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on Education |
| By: | Ferrer, Ana M.; Menendez, Alicia |
| Abstract: | We investigate the returns to postsecondary education relaxing the standard assumption that it proceeds in a continuous manner. Using a unique survey that collects information on a representative cohort of graduates, we are able to estimate the effects of delaying school among successful graduates abstracting from specific macroeconomic conditions at the time of graduation. Our results show that graduates that delayed their education receive a premium relative to graduates that did not, even after considering other factors such as experience or labour market connections. These estimates are robust to the possibility of selection in the decision to return to school. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Postsecondary Education, Flexible School Choice, School Delay |
| JEL: | J24 I2 |
| Date: | 2009–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-26&r=edu |
| By: | Makiko Takahashi; René Carraz |
| Abstract: | In April 2004, the Japanese government incorporated the national universities as “independent administrative entities”. This important change in Japan’s research culture has allowed its universities to gain higher control and oversight over their strategic development trajectories. In this paper, we will present an analysis centered on the legislative changes concerning intellectual property and their impact on Japanese universities. We will particularly focus our attention on a leading Japanese research institution: Tohoku University. We will analyze the different mechanisms that have been put in place to foster the use of patents by faculty members. In that respect, we introduce a differentiation between university-owned and university-invented patents, and put emphasis on the difference in patenting behaviors among scientific disciplines. Finally, we argue that contractual research is a major channel for the technology transfer of Japanese universities’ knowledge and findings. |
| Keywords: | science policy, academic research, academic patenting, Japan. |
| JEL: | O31 O53 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2009-07&r=edu |
| By: | Banerjee, Rupa; Verma, Anil |
| Abstract: | This study investigates post-migration educational investment among newly arrived immigrants and examines the effect of post-migration education on new immigrants’ labour market integration, as measured by earnings and occupational status. The results indicate that younger immigrants who are already well educated, fluent in English or French and worked in a professional or managerial occupation prior to migration are most likely to enroll in Canadian education. But, acceptance of previous work experience by Canadian employers lowers the likelihood of enrolling in further education. Financial capital was not found to affect participation in post-migration education. Those immigrants who did enroll in post-migration education enjoyed an earnings advantage and were more likely to work in a professional or managerial job. The effect of post-migration education was greater for immigrants whose previous work experience was not accepted in Canada. |
| Keywords: | Immigrant Workers, Education, Wages |
| JEL: | J61 J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-20&r=edu |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S. (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | How do teacher incentives affect student achievement? We contribute to this question by examining the effects of the recent introduction of teacher performance-related pay and tournaments in Portugal's public schools. Specifically, we draw on matched student-school panel data covering the population of secondary school national exams over seven years. We then conduct a difference-in-differences analysis based on two complementary control groups: public schools in two autonomous regions that were exposed to lighter versions of the reform than in the rest of the country; and private schools, which are also subject to the same national exams but whose teachers were not affected by the reform. Our results consistently indicate that the increased focus on individual teacher performance caused a significant decline in student achievement, particularly in terms of national exams. The triple-difference results also document a significant increase in grade inflation. |
| Keywords: | performance-related pay, public sector, matched school-student data |
| JEL: | I21 M52 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4051&r=edu |
| By: | Antti-Jussi Tahvanainen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : Finnish university technology transfer is currently caught in the turbulences of major changes in the national innovation system. Three virtually simultaneous changes are of special importance. The first is the massive on-going renewal of the Universities Act governing the Finnish higher education system in its entirety. It was originally initiated to provide universities with more financial and operational flexibility and autonomy and, thus, with better premises to fulfil the three mandates (i) to educate, (ii) to conduct academic research, and (iii) to impact societal welfare. The second change is the foundation of the so-called Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation (Finnish acronym : SHOK) that aim at establishing and re-enforcing long-term research cooperation between the academia and the Industry. The final change is the enactment of the new University Inventions Act in early January 2007. The Act provided universities with the rights of ownership to inventions made in sponsored research that, according to the principle of the professor’s privilege, were considered property of the respective academic inventors prior to the change. In the beginning of 2008 Etlatieto Ltd. interviewed 11 of 20 research universities active in Finland to capture the potential impacts the three changes might have on university technology transfer activities. The set of interviewees comprised professionals conducting different tasks in the technology transfer units of universities ranging from research directors to technology transfer officers to lawyers. According to the results, the expected benefits of the renewal of the Universities Act mainly comprise of the increasing financial flexibility of universities hoped to translate into a proliferation of tools available for the transfer of university technology (support of start-ups, investments etc.), and a general increase in the profile of technology transfer functions that should alleviate their current deficiency in resources. Challenges regarding the Universities Act, on the other hand, relate to the lack of administrative and business related expertise in universities required to fulfil the up-coming tasks mandated by the Act, and the lack of commitment on part of universities’ management resulting in insufficient resources. SHOKs, in turn, are expected to enable longer project cycles, to reduce administrative burden, to encourage the setting of scientifically more ambitious research objectives, as well as to increase research collaboration and its efficiency. Challenges were identified to relate to proposed IPR-practices potentially endangering the academic freedom of university research, the incentive schemes of top researchers to participate in SHOK pro-jects, the inefficiencies of a large participant base, and the dangers of a strongly industry driven mode of cooperation to academic values. Finally, the benefits of the University Inventions Act are expected to emerge from the gradual dismantling of the “ivory tower of academe”, an increase in the amount of received invention disclosures, and more efficient administrative practices in university technology transfer functions. Perceived challenges, in turn, include in-terpretational difficulties of the Act, the modest commitment of university management to university technology transfer in general, increasing administrative burdens, and strong cultural differences between researchers, industry and university administration |
| Keywords: | Strategic Centres for Science, Technology and Innovation, SHOK, Universities Act, University Inventions Act, university technology transfer, national innovation system, technology transfer offices |
| JEL: | O30 O38 O33 O34 |
| Date: | 2009–03–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1183&r=edu |
| By: | Hussain, Iftikhar (London School of Economics); McNally, Sandra (London School of Economics); Telhaj, Shqiponja (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the links between various measures of university quality and graduate earnings in the United Kingdom. We explore the implications of using different measures of quality and combining them into an aggregate measure. Our findings suggest a positive return to university quality with an average earnings differential of about 6 percent for a one standard deviation rise in university quality. However, the relationship between university quality and wages is highly non-linear, with a much higher return at the top of the distribution. There is some indication that returns may be increasing over time. |
| Keywords: | returns to education, university quality |
| JEL: | I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4043&r=edu |
| By: | Atal, Vidya (Cornell University); Basu, Kaushik (Cornell University); Gray, John (Cornell University); Lee, Travis (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | Using a model of O-ring production function, the paper demonstrates how certain communities can get caught in a low-literacy trap in which each individual finds it not worthwhile investing in higher skills because others are not high-skilled. The model sheds light on educational policy. It is shown that policy for promoting human capital has to take the form of a mechanism for solving the coordination failure in people’s choice of educational strategy. |
| Keywords: | education, literacy, O-ring, skill formation, traps |
| JEL: | D20 I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4047&r=edu |
| By: | John Bound; Sarah Turner; Patrick Walsh |
| Abstract: | The representation of a large number of students born outside the United States among the ranks of doctorate recipients from U.S. universities is one of the most significant transformations in U.S. graduate education and the international market for highly-trained workers in science and engineering in the last quarter century. Students from outside the U.S. accounted for 51% of PhD recipients in science and engineering fields in 2003, up from 27% in 1973. In the physical sciences, engineering and economics the representation of foreign students among PhD recipients is yet more striking; among doctorate recipients in 2003, those from outside the U.S. accounted for 50% of degrees in the physical sciences, 67% in engineering and 68% in economics. Our analysis highlights the important role of changes in demand among foreign born in explaining the growth and distribution of doctorates awarded in science and engineering. Expansion in undergraduate degree receipt in many countries has a direct effect on the demand for advanced training in the U.S. Changes in the supply side of the U.S. graduate education market may also differentially affect the representation of foreign students in U.S. universities. Supply shocks such as increases in federal support for the sciences will have relatively large effects on the representation in the U.S. of doctorate students from countries where demand is relatively elastic. Understanding the determinants – and consequences – of changes over time in the representation of foreign born students among doctorate recipients from U.S. universities informs the design of policies affecting the science and engineering workforce. |
| JEL: | I2 I23 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14792&r=edu |
| By: | Livanos, Ilias; Pouliakas, Konstantinos |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the wage returns to different academic disciplines in the Greek labour market. Exploring wage responsiveness across the various degree subjects in the case of Greece is interesting, as it is characterised by high levels of graduate unemployment, which vary considerably by field of study, and relatively low levels of wage flexibility. Using micro-data from the most recently available waves (2000-2004) of the Greek Labour Force Survey (LFS), the returns to academic disciplines are estimated for the whole sample of graduates as well as by gender and public/private sector. Quantile regressions indicate that the OLS estimates are relatively robust to potential selectivity biases. The empirical results show considerable variation in wage premiums across the fields of study, with low returns for those that have a marginal role to play in an economy with a rising services/shrinking public sector. It is concluded that the Greek higher education system requires educational reforms that consider the future prospects of the different academic disciplines. |
| Keywords: | Wages; returns; academic disciplines; Greece; quantile regressions; educational reforms |
| JEL: | J31 J38 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14159&r=edu |
| By: | Basit Zafar |
| Abstract: | Males and females are markedly different in their choice of college major. Two main reasons have been suggested for the gender gap: differences in innate abilities and differences in preferences. This paper addresses the question of how college majors are chosen, focusing on the underlying gender gap. Since observed choices may be consistent with many combinations of expectations and preferences, I use a unique data set of Northwestern University sophomores that contains the students' subjective expectations about choice-specific outcomes. I estimate a choice model where selection of college major is made under uncertainty (about personal tastes, individual abilities, and realizations of outcomes associated with the choice of major). Enjoying coursework, finding fulfillment in potential jobs, and gaining the approval of parents are the most important determinants in the choice of college major. Males and females have similar preferences while in college, but their preferences diverge in terms of the workplace: Nonpecuniary outcomes at college are most important in the decisions of females, while pecuniary outcomes realized at the workplace explain a substantial part of the choice for males. I decompose the gender gap into differences in beliefs and preferences. Gender differences in beliefs about academic ability explain a small and insignificant part of the gap, a finding that allows me to rule out low self-confidence as a possible explanation for females' underrepresentation in the sciences. Conversely, most of the gender gap is the result of differences in beliefs about enjoying coursework and differences in preferences. |
| Keywords: | Demography ; College graduates ; Education |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:364&r=edu |
| By: | Cuaresma, Jesus Crespo |
| Abstract: | The author assesses empirically the relationship between natural disaster risk and investment in education. Although the results in the empirical literature tend to be inconclusive, using model averaging methods in the framework of cross-country and panel regressions, this paper finds an extremely robust negative partial correlation between secondary school enrollment and natural disaster risk. This result is exclusively driven by geological disasters. Natural disaster risk exposure is a robust determinant of differences in secondary school enrollment between countries, but not within countries, which implies that the effect can be interpreted as a long-run phenomenon. |
| Keywords: | Natural Disasters,Hazard Risk Management,Disaster Management,Population Policies,Access to Finance |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4862&r=edu |
| By: | Campolieti, Michele; Fang, Tony; Gunderson, Morley |
| Abstract: | We utilize an instrumental variable approach to analyse the effect that dropping out of high school has on 17 outcomes pertaining to wages, employment and subsequent skill acquisition for youths. Our analysis is based on the older cohort of the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) for 2003, an ideal data set because it contains a rich array of outcome measures and their observable determinants as well as variables for instrumenting the dropout indicator (based on a link to the 1999 data). Our analysis indicates that dropouts have poorer wage and employment outcomes, and they do not make up for their lack of education through additional skill acquisition and training. The analysis thereby suggests that policies to curb dropping out could have both desirable efficiency effects (high returns) as well as distributional effects (high returns to otherwise more disadvantaged groups) and potential social spillover affects. |
| Keywords: | Education, Training, Youth, Labour Market Outcomes |
| JEL: | J18 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2009-25&r=edu |
| By: | Nistha Sinha; Joanne Yoong |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and to encourage investments in daughters' education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth). Since 1994, eligible parents in Haryana are offered a financial incentive if they give birth to a daughter. The incentive consists of an immediate cash grant and a long-term savings bond redeemable upon the daughter's 18th birthday provided she is unmarried, with additional bonuses for education. While no specific program participation data is available, the authors estimate early intent-to-treat program effects on mothers (sex ratio among live children, fertility preferences) and children (mother's use of antenatal care, survival, nutritional status, immunization, schooling) using statewide household survey data on fertility and child health and constructing proxies for household and individual program eligibility. Their results based on this limited data imply that Apni Beti Apna Dhan had a positive effect on the sex ratio of living children, but inconclusive effects on mothers' preferences for having female children as well as total desired fertility. They also find that parents increased their investment in daughters' human capital as a result of the program. Families made greater post-natal health investments in eligible girls, with some mixed evidence of improving health status in the short and medium term. Further evidence also suggests that the early cohort of eligible school-age girls are not significantly more likely to attend school; however, conditional on first attending any school, they may be more likely to continue their education. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ran:wpaper:667&r=edu |
| By: | Ozkan Eren (Department of Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas); Daniel J. Henderson (Department of Economics, State University of New York at Binghamton and IZA Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Following an identification strategy that allows us to largely eliminate unobserved student and teacher traits, we examine the effect of homework on math, science, English and history test scores for eighth grade students in the United States. Noting that failure to control for these effects yields selection biases on the estimated effect of homework, we find that math homework has a large and statistically meaningful effect on math test scores throughout our sample. However, additional homework in science, English and history are shown to have little to no impact on their respective test scores. |
| Keywords: | First Differencing, Homework, Selection Bias, Unobserved Traits |
| JEL: | C23 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nlv:wpaper:0907&r=edu |
| By: | Theodore Palivos (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia); Dimitrios Varvarigos (Department of Economics, University of Leicester) |
| Abstract: | We construct an overlapping generations model in which parents vote on the tax rate that determines publicly provided education and offspring choose their effort in learning activities. The technology governing the accumulation of human capital allows these decisions to be strategic complements. In the presence of coordination failure, indeterminacy and, possibly, growth cycles emerge. In the absence of coordination failure, the economy moves along a uniquely determined balanced growth path. We argue that such structural differences can account for the negative correlation between volatility and growth. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Economic Growth, Volatility. |
| JEL: | O41 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2009_05&r=edu |
| By: | Kula, Ferit; Aslan, Alper |
| Abstract: | This paper re-examines the empirical validity of the hysteresis hypothesis in unemployment rates in terms of education level in 17 OECD countries. To this end for unbalanced panel, we employ Pesaran’s Cross Sectional Dependence (CD) and Cross-Sectionally Augmented ADF (CADF) tests. Our empirical findings provide that the evidence is favorable to the non-stationary of the unemployment rates by primary and secondary education attainment in total unemployment, and therefore the existence of hysteresis while there is no evidence of hysteresis for unemployment rates by tertiary education. |
| Keywords: | Hysteresis; unemployment; the natural rate hypothesis |
| JEL: | J21 J01 |
| Date: | 2008–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14054&r=edu |
| By: | Sinha, Nistha; Yoong, Joanne |
| Abstract: | Since the early 1990s, several states in India have introduced financial incentive programs to discourage son preference among parents and encourage investment in daughters'education and health. This study evaluates one such program in the state of Haryana, Apni Beti Apna Dhan (Our Daughter, Our Wealth). Since 1994, eligible parents in Haryana have been offered a financial incentive if they give birth to a daughter. The incentive consists of an immediate cash grant and a long-term savings bond redeemable on the daughter's 18th birthday provided she is unmarried, with additional bonuses for education. Although no specific program participation data are available, we estimate early intent-to-treat program effects on mothers (sex ratio among live children, fertility preferences) and children (mother's use of antenatal care, survival, nutritional status, immunization, schooling) using statewide household survey data on fertility and child health, and constructing proxies for household and individual program eligibility. The results based on this limited data imply that Apni Beti Apna Dhan had a positive effect on the sex ratio of living children, but inconclusive effects on mothers'preferences for having female children as well as total desired fertility. The findings also show that parents increased their investment in daughters'human capital as a result of the program. Families made greater post-natal health investments in eligible girls, with some mixed evidence of improving health status in the short and medium term. Further evidence also suggests that the early cohort of eligible school-age girls was not significantly more likely to attend school; however, conditional on first attending any school, they may be more likely to continue their education. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Population Policies,Youth and Governance,Adolescent Health,Gender and Health |
| Date: | 2009–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4860&r=edu |
| By: | Matloob Piracha; Florin Vadean |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the impact of return migration on the Albanian economy by analysing the occupational choice of return migrants while explicitly differentiating between self-employment as either own account work or entrepreneurship. After taking into account the possible sample selection into return migration, we find that the own account workers have characteristics closer to non-participants in the labour market (i.e. lower education levels), while entrepreneurship is positively related to schooling, foreign language proficiency and savings accumulated abroad. Furthermore, compared to having not migrated, return migrants are significantly more likely not to participate in the labour market or to be entrepreneurs. However, after a one year re-integration period, the effect on non participation vanishes and that on entrepreneurship becomes stronger. As for non-migrants, the migration experience would have increased their probability to be entrepreneurs showing the positive impact of migration on job creating activities in Albania. |
| Keywords: | Occupational Choice; Return Migration; Sample Selection |
| JEL: | C35 F22 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:0905&r=edu |
| By: | Mariotti, Martine |
| Abstract: | Conventional wisdom holds that international political pressure and domestic civil unrest in the mid-1970s and 1980s brought an end to apartheid in South Africa. I show that, prior to these events, labor market pressure in the late 1960s/early 1970s caused a dramatic unraveling of apartheid in the workplace. Increased educational attainment among whites reduced resistance to opening semi-skilled jobs to Africans. This institutional change reflected white economic preferences rather than a relaxation of attitudes toward apartheid. I show that whites benefited from the relaxation of job reservation rules and that this is the primary cause of black occupational advancement. |
| Keywords: | Discrimination; Job Reservation; Education; Labor markets |
| JEL: | N0 N37 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14127&r=edu |
| By: | Albert Link; Christopher Ruhm |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the innovative actions of entrepreneurs, namely their tendency to reveal the intellectual capital that results from their research efforts either in the form of public knowledge (publications) or private knowledge (patents). Using data collected by the National Research Council within the U.S. National Academies from their survey of firm’s that received National Institutes of Health Phase II Small Business Innovation Research awards between 1992 and 2001, we find that entrepreneurs with academic backgrounds are more likely to publish their intellectual capital compared to entrepreneurs with business backgrounds, who are more likely to patent their intellectual capital. We also find that when universities are research partners, their presence complements the tendencies of academic entrepreneurs but does not offset those of business entrepreneurs. |
| JEL: | M14 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14797&r=edu |
| By: | Ozkan Eren (Department of Economics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas) |
| Abstract: | Utilizing the National Educational Longitudinal Study data, this paper examines the role of pre-market cognitive and noncognitive abilities, as well as schooling inputs, on young men’s earnings. In addition to the conditional mean, we estimate the impacts over the earnings distribution using recently developed (instrumental) quantile regression techniques. Our results show that noncognitive ability is an important determinant of earnings, but the effects are not uniform across the distribution. We find noncognitive ability to be most effective for low earners. Cognitive ability, on the other hand, does not yield any impact either at the mean or at the distributional level once we control for educational attainment. We also find that, on average, pupil-teacher ratio is a significant determinant of earnings. However, similar to noncognitive ability, the effects are not homogeneous. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive Ability, Instrumental Quantile Regression, Measurement Error, Noncognitive Ability, Pupil-Teacher Ratio |
| JEL: | C20 C21 J24 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nlv:wpaper:0906&r=edu |
| By: | Kucera, Miroslav |
| Abstract: | Using data from the 2001 General Social Survey, this study focused on differences in educational attainment between the children of immigrants to Canada, referred to as second-generation immigrants, and similarly-aged children of Canadian-born parents. Two definitions of second-generation immigrants were introduced. The first considered a Canadian resident with at least one immigrant parent to be a second-generation immigrant, while the second definition required that both parents were foreign-born. All first-generation immigrants were excluded from the sample, except those who had arrived in Canada at the age of 9 or younger; these young immigrants were then included among the second-generation immigrants. The results show that second-generation immigrants did better in terms of schooling attainment than their peers born to Canadian parents. Although a part of the observed difference was explained by differences in individual characteristics, a significant disparity remained even after controlling for them. Moreover, the main result of the children of immigrants being, on average, more educated than the children of the Canadianborn was robust towards different definitions of second-generation immigrants, and held for both men and women. |
| Keywords: | educational attainment; second-generation immigrants |
| JEL: | J62 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2008–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:14036&r=edu |
| By: | Malcolm Rutherford (Department of Economics, University of Victoria) |
| Abstract: | The USDA Graduate School was founded in 1921 to provide statistical and economic training to the employees of the Department of Agriculture. The School did not grant degrees, but its graduate courses were accepted for credit by a significant number of universities.After its founding, the activities of the School grew rapidly to provide training in many different subject areas for employees from almost all Government Departments. The training in statistics provided by the School was often highly advanced (instructors included Howard Tolly and, later, Edwards Deming), while the economics taught displayed an eclectic mix of standard and institutional economics. Mordecai Ezekiel taught both economics and statistics at the school, and had himself received his statistical training there. Statistics instruction in 1936 and 1937 included seminars from R. A. Fisher and J. Neyman, and courses on sampling theory involving Lester Frankel and William Hurwitz became important after 1939. The instruction in economics was noticeably institutionalist in the period of the New Deal. Towards the end of the period considered here the instruction in economics became narrower and more focused on agricultural economics. The instruction given provides a basis for understanding the sources of the relative statistical sophistication of agricultural economists in the interwar period. It also provides a light on the place of institutional economics in the training of government economists through the same time span. It is noteworthy than within the USDA Graduate School, and in contrast to the Cowles Commission, statistical sophistication co-existed with an approach to economics that was not predominantly neoclassical. |
| Keywords: | Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Statistic, Institutional Economics, Training |
| JEL: | B2 C1 Q1 |
| Date: | 2009–03–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vic:vicddp:0901&r=edu |
| By: | Roberto Montero Granados (Universidad de Granada. Deparment of Applied Economics); José Jesús Martín Martín (Universidad de Granada. Deparment of Applied Economics); Juan de Dios Jiménez Aguilera (Universidad de Granada. Deparment of Applied Economics) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to measure horizontal equity in the use of healthcare services in Spain, proposing two methodological innovations. First by defending it as equality of access for equal need, irrespective of educational level, unlike the prevailing methodological approach to horizontal equity which relates it to income. Second, by estimating it by means of the slope index of the inequality of characteristics, analagous to the inequity index proposed by Kakwani, Wagstaff and van Doorslaer (1997; HIWV) but presenting some methodological advantages, the greater robustness of the data available on educational level than of those on income, and the possibility of isolating the net effect of the educational level on the use of healthcare by controlling for other variables. The methodology is designed in three parts: (1) estimation of the relationship between the educational level and the use of healthcare services by means of a model of the likelihood of demand for healthcare services, commonly used in the literature; (2) estimation of the relationship between educational level and health by approximating a production function of individuals' health according to their personal characteristics and other factors conditioning health; and (3) estimation of the slope index of inequality as a measure of horizontal inequity, using educational level instead of income as the criterion for ranking individuals. The data base used was a sample of 55,598 observations from the Survey of disabilities, handicaps and state of health of 1999, carried out in Spain. No significant statistical association was found between educational level and use of healthcare services. On the other hand, the relationship between educational level and health, with the three proxy variables used (perception of health, days of limitation and number of chronic illnesses) shows a positive correlation, i.e. an increase in educational level is associated with a greater probability of enjoying better health. Horizontal inequity, measured by the proposed slope index of inequality, gives a range of statistically significant values between 13.91% and 9.40%, depending on cases, i.e. the significant inverse relationship between state of health and educational level is not reflected proportionally in healthcare use, implying that, with greater need, the access of individuals with a lower educational level to public healthcare services is the same as for the rest. These results suggest that the educational level may be a variable to consider when characterizing the healthcare needs of a population in a defined geographical area, at least from the normative characterization of horizontal equity proposed |
| Keywords: | Education and health; Healthcare needs; Horizontal Inequity; Logistic regression ; Ordinal regression; Regional funding |
| JEL: | C21 H42 H77 I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2008–11–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gra:fegper:08/03&r=edu |
| By: | Ivico Ahumada Lobo; Fernando Butler Silva |
| Abstract: | En este estudio se examinan las características de los programas de estudio y los atributos y percepciones de los estudiantes de nivel licenciatura en seis de las principales facultades de economía de México, así como la evolución, inserción laboral y percepciones de los economistas en el periodo 2000-2005. Se notan tendencias que incluyen una pequeña disminución en las matrículas en carreras de economía, un aumento en el número de economistas empleados en el sector privado, una constante participación de las mujeres de aproximadamente la tercera parte de los ingresados en programas de economía, y un paulatino pero innegable incremento en el uso de Internet y otras herramientas de computación. También destaca el grado de que cursar una carrera en economía cambia las opiniones de los estudiantes sobre temas económicos. |
| Keywords: | Economía, Educación superior, Inserción laboral, México |
| JEL: | A11 A13 A22 A23 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:wpaper:4616&r=edu |