (which translates as downtown school) is a second chance school for students who have dropped out of upper secondary education. It has been providing alternative education for 16- to 25-year-olds since 1990. While most Hungarian schools are run by their local government, Belvárosi Tanoda is maintained by a private foundation, with the state covering about half of its operating costs. The school charges no tuition fees since most of its students are in financial need. |
| Keywords: | Hungary, secondary schools, school building design, learning environment, educational buildings, school infrastructure |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/13-en&r=edu |
| By: | Geraint Johnes |
| Abstract: | This study uses LSMS microdata to evaluate the impact of early years education on subsequent educational participation in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in Northern India. It is established that, alongside a number of economic and demographic variables, pre-school education has a significantly positive impact on subsequent experience. The result is robust to correction for endogeneity bias and clustering of observations. |
| Keywords: | education, development |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:005763&r=edu |
| By: | Torge Middendorf |
| Abstract: | We use the European Community Household Panel, a harmonized data set covering the countries of the European Union, to provide detailed estimates of the returns to education. Our results can be summarized as follows. Firstly, average returns to education have been mostly stable during the second half of the 1990s and are highest in Portugal and Ireland and lowest in the UK and Italy. Secondly, returns to schooling are significantly negatively related to the educational attainment of the population. Thirdly, for most countries we find significant cohort effects and these are in general uniform across countries implying lower returns to education for younger cohorts. Fourthly, in most countries schooling exerts a significantly stronger impact on wages at the top of the wage distribution, aggravating within-group inequality. Finally, we provide evidence that the more pronounced the difference in returns to education along the wage distribution, the higher the average return to education. |
| Keywords: | Returns to schooling, cohort effects, quantile regression |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0065&r=edu |
| By: | Henno Theisens; Francisco Benavides; Hanna Dumont |
| Abstract: | Designing school buildings to respond to change is not a new idea. But perhaps what is different today is the kind and degree of change which we have to anticipate. The OECD is carrying out projects that can help in the planning and design of future educational facilities – exploring trends in education and studying innovative learning environments. Education planners have long grappled with the type of change connected with demography, for example changing local patterns in the number of school places needed over a period of time. But new challenges lie in the complexity and uncertainty which are characteristic of the 21st century world. The findings of the OECD’s project “Schooling for Tomorrow: Trends Shaping Education” show some sources of this uncertainty, including falling birth rates, increasing economic globalisation and growing numbers of single parent families. Such issues suggest that policy makers and education providers alike need to address questions about what education is and how it should be delivered. Another OECD project, a study of innovative learning environments, is looking at how schools can respond to changes in the type of teaching and learning that make individuals lifelong learners. Developing individuals as self-directed learners, who are able to acquire expert knowledge in different fields and to change careers, benefits the economy and society generally. Research into learning shows both the importance of allowing students to take control of their own learning and that learning must be a social, cultural, intrapersonal and an active process. Research also demonstrates that an understanding of complex subjects can be best achieved in settings where the learner is engaged with others in the community, in activities where knowledge is being applied. The learning environments that support this must be fundamentally different from what has gone before, with less emphasis on teachers addressing a group of students in a traditional classroom setting. However, just how the physical environment must respond is a complicated issue. To meet the needs of 21st century learning, the physical environment will have to be agile so that it is capable of providing a mixed range of learning settings from large group spaces to smaller, more individual tutorial type spaces. However, the interaction between a building’s users and the physical infrastructure is complex. The physical environment is always a constraint, but a key question might be to what extent does it offer the teachers the freedom and empowerment to do with it what they want. The different learning settings may be facilitated by clever use of furniture which can be easily rearranged in a variety of ways thus providing a range of spaces within spaces. These are all issues that future work of the Programme on Educational Building will explore further, building on the current OECD work on innovative learning environments. |
| Keywords: | innovation, technology and innovation, school building design, educational buildings, educational architecture |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/11-en&r=edu |
| By: | Gerda R. Neyer (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Jan M. Hoem (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | In this research note we extend our previous study of the association between educational attainment and permanent childlessness in Sweden (Hoem et al., 2006) to cover Austria, and we make comparisons between the two countries. In both investigations we have defined educational attainment in terms of both educational level and educational field. We find largely the same pattern of childlessness by educational field in both countries; in particular at each educational level women educated for teaching jobs or for health occupations typically have lower childlessness than other lines of education. However, for most groups childlessness is higher in Austria, and for academic educations it is much higher. We attribute these differences to institutional differences in the two countries which may bring about a different culture of reproductive behavior. |
| Keywords: | Austria, education, fertility |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2008-007&r=edu |
| By: | Emmanuel Cercek |
| Abstract: | Šoštanj Primary School offers a learning process which can enrich traditional forms of schooling. It demonstrates how a school, including its infrastructure, can influence family life and the environment, creating new social patterns and a local identity. Pupils and teachers are involved in different thematic projects and programmes, together with parents and the wider community. Slovenia’s primary schools At the beginning of the 2005/06 school year, the number of primary schools in Slovenia reached almost 800 (242 independent, 205 government-run and 350 subsidiary schools). Financing for public preschool and primary school infrastructure is shared between local communities (municipalities) and the Ministry of Education and Sport, with government funding ranging from 10 to 70%. Local communities own both the buildings and equipment. |
| Keywords: | sustainable development, community, Slovenia, learning environment, school infrastructure, primary school |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/14-en&r=edu |
| By: | Caroline Elliott; Kwok Tong Soo |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the determinants of the choice of UK universities by overseas undergraduate applicants. We use data on overseas applicants in Business Studies and Engineering from 2002 to 2007, to 97 UK universities. Estimating using a Hausman-Taylor model to control for the possible correlation between our explanatory variables and unobservable university level effects, we find that the fees charged may influence the application decision of some students, but that any relationship between levels of fees and applications is nonlinear. The quality of education provided is positively and significantly related to the number of applications. Proximity to London and the existing popularity of a university among home applicants, are also significant predictors of university applications. |
| Keywords: | UK universities; demand estimation; overseas students |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:005738&r=edu |
| By: | Bénédicte Gendron (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, LIRDEF - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire de recherche en didactique et formation - IUFM de Montpellier) |
| Abstract: | The creation of the vocational baccalauréat track in 1985 contributed to a main innovation in the French initial secondary education system. In its objective and in its innovative way of learning combining sandwich courses (work and school places learning), this program offer students who were at school in a failure situation a path for continuing their studies or a springboard to jump into a new career or professional plan. This diploma has been implemented in different ways: through student status or in apprenticeships, and through the responsibility of the Ministry of Education in vocational high schools but also, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture like in the Maisons Familiales Rurales (MFR). First, this paper will present the institutional framework: what is the Vocational Baccalauréat (VETBac) diploma, its roles and purposes? And as the national French system of education from the Ministry of education has been the subjects of number of articles in European VET reviews (Gendron, 2005), it will be presented more in details the MFR system less known and its philosophy. The second part, briefly developed here, will give some views of the convergence and divergence of the conditions of competence development of vocational baccalauréat trainees or students with a workplace learning focus in those two previous organizations. |
| Keywords: | Key words : vocational education and training, competencies development, apprenticeship, workplace learning. |
| Date: | 2008–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:paris1:halshs-00264800_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Christoph Bühler (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Dirk Konietzka (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Russia. It compares the process of entering working life during socialism (1966-1990) and the transition period (1991-2005) by utilizing information from 6,455 males and females of the "Education and Employment Survey for Russia". The results document influences both of change and of continuity. The introduction of labor markets and a mismatch between qualifications acquired at school and demanded by employers led to increasing risks of unemployment after education and first jobs at the lower levels of the occupational hierarchy. However, as the general character of the educational system and the internal structures of many firms did not change, traditional paths of mobility from educational degrees to particular occupational positions continued to exist. Thus, the transition from school-to-work in Russia did not experience an abrupt change but a gradual adjustment to the new economic order. |
| Keywords: | Russia, early aduldhood, educational systems, employment, occupational qualifications, transitional society, unemployment |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2008-018&r=edu |
| By: | Fabio Mariani (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at explaining why countries with comparable levels of education still experience notable differences in terms of R&D and innovation. High-skilled migration, ultimately linked to differences in R&D costs, might be responsible for the persistence of such a gap. In fact, in a model where human capital accumulation and innovation are strategic complements, we show that allowing labor outflows may strengthen educational incentives in the lagging economy if migration is probabilistic in nature, but at the same time reduces the share of innovative production. Income (growth) might be consequently affected, and a positive migration chance is very unlikely to act as a substitute for educational subsidies. |
| Keywords: | Innovation; Education; Brain drain. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:paris1:halshs-00308746_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Guillaume Destré (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I); Louis Lévy-Garboua (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Michel Sollogoub (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | A model of informal training which combines learning from own experience and learning from others is proposed in this paper. It yields a closed-form solution that revises Mincer–Jovanovic's [Mincer, J., Jovanovic, B., 1981. Labor mobility and wages. In: Rosen, S. (Ed.), Studies in Labor Markets. Chicago University Press, Chicago, pp. 21–64] treatment of tenure in the human capital earnings function. We estimate the structural parameters of this non-linear model on a large French cross-section with matched employer–employee data. We find that workers on average can learn from others 10% of their own human capital on entering one plant, and catch half of their learning from others’ potential in just 2 years. The private marginal returns to education are declining with education as more educated workers have less to learn from others and share the social returns of their own education with their less qualified co-workers. The potential for learning from others on the job varies across jobs and establishments, and this provides a new distinction between imitation jobs and experience jobs. Workers in imitation jobs, who learn most from others, tend to have considerably longer tenure than workers in experience jobs. Although workers in experience jobs can learn little from others, we find that they learn a lot by themselves. We document several analogies between the imitation jobs/experience jobs “dualism” and the primary/secondary jobs and firms’ dualism implied by the dual labor market theory. However, our binary classification of jobs depicts the data more closely than the dual theory categorization into primary-type and secondary-type establishments. Competition prevails between jobs and firms but jobs differ by their learning technology. |
| Keywords: | Human capital earnings functions; Matched employer–employee data; Informal training; Learning from others; Learning from experience; Returns to tenure; Social returns of education; Labor market dualism |
| Date: | 2008–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:paris1:halshs-00304283_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Mieke Meurs; Juna Miluka; Thomas Hertz |
| Abstract: | In some post-socialist countries, the post-socialist economic downturn had a negative impact on human development indicators. Education is one area of concern. In this paper, we examine secondary schooling dynamics in Albania, where enrollment declines have occurred. Drawing on the existing literature on household investment in schooling, we examine factors underlying the recent changes. We find that, as in other counties, parental education has a significant impact on the choice to attend secondary school. But we also find that factors specifically related to transition, including household economic resources, local employment prospects, opportunity costs of children’s time, and access to school are significant predictors of schooling decisions in Albania. These findings suggest a number of areas where policy interventions may positively affect long-term outcomes. |
| JEL: | P36 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:1308&r=edu |
| By: | Woessmann, Ludger; Becker, Sascha O. |
| Abstract: | Martin Luther urged each town to have a girls' school so that girls would learn to read the Gospel, evoking a surge of building girls' schools in Protestant areas. Using county- and town-level data from the first Prussian census of 1816, we show that a larger share of Protestants decreased the gender gap in basic education. This result holds when using only the exogenous variation in Protestantism due to a county's or town's distance to Wittenberg, the birthplace of the Reformation. Similar results are found for the gender gap in literacy among the adult population in 1871. |
| Keywords: | Protestantism; education; gender gap |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2008-20&r=edu |
| By: | Johansson, Elly-Ann (Department of Economics, Uppsala University); Lindahl, Erica (Department of Economics, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Mixed-aged classes (MA-classes) are a common phenomenon around the world. In Sweden, these types of classes increased rapidly during the 1980:s and 1990:s. But the scientific evidence of the benefits of MA-classes is not convincing. In this paper, we estimate the effect of attending an MA-class during grades 4–6 on students’ cognitive skills. Using a unique survey with information on students, parents and teachers, we are able to control for many factors that could otherwise bias the results. We find a negative effect on the short-run cognitive skills, as measured by grade 6 cognitive tests. |
| Keywords: | Education; mixed-age classes; multi-grade classes |
| JEL: | I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2008–10–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2008_021&r=edu |
| By: | John Willoughby |
| Date: | 2008–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:amu:wpaper:0108&r=edu |
| By: | Karine Marazyan (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at explaining differences in education among foster-children and between foster and biological children in developing countries. Foster-children whose biological parents are alive may provide old-age support for both their host and biological parents. Therefore foster-children have lower returns to education than biological children and should receive less human capital investment in household where both types of children live together. However, in households where foster-children are alone, host parents will over-invest in their education to ensure that the expected old-age support will equal a minimum amount to survive. Using data from Indonesia, we provide some evidence supporting our hypothesis. |
| Keywords: | Household structure, child fostering, sibling rivalry. |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:paris1:halshs-00293074_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Osipian, Ararat |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that corruption is used on a systematic basis as a mechanism of direct and indirect administrative control from the state level down to local authorities and administrations of public and private institutions. Informal approval of corrupt activities in exchange for loyalty and compliance with the regime is commonplace in many countries. This paper explains how corrupt regimes maximize their position in terms of loyalty and compliance by using the example of the 2004 presidential elections in Ukraine. It presents mechanisms by which political bureaucracies politicize universities in order to influence students and channel their electoral power during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. |
| Keywords: | corruption; elections; politicization; students; university; Ukraine |
| JEL: | P36 P37 I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2008–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11312&r=edu |
| By: | Devereux, Paul J.; Hart, Robert A. |
| Abstract: | 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. Given that the first order source of bias in OLS is likely to be upward as more able individuals tend to obtain more education, such high estimates are usually rationalized as reflecting the fact 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 (so the LATE approximates the ATE) have also found very high IV returns to schooling (about 15%), suggesting that the ATE of schooling is greater than OLS estimates would suggest. This constitutes a puzzle: How can the OLS return to schooling be a significantly downward biased estimate of the ATE when the primary source of OLS bias should be upward? We utilize a source of earnings data, the New Earnings Survey Panel Data-set (NESPD), that is superior to the datasets previously used and conclude that there is no such puzzle: the IV estimates are small and much lower than OLS. In fact, there is no evidence of any return for women and the return for men is in the 4-7% range. We do, however, find that men benefit from greater schooling through a reduction in earnings variability. |
| Keywords: | Regression discontinuity design; British 1947 compulsory schooling law change; Returns to schooling |
| Date: | 2008–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2008-02&r=edu |
| By: | Abbi M. Kedir |
| Abstract: | Using panel data from a developing country on individuals aged 16 to 59 who reported their monthly wages, we estimated a relationship between health (nutrition) measures (i.e. height and BMI) and wages (which proxies productivity/growth). We controlled for endogeneity of BMI and found heterogeneous returns to different human capital indicators. Our findings indicate that productivity is positively and significantly affected by education, height and BMI. The return to BMI is important both at the lower and upper end of the wage distribution for men while women at the upper end of the distribution suffer a wage penalty due to BMI. Height has been a significant factor affecting men’s productivity but not women. The results in general support the high-nutrition and high- productivity equilibrium story. Returns to schooling showed a declining trend as we move from lower to higher quantiles for both sub-samples. This might suggest that schooling is more beneficial for the less able. In addition, the returns to schooling of women are higher than men. The results have important implications for policy making in the form of nutrition interventions and targeted education on women. |
| Keywords: | height; BMI; schooling; heterogeneity; endogeneity; quantile; IV |
| JEL: | C23 I12 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:08/37&r=edu |
| By: | Justine Coulidiati-Kiëlem (GED, Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV) |
| Abstract: | Cette étude a pour but d'identifier les caractéristiques des régions stables dans la performance mesurée par la réussite au BEPC, et tenant compte des ressources qui leur ont été allouées pour leur fonctionnement. La stabilité dans le temps de la performance des établissements est abordée en considérant les scores obtenus au BEPC sur un certain nombre d'années. Les résultats saillants montrent que pour les quatre années au collège, le redoublement en 6ème, en 5ème et, dans une moindre mesure, en 4ème ont un effet négatif et significatif sur la réussite au BEPC. Par contre, le redoublement en 3ème est positivement corrélé au succès au BEPC, ce qui laisse penser qu’à ce niveau d’étude le redoublement permet un renforcement des connaissances attendues. A cet égard, il est alors important de repérer les mesures des attitudes scolaires qui permettent de relever le niveau des redoublants de la 3ème. Les professeurs titulaires du CAP-CEG et ceux dont le statut est "Autres" ont des contributions positives et significatives pour la variable dépendante. La proportion de filles, particulièrement celles titulaires d’une allocation de bourse, a un effet négatif sur la réussite scolaire incitant à une recherche plus poussée sur la mixité et les modes efficaces d’appui aux filles et, d’une façon générale, aux élèves issus de milieux défavorisés. This study aims to identify the characteristics of stable regions in performance measured by success in BEPC, and taking into account the resources allocated to them for their operation. The stability in time of the performance of schools is addressed by considering the BEPC scores on a number of years. Highlights results show that for four years in college, repetition at the 6th in the 5th and to a lesser extent in the 4th have a significant and negative effect on the success BEPC. But the repetition in the 3rd is positively correlated with success at BEPC, which suggests that this level of study repetition allows a strengthening of knowledge expected. In this regard, it is important to identify the measures of attitudes school to raise the level of repeaters of the 3rd. The professors of CAP-CEG and those whose status is “Other” have positive and significant contributions to the dependent variable. The proportion of girls, particularly those holding a scholarship grant, has a negative effect on academic achievement incentives for more research on the mixed modes and effective support to girls and, in general, the students from disadvantaged backgrounds.(Full text in french) |
| JEL: | I20 I21 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mon:ceddtr:146&r=edu |
| By: | Malcolm Summers |
| Abstract: | In presenting this case study of an innovative school building in Scotland, the author describes its unique design features, conveys the viewpoints of the users, client and design team, and reveals the lessons learned. Dalry Primary, North Ayrshire Introduction Dalry Primary School in North Ayshire is the latest case study featured on the Scottish Government’s website. By April 2009, the website will provide 32 case studies of recently completed nursery, primary and secondary school buildings in Scotland. The purpose is to highlight good practice and demonstrate different approaches to school design issues to help inform local authorities and others involved in the planning, briefing and design of school estate projects. Dalry Primary is a unique project involving the close collaboration of artists, architects and the county’s council in designing and realising a new concept in primary school building. The whole school is designed as a learning prototype, offering multiple opportunities to engage with different organisational and teaching methods, utilising or modifying the facilities and spaces. It does not impose directions or solutions, but offers them as options. |
| Keywords: | United Kingdom, school building design, learning environment, educational buildings, school architecture |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaa:2008/15-en&r=edu |
| By: | Francesco Pastore (Seconda Università di Napoli, Italy) |
| Abstract: | Relatively little is known about the youth labour market in Mongolia. This report addresses the issue by taking advantage of a recent ad hoc School To Work Survey (SWTS) on young people aged 15-29 years carried out in 2006 by the National Statistical Office of Mongolia (NSO) with the International Labour Office’s (ILO) financial and technical assistance. Chapter 1 studies the macroeconomic conditions of the country: economic transition from a planned to a market economy has caused the emergence of unprecedented problems, such as macroeconomic instability, the emergence of the private sector and the ensuing need for new and higher skills. Chapter 2 focuses on the youth labour market by looking at the determinants at an individual and family level of educational attainment, employment, unemployment and inactivity. Educational attainment is relatively high and increasing, as compared to other countries in the area, which mirrors the perceived need for new and higher skills, confirmed by the declared aspirations of young people. Nonetheless, important constraints seem to affect the supply of education, especially in rural areas. In addition, the country is unable to provide young people with a sufficient number of decent jobs. This translates into high youth unemployment in urban areas and very low productivity jobs in rural areas, especially in the livestock sector. Chapter 3 applies the ILO school-to-work classification disentangling young people: a) with completed transition; b) “in transition”; and c) whose transition has not yet started. Only 0.9 per cent of the sample has completed their transition into decent jobs. The “in transition” group has about three times the unemployment rate, due to the very high portion of young workers wishing to change their job or experiencing important work deficits. Four types of work deficit have been identified: a) about 60 per cent of young employed workers work informally; b) about 74 per cent have a fixed-term contract; c) 12 per cent do not pay income tax; and, d) about 40 per cent work more than 50 hours per week. Chapter 4 studies the size and composition of the demand for skills. It is based on answers to the specific employers and managers’ module of the Mongolian SWTS. The evidence confirms firms’ needs for higher skills and work experience than those actually possessed by young people. There also seems to be a mismatch between job search methods preferred by employers and by young people. This report concludes with a number of policy suggestions for policy-makers and practitioners at all levels, such as: a) the need to increase the quantity and quality of the supply of skills, especially in rural areas; b) a more active role of the Public Employment Service (PES) in providing information, counselling and training not only to the unemployed, but also the discouraged workers and jobseekers who are still at school; c) a closer integration between the educational system, governmental institutions at all levels and social partners to reduce imperfect and asymmetric information on job vacancies, as well as to increase and diversify the supply of on-the-job and off-the-job training for young people. |
| Keywords: | Economic Transition; School-To-Work Transitions; Youth Labour Supply and Demand; Earnings; Gender Pay Gap; Urban/Rural Divide; Mongolia |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ilo:emwpap:2008-14&r=edu |
| By: | Benjamin Balsmeier; Heiko Peters |
| Abstract: | It is becoming more and more important to be highly skilled in order to integrate successfully into the labor market. Highly skilled workers receive higher wages and face a lower risk of becoming unemployed, compared to poorly qualified workers. We analyze the determinants of successful high school graduation in Germany. As our main database, we use the youth file of GSOEP for the period extending from 2000 to 2007. Because the decision as to which secondary school track to attend - general school (Hauptschule), intermediate school (Realschule) or high school (Gymnasium) - is made after the end of elementary school (Grundschule) at age of ten, parents are responsible for this decision. Therefore, the characteristics of the child as well as those of its parents are the main determinants of educational attainment. We also include the characteristics of grandparents in our regression framework, something which has not been done in any previous study so far. In order to disentangle the determinants of successful graduation at high school, we use the Cox proportional hazard model. We find markedly different determinants of successful graduation for males and females. Furthermore, the results indicate a strong linkage between mothers and daughters, as well as between fathers and sons. |
| Keywords: | high school graduation, Cox proportional hazard model, Germany |
| JEL: | A21 C41 I21 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp138&r=edu |
| By: | Dario Maldonado |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a hybrid human capital / signaling model to study grading standards in schools when tuition fees are allowed. The paper analyzes the grading standard set by a profit maximizing school and compares it with the efficient one. The paper also studies grading standards when tuition fees have limits. When fees are regulated a profit maximizing school will set lower grading standards than when they are not regulated. Credit constraints of families also induce schools to lower their standards. Given that in the model presented competition is not feasible, these results show the importance of regulation of grading standards. |
| Date: | 2008–10–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000092:005106&r=edu |
| By: | Christian Dreger; Georg Erber; Daniela Glocker |
| Abstract: | The accumulation of the human capital stock plays a key role to explain the macroeconomic performance across regions. However, despite the strong theoretical support for this claim, empirical evidence has been not very convincing, probably because of the low quality of the data. This paper provides a robustness analysis of alternative measures of human capital available at the level of EU NUTS1 and NUTS2 regions. In addition to the univariate measures, composite indicators based on different construction principles are proposed. The analysis shows a significant impact of construction techniques on the quality of indicators. While composite indicators and labour income measures point to the same direction of impact, their correlation is not overwhelmingly high. Moreover, popular indicators should be applied with caution. Although schooling and human resources in science and technology explain some part of the regional human capital stock, they cannot explain the bulk of the experience. |
| Keywords: | Human capital indicators, SOEP, regional growth |
| JEL: | I20 O30 O40 O52 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp137&r=edu |
| By: | Libertad González; Francesc Ortega |
| 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. |
| Date: | 2008–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdacee:06-08&r=edu |
| By: | Mehar, Ayub |
| Abstract: | The main objective of this study is to compare Muslim countries with the rest of world in terms of the effectiveness and efficiency of the factors of competitiveness. Another objective of this paper is to determine the factors of competitiveness of the nations. The study has also assessed the impacts of improvement in political and corporate governances of the institutions, technological advancement and higher education on the business competitiveness. The World Competitiveness Index constructed by the World Economic Forum and World Banks statistics on aggregate savings and investment were used to estimate the regression parameters. It was hypothesized that Muslim world is significantly different from the rest of world in terms of the effectiveness and efficiency of the factors of competitiveness. The role of innovations and knowledge creating activities in determining of business competitiveness was not found statistically significant in Muslim world; it was highly significant in case of the rest of world. It was concluded that investment and technology readiness affects the competitiveness in Muslim countries in different ways. It was recommended that Muslim countries should improve their governance of the corporate and political institutions and the higher education to achieve the efficiency and higher targets of competitiveness. |
| Keywords: | Competitiveness; Innovations; Higher Education; Efficiency; Governance |
| JEL: | F59 O16 I23 O31 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:11283&r=edu |
| By: | Ernest Miguélez (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Rosina Moreno (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona); Manuel Artís (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we seek to verify the hypothesis that trust and cooperation between individuals, and between them and public institutions, can encourage technological innovation and the adoption of knowledge. Additionally, we test the extent to which the interaction of social capital with human capital and R&D expenditures improve their effect on a region’s ability to innovate. Our empirical evidence is taken from the Spanish regions and employs a knowledge production function and longitudinal count data models. Our results suggest that social capital correlates positively with innovation. Further, our analysis reveals a powerful interaction between human and social capital in the production of knowledge, whilst the complementarity with R&D efforts would seem less clear. |
| Keywords: | social capital, human capital, innovation, complementarities. |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:200813&r=edu |