|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2009‒11‒21
twelve papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Yuemei JI |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a behavioral model to study how schools influence students’ educational behavior and academic achievements. The school quality is then defined into two dimensions: the amount of market-valued skills schools impart and how well schools cultivate an educational identity. Using data from Add Health in the US, I test the major hypotheses from the theoretical model. On the one hand, school resources (average class size and teacher supply) and student-level curriculum have some effects on the math GPA scores. On the other hand, educational identity indicators (school-level happiness and participation at school teams, clubs or organizations) and the previous math GPA scores are significant determinants in students’ observable effort level such as absenteeism behavior, and through this channel both determinants indirectly influence math GPA achievement. These empirical results inform us that an identity-based behavioral model adds to a rational expectation educational choice model in understanding the widening academic achievement gap between adolescents from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The paper presents the limitation of using school resources to study the school quality and advocates a richer set of school quality measures. |
| Keywords: | identity, educational choice, school |
| JEL: | D81 I20 I30 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces09.17&r=edu |
| By: | Sarena Goodman (Columbia University - Department of Economics); Lesley Turner (Columbia University - Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In current debates regarding the future of education, teacher compensation schemes are often criticized for their lack of performance-based pay. Proponents of merit pay for teachers argue that tying teacher salaries to student achievement will induce teachers to focus on the success of their students and stimulate innovation in the school system as a whole. In this paper, we use a randomized policy experiment conducted in the New York City public school system to explore the effects of one group-based pay scheme. We investigate potential impacts of incentive pay over two academic years (2007-2008 and 2008-2009) on student performance on annual math and reading exams, teacher absences, and responses to environmental surveys of teachers and students. We also consider whether the program had differential outcomes on groups within schools that were especially likely to be targeted, given the particular incentive structure of the program. Last, we explore relative impacts on the market for teachers by examining end-of-year teacher turnover and the quality composition of newly hired teachers. In general, we find no significant effects of this program. However, there is some evidence that the program reduced teacher absenteeism in schools with a small number of teachers, and that these effects were weakened in larger schools by the presence of free-riding. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:clu:wpaper:0910-05&r=edu |
| By: | Djavad Salehi-Isfahani; Insan Tunali; Ragui Assaad |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a comparative study of private returns to schooling of urban men in Egypt, Iran, and Turkey using similar survey data and a uniform methodology. We employ three surveys for each country that span nearly two decades, from the 1980s to 2006, and, to increase the comparability of the estimates across surveys, we focus on urban men 20-54 years old and in full time wage and salary employment. Our aim is to learn how the monetary signals of rewards that guide individual decisions to invest in education are shaped by the institutions of education and labor markets in these countries. Our estimates generally support the stylized facts of the institutions of education and labor markets in Middle Eastern countries. Their labor markets have been described as dominated by the public sector and therefore relatively inflexible, and their education systems as more focused on secondary and tertiary degrees than teaching practical and productive skills. Returns in all countries are increasing in years of schooling, which is contrary to the Mincer assumption of linear returns but consistent with overemphasis on secondary and tertiary degrees. Low returns to vocational training relative to general upper secondary, which have been observed in many developing countries, are observed in Egypt and Iran, but not Turkey. This pattern of returns across countries seems to correspond to how students are selected into vocational and general upper secondary tracks, which is an important part of the education institutions of these countries, and the fact that Turkey’s economy is more open than the other two. Greater competitiveness in all three countries over time seems to have increased returns to university education and in few cases to vocational education, but not to general high school. |
| Keywords: | Egypt, Iran, Turkey, returns to education, Mincer equation, labor market institutions, education institutions, labor market flexibility |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vpi:wpaper:e07-17&r=edu |
| By: | Christopher M Gilbert; Francesca Modena |
| Abstract: | Many empirical and theoretical studies explore the effects of ex-ante risk and ex-post shocks on child education. While scholars share the opinion that shocks reduce investment in education, there is no general agreement over the effects of uncertainty on child schooling. This work uses the Indonesian Family Life Survey to explore the effects of ex-ante risk and ex-post shocks on school progression in rural Indonesia. We develop a model of household school transition decisions from elementary to junior education and from junior to senior school considering different sources of uncertainty related both to parental and adult income, and under the assumption that withdrawal from school is permanent. In this way, temporary interruptions in child schooling have long term impacts on the child human capital. We show that there is no simple answer to the question of how uncertainty affects schooling decisions. Econometric results suggest that uncertainty about parental income for the time the child may be potentially at school increases the probability of attending junior school while uncertainty about expected earnings from education has a negative and significant effect only for senior school attendance. Finally, positive (negative) income shocks increase (decrease) the probability of attending junior school. |
| Date: | 2009–11–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esx:essedp:679&r=edu |
| By: | Hensen Maud M.; Vries M. Robert de; Cörvers Frank (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | In this article we investigate the relationship between geographic mobility andeducation-job mismatch in the Netherlands. We focus on the role of geographicmobility in reducing the probability of graduates working (i) jobs below theireducation level; (ii) jobs outside their study fi eld; (iii) part-time jobs; (iv) fl exiblejobs; or (v) jobs paid below the wage expected at the beginning of the career. For thispurpose we use data on secondary and higher vocational education graduates in theperiod 1996–2001. We show that graduates who are mobile have higher probabilityof fi nding jobs at the acquired education level than those who are not. Moreover,mobile graduates have higher probability of fi nding full-time or permanent jobs.Th is suggests that mobility is sought to prevent not only having to take a job belowthe acquired education level, but also other education-job mismatches; graduates arespatially fl exible particularly to ensure full-time jobs. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2009009&r=edu |
| By: | Dimitris N. Chryssochoou |
| Abstract: | This paper employs a civic learning approach to discussing recent developments in citizenship education through an analysis of contemporary democratic thinking. By reviving Europe’s great democratic tradition in the sense of a liberal republicanist understanding of citizenship, it argues the case for the transformation of democratic norms into policy structures, educational initiatives and school curricula. Central to the analysis is the Council of Europe’s EDCHRE programme and the lessons to be drawn from this uniquely observed pan-European project that equips young people to participate actively in society and in daily school life. The paper makes an effort to present and evaluate various aspects of the Greek school curriculum that are relevant to the study. The general conclusion to be drawn is that citizenship education relates to the search for a ‘democracy of ideas’ in Pettit’s sense of the term that can link together two different incentives of civic learning: on the one hand, the notion of a participatory ethos at the traditional state level and, on the other, the practice of active citizenship alongside and even beyond that level. |
| Keywords: | citizenship education; civic learning; republican polity. |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hel:greese:27&r=edu |
| By: | Karen Robson (York University) |
| Abstract: | This presentation focuses on the author’s 8 years of experience teaching Stata to international audiences—primarily at the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection in the United Kingdom, but also in the World Bank funded statistical capacity-building initiatives in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania. The author has recently co-authored (with David Pevalin) The Stata Survival Manual, published by Open University/McGraw Hill. The author will focus on common student questions and some approaches she has used to assist students in learning the software. |
| Date: | 2009–11–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:csug09:05&r=edu |
| By: | Ciccone, Antonio (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Garcia-Fontes, Walter (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
| Abstract: | For Catalonia and Spain, public perception is that the PISA reports show that their education systems are underperforming. The goal of this chapter is to quantify how much of the Catalan and Spanish PISA score can be attributed to the education levels of parents and what part must instead be explained by other factors. To do so we use standard statistical techniques to examine how the Catalan and Spanish PISA score would have compared with other countries and regions if all had the same parental education levels and immigration levels. For Spain the main results show that there is a sizable increase in PISA scores relative to the rest of Europe when parental schooling is accounted for. But Spain's performance is rather poor to start out with and only rises to somewhat above average when accounting for parental education levels. For Catalonia accounting for parental education levels leads to small improvements in the PISA score compared to other Spanish regions and to Flanders, Lombardy, and Denmark. Moreover, immigration or the concentration of immigrants at some schools accounts for little of the below average performance of Catalonia. |
| Keywords: | Catalan education systems; Spanish education systems; |
| Date: | 2009–07–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0810&r=edu |
| By: | Tomás del Barrio-Castro (University of the Balearic Islands); José García-Quevedo (IEB, Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | In recent years various studies have examined the factors that may explain academic patents. Existing analyses have also underlined the substantial differences to be found in European countries in the institutional framework that defines property rights for academic patents. The objective of this study is to contribute to the empirical literature on the factors explaining academic patents and to determine whether the incentives that universities offer researchers contribute towards explaining the differences in academic patenting activity. The results of the econometric analysis for the Spanish universities point towards the conclusion that the principal factor determining the patents is funding of R&D while royalty incentives to researchers do not appear to be significant. |
| Keywords: | Patents, University, R&D |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:xrp:wpaper:xreap2009-14&r=edu |
| By: | Soohyung Lee; Benjamin A. Malin |
| Abstract: | We explore education's role in improving the allocation of labor between China's agricultural and nonagricultural sectors and measure the portion of China's recent growth attributable to this channel. Building from micro-level estimates, we find that education's impact on labor reallocation between sectors accounts for about 9 percent of Chinese growth, whereas its impact on within-sector human capital growth explains only 2 percent. Our findings suggest that, when frictions cause large productivity gaps across sectors and returns to education are greater in higher-productivity sectors, education policy may be a useful tool for increasing efficiency. |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2009-41&r=edu |
| By: | Matei, Lucica; Matei, Ani |
| Abstract: | Higher education in most European states is subject to a complex process of adaptation to the requirements formulated by Bologna process. For some states, such as Romania, this process assumes core restructuring of the content, aimed to its compatibility with that from prestigious European universities. For education in public administration, the developments have a specific character, benefiting of European mechanisms of evaluation, aimed to describe the degree of compatibility. One of the mechanisms is provided by the European Association for Public Administration Accreditation, taking into consideration complex evaluation standards and criteria in view of accreditation. Multidisciplinarity represents one of the important standards. Based on the general context of developing the programs in public administration, we may speak about Europeanization of their content; Europeanization reveals exactly the degree of absorption of the European values specific for the area of public administration in national higher education institutions. The Europeanization process represents a complex process that can cover several years and means step by step approaches by which the structure and content of the above programs should be convergent. In this context, the current paper aims a comparative analysis, based on statistic methods, providing an image about the current level of Europeanization of the content of programs in public administration between various universities in Romania, states in Central and Eastern Europe recently accessed into the European Union and developed countries in the European Union. Based the research methodology and using NASPA standards, our analysis will include American universities that are developing programs in public administration. Thus, the structure of the paper will comprise: -General framework for developing the European higher education after signing Bologna Declaration. -Research methodology based on EAPAA standards. -Presenting the results of the statistic analysis for 10 universities in Romania, 4 universities in Central and Eastern Europe and 4 universities in European developed states. -Comparing the results with those from 3-4 American universities and describing the relevant conclusions from the perspective of the content specific for governance issue. The paper uses information and reports of European and American universities about the content and development of programs in public administration as well as own studies of the authors |
| Keywords: | higher education; curricular compatibility; good governance |
| JEL: | A23 H83 I23 H89 |
| Date: | 2009–06–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:18626&r=edu |
| By: | Jaison R. Abel; Richard Deitz |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether the degree production and research and development (R&D) activities of colleges and universities are related to the amount and types of human capital present in the metropolitan areas where the institutions are located. We find that degree production has only a small positive relationship with local stocks of human capital, suggesting that migration plays an important role in the geographic distribution of human capital. Moreover, we show that spillovers from academic R&D activities tilt the structure of local labor markets toward occupations requiring innovation and technical training. These findings demonstrate that colleges and universities raise local human capital levels by increasing both the supply of and demand for skill. |
| Keywords: | Research and development ; Human capital ; Universities and colleges ; Regional economics ; Labor market |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsr:401&r=edu |