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on Education |
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Issue of 2009‒08‒16
fourteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Vimala Ramachandran |
| Abstract: | This study tried to bring together the experiences of different approaches to incentives followed by six NGOs in the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Issues dealing with incentives and the hidden cost of education have been explored with a view to gaining some insights and exploring some possible ways forward in such a diverse and challenging situation. |
| Keywords: | Malnutrition, anaemia, education, educational programmes, DPEP, teachers, learning, school system, Dropout rates, SC, ST, boys, girls, NFHS, adult women, women, Muslim communities, marriage, illiterate, incentives, NGOs, Rajasthan, incentives, elementary education, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2164&r=edu |
| By: | Richard Weber (LMU Munich School of Management); Georg von Graevenitz (LMU Munich School of Management); Dietmar Harhoff (LMU Munich School of Management) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship education ranks highly on policy agendas in Europe and the US, but little research is available to assess its impacts. In this context it is of primary importance to understand whether entrepreneurship education raises intentions to be entrepreneurial generally or whether it helps students determine how well suited they are for entrepreneurship. We develop a theoretical model of Bayesian learning in which entrepreneurship education generates signals which help students to evaluate their own aptitude for entrepreneurial tasks. We derive predictions from the model and test them using data from a compulsory entrepreneurship course at a German university. Using survey responses from 189 students ex ante and ex post, we find that entrepreneurial propensity declined somewhat in spite of generally good evaluations of the class. Our tests of Bayesian updating provide support for the notion that students receive valuable signals and learn about their own type in the entrepreneurship course. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, Bayes’ Rule, learning, signals |
| JEL: | D83 J24 L26 M13 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trf:wpaper:269&r=edu |
| By: | James D. Adams |
| Abstract: | The expansion of U.S. universities after World War II gained from the arrival of immigrant scientists and graduate students, the broadening of access to universities, and the development of military research and high technology industry. Since the 1980s, however, growth of scientific research in Europe and East Asia has exceeded that of the U.S., suggesting convergence in world science and engineering and a falling U.S. share. But the slowdown of U.S. publication rates in the late 1990s is a different matter, in that the rise of science elsewhere does not imply a U.S. slowdown in any obvious sense. Using a panel of U.S. universities, fields and years, evidence is found of a slowdown in the growth of resources. In turn, this has caused a deceleration in the growth of research output in public universities and university-fields falling into the middle 40 percent and bottom 40 percent of their disciplines. These developments can be traced to slower growth in tuition and state appropriations in public universities compared to revenue growth, including from endowment, in private universities. |
| JEL: | I23 J31 L31 O31 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15233&r=edu |
| By: | Corinna Kleinert; Britta Matthes |
| Abstract: | Over the last years, political and scientific debates have stressed the growing importance of adult education. Currently important research questions call not only for data sources that collect detailed information on adult education with repeated measurements and in different cohorts, but they should also include data on other life spheres such as education and working histories, partnership and household information, as well as competence development. In Germany, there are several large-scale datasets containing information on adult education. While general panel studies do not provide a systematic overview of educational activities of adults, studies focusing on adult education are either small-scale or cross-sectional and contain little context information. A study that covers information on all educational activities in the life course as well as repeated competence assessment is still missing. In part, these deficits will be resolved by large-scale longitudinal studies focused on adults and education that were either recently conducted or are currently prepared. Thus, we do not call for new data sources on adult education. What is far more important in the next years is analyzing the data of the new large-scale data sources thoroughly, but also developing new theoretical approaches to adult education. |
| Keywords: | adult education, further education, lifelong learning, continuing training, life course, competencies, data access |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsw:rswwps:rswwps51&r=edu |
| By: | Stephen Gibbons; Stephen Machin; Olmo Silva |
| Abstract: | A large body of international research shows that house prices respond to local school qualityas measured by average test scores. But better test scores could signal better expectedacademic outputs or simply reflect higher ability intakes, and existing studies rarelydifferentiate between these two channels. In our research, we simultaneously estimate theresponse of prices to school 'value-added' and school composition to show more clearly whatdrives parental demand for schools. To achieve consistent estimates, we push to the limit theuse of geographical boundary discontinuities in hedonic models by matching identicalproperties across admissions authority boundaries; by allowing for a variety of boundaryeffects and spatial trends; by re-weighting our data to only consider the transactions that areclosest to education district boundaries; and by submitting the estimates to a number ofpotentially destructive falsification tests. Our results survive this battery of experiments andshow that a one-standard deviation change in either school value-added or prior achievementraises prices by around 3%. |
| Keywords: | House prices, school quality, boundary discontinuities |
| JEL: | C21 I20 H75 R21 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0018&r=edu |
| By: | Douglas A. Webber; Ronald G. Ehrenberg |
| Abstract: | During the last two decades, median instructional spending per full-time equivalent (FTE) student at American 4-year colleges and universities has grown at a slower rate than median spending per FTE student in a number of other expenditure categories including academic support, student services and research. Our paper uses institutional level panel data and a variety of econometric approaches, including unconditional quantile regression methods, to analyze whether these non instructional expenditure categories influence graduation and first-year persistence rates of undergraduate students. Our most important finding is that student service expenditures influence graduation and persistence rates and their marginal effects are higher for students at institutions with lower entrance test scores and higher Pell Grant expenditures per student. Put another way, their effects are largest at institutions that have lower current graduation and first year persistence rates. Simulations suggest that reallocating some funding from instruction to student services may enhance persistence and graduation rates at those institutions whose rates are currently below the medians in the sample. |
| JEL: | I22 I23 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15216&r=edu |
| By: | Lex Borghans; Frank Cörvers |
| Abstract: | Over the past two decades there has been a substantial increase in the mobility of students in Europe, while also research has become much more internationally oriented. In this paper we document changes in the structure of research and higher education in Europe and investigate potential explanations for the strong increase in its international orientation. While higher education started to grow substantially around 1960, only a few decades later, research and higher education transformed gradually to the American standard. Decreased communication costs are likely causes for this trend. This transformation is most clearly revealed in the change of language used in research from the national language, Latin, German and French to English. Smaller language areas made this transformation earlier while there are also clear timing differences between research fields. Sciences and medicine tend to switch to English first, followed by economics and social sciences, while for law and arts only the first signs of such a transformation are currently observed. This suggests that returns to scale and the transferability of research results are important influences in the decision to adopt the international standard. |
| JEL: | I23 |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15217&r=edu |
| By: | A. Abigail Payne; Joanne Roberts |
| Abstract: | Universities are engaged in many activities; primarily, research and teaching. Many states have instituted performance measures that focus on evaluating a university's success in teaching. We suggest that multitasking may be important in this context, and we consider research outcomes after adoption. We find striking results that depend on university status. Research activity is higher at flagship institutions after the adoption of performance measures. Most of this increase in activity is with respect to the level of research funding and the number of articles produced. In contrast, research funding and the number of publications is dramatically lower at non-flagship institutions. There is some evidence that citations per publication at non-flagship institutions are higher after the adoption of performance standards. The evidence suggests that universities have become more specialized since the introduction of these programs. |
| JEL: | H3 H4 |
| Date: | 2009–01–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clg:wpaper:2009-04&r=edu |
| By: | Claudia Burgio-Ficca (Deakin University) |
| Abstract: | Recent years have seen a growing interest in research and development in Australia. The Commonwealth Government has responded through the commissioning of a number of reports. Whilst examining the current state of R&D in Australian, these reports have done little to analyse relationship between R&D and Australian output. This paper examines the impact of R&D on Australian state production between 1979 and 1999. Results indicate that both total and higher education R&D are important and significant in generating output. In particular, it is shown that particular types of research contribute more significantly to Australian output. |
| Keywords: | Higher education research, Australian, gross state product |
| Date: | 2009–08–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dkn:acctwp:aef_2004_01&r=edu |
| By: | Norman Ireland; Robin A. Naylor; Jeremy Smith; Shqiponja Telhaj |
| Abstract: | An increase over time in the proportion of young people obtaining a degree is likely to impacton the relative ability compositions (i) of graduates and non-graduates and (ii) acrossgraduates with different classes of degree award. In a signalling framework, we examine theimplications of this on biases across cohorts in estimates of educational returns. In anempirical analysis, we exploit administrative data on whole populations of UK universitystudents for ten graduate cohorts to investigate the extent to which early labour marketoutcomes vary with class of degree awarded. Consistent with our theoretical model, we findthat returns by degree class increased across cohorts during a period of substantial graduateexpansion. We also corroborate the empirical findings with evidence from complementarydata on graduate sample surveys. |
| Keywords: | Educational Returns, College Wage Premium, Degree Class, Ability Bias,Statistical Discrimination |
| JEL: | J31 J24 I21 D82 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0939&r=edu |
| By: | Emmanuel Sigalas |
| Abstract: | The potential of European student mobility to promote a European identity and, consequently, European integration has long been stressed by transactionalists such as Karl Deutsch but was never tested empirically. The EU-funded exchange programme ERASMUS moves more than 150,000 university students annually, and it is still widely assumed it plays a pivotal role in the promotion of a European identity. Based on the results of a longitudinal survey among ERASMUS and nonmobile students I show that reality meets only partly these expectations. Whilst ERASMUS enables students to improve their foreign language skills and learn more about other European countries, it does not foster a European self-identity or a sense of European pride. However, the ERASMUS experience does help British students to feel more attached to Europe and to acknowledge they have things in common with continental Europeans. |
| Keywords: | European identity |
| Date: | 2009–06–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:erp:conweb:p0036&r=edu |
| By: | Pasnicu, Daniela (Universitatea Spiru Haret, Facultatea de Marketing si Afaceri Economice Internationale); Cismigiu, Magda (INCSMPS); Dragoiu, Codruta (INCSMPS) |
| Abstract: | In line with the EU's goal of becoming a knowledge-based society, education and lifelong learning will also feature prominently on the agenda of the European Year. EU should use the current economic crisis to develop strategic goals both at European and national level and improve conditions for creativity and innovation. The Member States must invest more in the human capital in order to provide good tools to overcome environmental challenges. The target of the paper is to emphasize the importance of investing in education, long life learning and the change management, even if we are passing a crisis period. The paper includes an analyze of the current economic context; the base education and long life learning as concept, progresses, importance and measures for their improvement and some elements regarding change management for a better adaptability of the people and companies. |
| Keywords: | knowledge-based society; education and lifelong learning |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:sphedp:2009_060&r=edu |
| By: | Mavromaras, Kostas (University of Melbourne); McGuinness, Seamus (ESRI); Fok, Yin King (University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses panel data and econometric methods to estimate the incidence and the dynamic properties of overskilling among employed individuals. The paper begins by asking whether there is extensive overskilling in the labour market, and whether overskilling differs by education pathway. The answer to both questions is yes. The paper continues by asking whether overskilling is a self-perpetuating labour market state (state dependence), and whether state dependence differs by education pathway. The paper uses a dynamic random effects probit which includes Mundlak corrections and it models the initial conditions following Heckman?s method. It finds that there is extensive overskilling state dependence in the workplace, and to the degree that overskilling can be interpreted as skills underutilisation and worker-job mismatch, this is an important finding. Overskilled workers with a higher degree show the highest state dependence, while workers with vocational education show none. Workers with no post-school qualifications are somewhere between these two groups. The finding that higher degree graduates suffer the greatest overskilling state dependence, combined with the well-established finding that they also suffer the highest overskilling wage penalty, offers an additional useful perspective to compare the attributes of vocational and degree qualifications. |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp307&r=edu |
| By: | Ekkehard Mochmann |
| Abstract: | When the term „e-Science“ became popular, it frequently was referred to as “enhanced science” or “electronic science”. More telling is the definition ‘e-Science is about global collaboration in key areas of science and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it’ (Taylor, 2001). The question arises to what extent can the social sciences profit from recent developments in e- Science infrastructure? While computing, storage and network capacities so far were sufficient to accommodate and access social science data bases, new capacities and technologies support new types of research, e.g. linking and analysing transactional or audio-visual data. Increasingly collaborative working by researchers in distributed networks is efficiently supported and new resources are available for e-learning. Whether these new developments become transformative or just helpful will very much depend on whether their full potential is recognized and creatively integrated into new research designs by theoretically innovative scientists. Progress in e-Science was very much linked to the vision of the Grid as “a software infrastructure that enables flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions and resources’ and virtually unlimited computing capacities (Foster et al. 2000). In the Social Sciences there has been considerable progress in using modern IT- technologies for multilingual access to virtual distributed research databases across Europe and beyond (e.g. NESSTAR, CESSDA – Portal), data portals for access to statistical offices and for linking access to data, literature, project, expert and other data bases (e.g. Digital Libraries, VASCODA/SOWIPORT). Whether future developments will need GRID enabling of social science databases or can be further developed using WEB 2.0 support is currently an open question. The challenges here are seamless integration and interoperability of data bases, a requirement that is also stipulated by internationalisation and trans-disciplinary research. This goes along with the need for standards and harmonisation of data and metadata. Progress powered by e- infrastructure is, among others, dependent on regulatory frameworks and human capital well trained in both, data science and research methods. It is also dependent on sufficient critical mass of the institutional infrastructure to efficiently support a dynamic research community that wants to “take the lead without catching up”. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsw:rswwps:rswwps75&r=edu |