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on Education |
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Issue of 2009‒09‒26
twenty-two papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Claudio Ferraz (Department of Economics PUC-Rio); Frederico Finan (University of California, Berkeley); Diana Belo Moreira (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | While cross-country analysis suggests that corruption hinders economic growth, we have little evidence on the mechanisms that link corruption to long-run economic development. We provide micro-evidence on the consequences of corruption for the quality of education. We use data from the auditing of Brazil’s local governments to construct objective measures of corruption involving educational block grants transferred from the central government to municipalities. Using variation in the incidence of corruption across municipalities and controlling for students’, schools’ and municipal characteristics, we find that corruption significantly reduces the school performance of primary school students. Students residing in municipalities where corruption in education was detected score 0.35 standard deviations less on standardized tests, and have significantly higher dropout and failure rates. We also provide evidence on the mechanisms that link corruption and mismanagement to learning and school attainment. The results are consistent with corruption directly affecting economic growth through the reduction of human capital accumulation. JEL Codes: D73, I21, H72 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rio:texdis:562&r=edu |
| By: | Vassiliki Koutsogeorgopoulou |
| Abstract: | Despite progress over the past decades, Greece?s educational indicators lag behind those of other OECD countries. PISA scores are low, a large number of tertiary students study abroad, and attainment rates are low at all levels of education. Resources devoted to education are also modest. Participation in early childhood education and care is particularly low, influencing education outcomes in later years, the child care sector is poorly regulated and under–developed, and the separate administration of pre–school and childcare has led to inefficiencies. Education quality in primary and secondary levels reflects lack of performance incentives for teachers, deficient curriculum, weak school autonomy and accountability. This has driven children to complementary private courses to prepare for university exams. The university system is rigid and lacks a well performing evaluation mechanism. Recent reforms have addressed some of these issues but more needs to be done. Educational outcomes could be improved by giving more autonomy to schools and universities, and increasing accountability by, for example, performance evaluations of teachers and introducing standard nationwide exams at more levels of school education. A more flexible framework for tertiary education would promote responsiveness to changing demand conditions and enhance the quality of the sector. Educational outcomes could also be improved by more initiatives to counteract the effects of disadvantaged backgrounds on performance. The schools should also ensure that the curriculum prepares students with competences needed to succeed in their post–school life. This includes making vocational and technical education more attractive.<P>Améliorer les performances du système éducatif en Grèce<BR>En dépit des progrès réalisés dans les dernières décennies, les indicateurs de l’éducation de la Grèce sont en retrait par rapport à ceux des autres pays de l’OCDE. Les résultats de l’exercice PISA sont médiocres, un pourcentage élevé d’étudiants effectuent leurs études supérieures à l’étranger et les taux de réussite sont faibles à tous les niveaux. Pareillement, les ressources consacrées à l’éducation sont modestes. L’accueil et l’éducation de la petite enfance sont très peu développés, ce qui se répercute sur les performances éducatives ultérieures, le système de prise en charge des tout jeunes enfants est sous-développé et peu régulé, et la séparation administrative opérée entre l’éducation préscolaire et la garde des tout jeunes enfants est source d’inefficacités. La qualité de l’enseignement primaire et secondaire reflète le manque d’incitation à la performance pour le corps enseignant, les carences des programmes scolaires, le manque d’autonomie et de responsabilité des établissements scolaires. Ce tableau conduit les parents à faire donner des cours privés complémentaires à leurs enfants pour les préparer aux examens universitaires. Le système universitaire est rigide et il ne dispose pas d’un mécanisme d’évaluation performant. Les réformes récentes se sont attaquées à certains de ces problèmes, mais cela ne suffit pas. Les performances du système éducatif pourraient être améliorées en donnant plus d’autonomie aux écoles et aux universités et en augmentant le niveau de responsabilité, par exemple en évaluant les performances des enseignants et en introduisant des examens nationaux standard à un plus grand nombre de niveaux d’études. Dans l’enseignement supérieur, un cadre plus flexible autoriserait une meilleure réactivité à l’évolution de la demande et se traduirait par un gain qualitatif. Les performances du système éducatif pourraient également être améliorées en prenant davantage d’initiatives pour compenser les effets d’antécédents défavorables sur les performances. Les établissements scolaires devraient en outre s’assurer que leurs programmes permettent aux élèves d’acquérir les compétences requises pour réussir dans leur vie post-scolaire, ce qui passe notamment par une plus grande attractivité de l’enseignement technique et professionnel. |
| Keywords: | education, éducation, child care, tertiary education, éducation tertiaire, early childhood education, university, université, PISA, PISA, éducation préscolaire, accountability, Education supérieure, autonomy, qualité de l’enseignement, autonomie, crèche, school curricula, curricula scolaire, responsabilisation, tuition fees, répétiteurs, vocational and technica, éducation technique et professionnelle, crammers, teaching quality, upper secondary |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I22 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:723-en&r=edu |
| By: | Smyth, Emer (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)); McCoy, Selina (Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)) |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:rb20090303&r=edu |
| By: | Manon Domingues Dos Santos (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - INSEE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique); François-Charles Wolff (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - Université de Nantes : EA4272) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the impact of the human capital background on ethnic educational gaps between second-generation immigrants in France. First, we show that the skill of immigrants explains the main part of the ethnic educational gap between their children. More precisely, if the education of immigrants has a predominant impact on the educational attainment of their children, their assimilation degree, essentially captured by their French fluency or their length of stay in France, also contributes to explain ethnic educational gaps. Secondly, we show that the impact of the immigrants' education on the educational attainment of their children depends on their country of origin, their place of schooling as well as their French proficiency. |
| Date: | 2009–09–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00417879_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Pierre Lefebvre; Philip Merrigan |
| Abstract: | Selection into private schools is the principal cause of bias when estimating the effect of private schooling on academic achievement. By exploiting the generous public subsidizing of private high schools in the province of Québec, the second most populous province in Canada, we identify the causal impact of attendance in a private high school on achievement in mathematics. Because the supply of highly subsidized spaces is much higher at the high school level than at the grade school level, 60% of transitions from the public to private sector occur at the end of grade school, we assume that these transitions are exogenous with respect to changes in transitory unobserved variables affecting math scores conditional on variables such as changes in income and child fixed effects. Using data from Statistics Canada’s National Longitudinal Survey on Children and Youth (NLSCY), we estimate the effect of attending a private high school on the percentile rank and a standardized math test score with different models (child fixed-effect, random-effect and a pooled OLS) and restricted samples to control for the degree of selection. The results, interpreted as a treatment on the treated effect show that the effect of changing schools, from a public grade school to a private high school, increases the percentile rank of the math score between 5 and 10 points and by between .13 to .35 of a standard deviation depending on the specifications and samples. |
| Keywords: | Test scores, private high schools, subsidies, longitudinal data |
| JEL: | I28 I21 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lvl:lacicr:0935&r=edu |
| By: | Nadir Altinok (IREDU - Institut de recherche sur l'éducation : Sociologie et Economie de l'Education - CNRS : UMR5225 - Université de Bourgogne, BETA - Bureau d'économie théorique et appliquée - CNRS : UMR7522 - Université Louis Pasteur - Strasbourg I); Geeta Kingdon (Institute of education - University of London) |
| Abstract: | The impact of class size on student achievement remains a thorny question for educational decision makers. Meta-analyses of empirical studies emphasise the absence of class-size effects but detractors have argued against such pessimistic conclusions because many of the underlying studies have not paid attention to the endogeneity of class-size. This paper uses a stringent method to address the endogeneity problem using TIMSS data on 45 countries. We measure the class size effect by relating the difference in a student's achievement across subjects to the difference in his/her class-size across subjects. This (subject-differenced) within-pupil achievement production function avoids the problem of the non-random matching of children to specific schools, and to classes within schools. The results show a statistically significant effect of class size for 16 countries but in only 10 of them is the effect negative, and the effect size is very small in most cases. Several robustness tests are carried out, including control for students' subject-specific ability and subject-specific teacher characteristics, and correction for possible measurement error. Thus, our stringent approach to addressing the problem endogeneity confirms the findings of meta-analyses that find little support for class size effects. We find that class-size effects are smaller in resource-rich countries than in developing countries, supporting the idea that the adverse effect of larger classes increases with class-size. We also find that class size effects are smaller in regions with higher teacher quality. |
| Keywords: | Class size effects ; Student achievement ; Government Expenditures and Education ; Analysis of Education |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00417229_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Laura Choi |
| Abstract: | Studies have shown that “experiential learning” can result in significant knowledge gains in a number of subject areas, but how does “learning by doing” fit into the context of financial education? This new working paper explores this topic and analyzes data from the 2008 Jump$tart survey of high school seniors to examine the relationship between bank account ownership and student knowledge of personal finance. The results are informative for financial education delivery, particularly the importance of providing interactive opportunities for the application and practice of skills and knowledge. |
| Keywords: | Financial literacy |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfcw:2009-07&r=edu |
| By: | Margherita Russo; Paola Mengoli |
| Abstract: | The issue of the regeneration of skills, in particular in the light engineering industry, is addressed by Officina Emilia (henceforth OE) as a crucial one in order to re-examine the interweaving of education, innovation and local development in the SMEs production systems. The project, aimed at the education and training systems, is designed to enhance the industrial culture in order to strengthen technical and scientific education. First sponsored in 2000 by the University of Modena & Reggio Emilia (Italy), over the last years OE has gathered the support of local actors dealing with the themes of training, culture, and local development. In 2009 it opened its museolaboratorio (“workshop-museum”) in which teaching activities promote an interest in the themes of work, technologies and the socio-economic development of the territory among the students and teachers of schools of all types and levels. The involvement of class groups, of teachers and other visitors takes place through active learning practices that foster motivation and develop a sense of belonging which is likely to lead to a more profitable educational experience, both secondary and tertiary, as well as to contribute to improving career prospects. Officina Emilia proposes innovative action on a local level, allowing for the implementation of effective teaching practices as well as the broadening and consolidation of best practices which might support a society-wide trend towards maintaining a high demand for a better quality of education and the ability to provide it. Ten years after the beginning of the initiative, with this paper we intend to open up the discussion on the various research issues and on the actions undertaken, focusing on the analytical tools and the main critical areas in the further implementation of the Officina Emilia initiative. |
| Keywords: | Analysis of Education; Education Policy; Regional Development Policies; Innovation |
| JEL: | I21 J24 I28 O31 R58 |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:depeco:613&r=edu |
| By: | Cory Koedel (Department of Economics, University of Missouri-Columbia); Julian R. Betts; Lorien A. Rice; Andrew C. Zau |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the integrating and segregating effects of school choice in a large, urban school district. Our findings, based on applications for fall 2001, suggest that open enrollment, a school-choice program that does not have explicit integrative objectives and does not provide busing, segregates students along three socioeconomic dimensions – race/ethnicity, student achievement and parental-education status. Using information on expenditures to promote integration at the district, we back out estimates of the social cost of open enrollment realized in terms of student segregation. Our social-cost estimates range widely depending on the weights that we place on the different dimensions of integration. However, even using conservative valuations of the different integrative measures suggests a social cost at this single district of over 3.4 million dollars (in year-2000 dollars). When considered in the context of the nation as a whole, where open-enrollment programs are commonplace, this estimate from a single district is substantial. However, we also note that there may be benefits not related to integration that counterbalance some or all of these costs. |
| Keywords: | school choice, open enrollment, integration, segregation, segregation costs |
| JEL: | I20 J15 R23 |
| Date: | 2009–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:0910&r=edu |
| By: | Martin Dooley; Cesar Furtado |
| Abstract: | ESL instruction is an important issue in Canada due to the large number of immigrants and has potentially impacts on both student academic progress and educational expenditures. In 1999, the province of British Columbia limited funding for ESL to five years per student but increased the annual ESL supplement. We explore the educational impact of these reforms using the results of standardized tests of numeracy, reading and writing proficiency for Grade 7 students. We compare differences in test scores, both before and after the policy change, among the following groups of Grade 7 students in the GVA: students with 5 or more years of ESL (those constrained by the new policy); students with one to four years of ESL; non-ESL students with a non-official home language; and non-ESL students with an official home language. No group of students experiences large changes in test scores due to the reform. The changes we do observe are usually increases for ESL students, and the few decreases are very small. Moreover, both before and after the reform, score differences between groups of students with different experiences of ESL, different neighbourhood socio-economic characteristics, and different home languages are modest in size. |
| Keywords: | English Second Language; Educational Funding |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2009-11&r=edu |
| By: | Osipian, Ararat |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates a possible impact of education corruption on economic growth in Russia. It argues that high levels of education corruption may harm total factor productivity in the long run, primarily through lowering the level of human capital and slowing down the pace of its accumulation. Ethical standards learned in the process of training in universities can also affect the standards of practice in different professions. The growing level of productivity is not likely to reduce education corruption in the short run, but can eventually lead to implementation of higher ethical standards in the education sector. |
| Keywords: | corruption; education; growth; reform; Russia; transition |
| JEL: | P21 P37 K42 |
| Date: | 2009–09–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:17447&r=edu |
| By: | Woessmann, Ludger; Hornung, Erik; Becker, Sascha O. |
| Abstract: | Existing evidence, mostly from British textile industries, rejects the importance of formal education for the Industrial Revolution. We provide new evidence from Prussia, a technological follower, where early-19th-century institutional reforms created the conditions to adopt the exogenously emerging new technologies. Our unique school-enrollment and factory-employment database links 334 counties from pre-industrial 1816 to two industrial phases in 1849 and 1882. Controlling extensively for pre-industrial development, we use pre-industrial education as an instrument to identify variation in later education that is exogenous to industrialization itself. We find that basic education significantly accelerated nontextile industrialization in both phases of the Industrial Revolution. |
| Keywords: | Prussian economic history; industrialization; Human capital |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stl:stledp:2009-19&r=edu |
| By: | Sascha Walter; Dirk Dohse |
| Abstract: | This study examines how the effect of entrepreneurship education on students’ entrepreneurial intentions is (1) contingent on the mode of education (active, e.g. business plan seminar, vs reflective, e.g. theory lectures), (2) contingent on the regional context and (3) complemented by individual-level influences such as role models or work experience. Results show that active modes of entrepreneurship education directly increase intentions and attitudes, whereas the impact of reflective modes depends on the regional context. Parental role models and work experience are found to complement entrepreneurship education in different ways. The findings have important implications for theory building as well as for the practice of teaching entrepreneurship |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship education, knowledge spillover, entrepreneurial intentions, theory of planned behavior |
| JEL: | A20 I23 O31 R19 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1549&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. |
| JEL: | D20 I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:corcae:09-05&r=edu |
| By: | Gartell, Marie (Institute for Futures Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p>The ranking of colleges varies both across methods and model specifications. Still, earnings equations tend to be consistent with regard to which colleges that on average are found in the top and bottom half of the earnings distribution. Moreover, there are no systematic differences in the ranking of colleges dependent on the age of the college, i.e. old versus new colleges. Although ranking by earnings equations provide some information about the relation to earnings, endogeneity issues preclude any causal interpretation of the rankings presented here.<p> |
| Keywords: | University education; College choice; Ranking |
| JEL: | I21 J16 J24 J31 J44 |
| Date: | 2009–09–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifswps:2009_016&r=edu |
| By: | Zhang, Ying (UNU-MERIT); Rajabzadeh, Iman (UNU-MERIT); Lauterbach, Rodolfo (UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we empirically studied the relationship between network centrality and academic performance among a group of 47 PhD students from UNU-MERIT institute. We conducted an independent email survey and relied on social networks theory as well as standard econometric procedures to analyse the data. We found a significant reversed U-shaped relation between network centrality and students' academic performance. We controlled our results by several node's characteristics such as age, academic background, and research area. Additional evidence shows that there is a negative impact of age on academic performance at PhD student level. Contributions of this paper can refer to the input into studies that aim to explore peereffect. Also it contributes to the methodological approach by combining elements of network analysis and econometric theories. This study demonstrates that when evaluating the impact of network centrality on performance, there is no significant difference between various network centrality measurements. |
| Keywords: | Networks analysis, Network centrality, Peer-effect, Academic performance |
| JEL: | D85 I21 I23 L14 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2009034&r=edu |
| By: | Martin D. Dooley; A. Abigail Payne; A. Leslie Robb |
| Abstract: | Tuition levels at Ontario universities have risen along with the value of merit-based entry scholarships provided by the nineteen institutions in this relatively closed system. We use data on entering students from 1994 through 2005 and find that merit awards have at most a small effect on a universityÕs share of academically strong registrants. Such aid, however, is strongly associated with an increase in the ratio of students from low-income neighborhoods to students from high-income neighborhoods. Finally, although more advantaged students are more likely to attend university, merit aid is not strongly skewed towards the more advantaged conditional upon registration. |
| Keywords: | University; Merit Scholarships |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2009-12&r=edu |
| By: | Andrabi, Tahir (Pomona College); Das, Jishnu (World Bank and Center for Policy Research, New Delhi); Khwaja, Asim Ijaz (Harvard University and BREAD); Zajonc, Tristan (Harvard University) |
| Abstract: | Learning persistence plays a central role in models of skill formation, estimates of education production functions, and evaluations of educational programs. In non-experimental settings, estimated impacts of educational inputs can be highly sensitive to correctly specifying persistence when inputs are correlated with baseline achievement. While less of a concern in experimental settings, persistence still links short-run treatment effects to long-run impacts. We study learning persistence using dynamic panel methods that account for two key empirical challenges: unobserved student-level heterogeneity in learning and measurement error in test scores. Our estimates, based on detailed primary panel data from Pakistan, suggest that only a fifth to a half of achievement persists between grades. Using private schools as an example, we show that incorrectly assuming high persistence significantly understates and occasionally yields the wrong sign for private schools' impact on achievement. Towards an economic interpretation of low persistence, we use question-level exam responses as well as household expenditure and time-use data to explore whether psychometric testing issues, behavioral responses, or forgetting contribute to low persistence--causes that have different welfare implications. |
| JEL: | C23 H40 I21 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp09-001&r=edu |
| By: | Robert Bifulco (Syracuse University); Delia Furtado (University of Connecticut); Stephen L. Ross (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | Relative to whites, blacks that reside in highly segregated metropolitan areas have worse educational and labor market outcomes than those that reside in less segregated areas. Using data from the 1990 U.S. Census combined with measures of metropolitan educational environment created from the Common Core of Data (CCD), we test whether the strong empirical relationship between residential segregation and black outcomes can be attributed to the educational environment in those metropolitan areas. We find that our measures of metropolitan educational environment can explain a substantial fraction of the effect of segregation on educational outcomes and idleness. |
| Keywords: | Racial Segregation, School Segregation, Neighborhood Effects, Peer Effects |
| JEL: | I1 R2 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2009-30&r=edu |
| By: | Ivan Pastine (University College Dublin); Tuvana Pastine (National University of Ireland, Maynooth) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines student incentives when faced with a college admissions policy which pursues student body diversity. The effect of a diversify-conscious admissions policy critically depends on the design of the policy. If the admissions policy fails to incentivize students from a disadvantaged socioeconomic background it may lead to a deterioration in the intergroup score gap while failing to improve student body diversity in equilibrium. |
| Keywords: | Affirmative Action, College Admissions, All-Pay Auction, Contest, Tournament |
| Date: | 2009–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:200911&r=edu |
| By: | Louis N. Christofides; Michael Hoy; Ling Yang |
| Abstract: | The decision to attend university is influenced by the balance of the expected returns and costs of attending university, by liquidity constraints and capital market imperfections that may modify these calculations and, hence, by the family income of prospective students. Family circumstances also play a role. We examine the secular increase in the propensity of children from Canadian families, evident in annual surveys spanning two and a half decades, to attend university. We quantify the importance of these factors taking account of the greater propensity by young women than men to attend university and controlling for secular trends in socioeconomic norms that impinge on these decisions. |
| Keywords: | University participation, families, Canada |
| Date: | 2008–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:4-2008&r=edu |
| By: | William Thomson (University of Rochester) |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:roc:rocher:553&r=edu |