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on Education |
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Issue of 2010‒01‒30
nine papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | John Leach; A. Abigail Payne; Steve Chan |
| Abstract: | Over the last 20 years, states and provinces have become increasingly involved in the financing and administration of elementary and secondary education. Local school boards, however, still retain control over key aspects of the provision of education. Historically, these boards were organized at the community level so as to meet the wants of the local community. Today, states and provinces have become more interested in consolidating school boards and moving to a more centralized funding scheme. Do these changes result in improved student achievement? This paper attempts to answer these questions by examining the school board consolidation and funding changes instituted by the province of Ontario. We differentiate the effects of the policy changes based on observed differences in the school boards prior to consolidation. We show that students in previously high wealth school boards perform worse after the policy change compared to students in previously low wealth school boards. |
| Keywords: | school district consolidation; student achievement |
| JEL: | I20 I28 H75 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2010-02&r=edu |
| By: | Diego Restuccia; Guillaume Vandenbroucke |
| Abstract: | Between 1940 and 2000 there has been a substantial increase of educational attainment in the United States. What caused this trend? Using a simple model of schooling decisions, we assess the quantitative contribution of changes in the return to schooling in explaining the evolution of education. We restrict changes in the returns to schooling to match data on earnings across educational groups and growth in aggregate labor productivity. These restrictions imply modest increases in returns that nevertheless generate a substantial increase in educational attainment: average years of schooling increase by 37 percent in the model compared to 23 percent in the data. This strong quantitative effect is robust to relevant variations of the model including allowing for changes in the relative cost of acquiring education. We also find that the substantial increase in life expectancy observed during the period contributed to only 7 percent of the change in educational attainment in the model. |
| Keywords: | educational attainment, schooling, skill-biased technical progress, human capital |
| JEL: | E1 O3 O4 |
| Date: | 2010–01–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-388&r=edu |
| By: | David Card; Martin Dooley; Abigail Payne |
| Abstract: | The province of Ontario has two publicly funded school systems: secular schools (known as public schools) that are open to all students, and separate schools that are limited to children with Catholic backgrounds. A simple model of inter-system competition predicts that incentives for effort are higher in areas where there are more Catholic families who are relatively uncommitted to one system or the other. We measure the willingness of Catholic families to switch systems by studying the effect of school openings on enrollment at nearby schools in the competing system. The results suggest that families in rapidly growing areas have the weakest attachment to a particular system. We then relate student test score gains between 3rd and 6th grade to measures of potential cross-system competition. We find that competition for Catholic students has a significant effect on test outcomes in both systems, particularly in fast-growing areas. Our estimates imply that expanding competition to all students would raise average test scores in 6th grade by 6-8% of a standard deviation. |
| Keywords: | school competition; student achievement |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2010-01&r=edu |
| By: | Dalisay S. Maligalig; Jose Ramon G. Albert (Philippine Institute for Development Studies) |
| Abstract: | The second goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to achieve universal primary education. The target is to reach all the MDGs by 2015. Trends in education indicators for monitoring the second MDG suggest that Philippines may probably not meet the target on achieving universal primary education. Indicators that monitor gender disparity in primary and secondary education suggest that females are at an advantage over males. In this paper, various education indicators sourced from administrative reporting systems and surveys are looked into for assessing basic education in the country. Issues on the lack of comparability of figures from reporting systems, on the need to improve dissemination of education statistics, and on the need to properly link data with policy through a systematic monitoring and evaluation system are also discussed. |
| Keywords: | MDGs, education indicators, monitoring and evaluation |
| JEL: | I21 I28 H74 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:develo:1769&r=edu |
| By: | Aurora Galego (Department of Economics, University of Évora); António Caleiro (Department of Economics, University of Évora) |
| Abstract: | A traditional way of looking at the importance of universities assumes that these are sources of many positive effects from the point of view of the inputs, i.e. from a demand side perspective. In accordance to this perspective, the importance of a university can be measured by its multiplier effects, at a regional or national level. This perspective can be complemented with the analysis of the issues associated with the transition to work by their graduates. The paper thus analyses the factors that reveal to be explanatory of the time spent by first degree students of a small university in Portugal, the University of Évora, in order to enter the labour market. In doing so, we employ a sample of 767 students and estimate several specifications of discrete-time duration models. The results show that there are significant differences among the students from the several courses and highlight the importance of the final mark in the course. On the other hand, we did find any significant differences between male and female students. |
| Keywords: | Duration Models;Graduates; Labour Market; Universities |
| JEL: | J64 I23 C41 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:evo:wpecon:2009_06&r=edu |
| By: | Daniel Suryadarma; Asep Suryahadi; Sudarno Sumarto (SMERU Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | In this study we investigate the causes of low secondary school enrollment in Indonesia despite near universal primary school attendance. We then find that attrition during the transition between primary and junior secondary education levels is the main cause. We investigate the causes of attrition using a longitudinal household survey dataset. Firstly, household welfare level is a significant determinant of the low enrollment. Secondly, children from Muslim families have a significantly lower probability of continuing to the secondary level. Thirdly, children in areas with relatively abundant employment opportunities have a higher probability of giving up schooling. Fourthly, girls have a significantly lower chance of continuing. The policy implications of our results point to, among other things, the need for refocusing government education spending and scholarship programs to target those who go missing from the education system after completing primary education. |
| Keywords: | education, determinants, secondary school, enrollment, Indonesia |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J16 Z12 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:laborw:1635&r=edu |
| By: | M. Rocha (Faculdade de Economia e Gestão, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto)); Eva Oliveira (Faculdade de Economia e Gestão, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto)); Isabel Guimarães (Faculdade de Economia e Gestão, Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Porto)) |
| Abstract: | Together with the emphasis on the technical skills acquisition, higher education institutions have been making an effort on developing and updating undergraduate transferable competences in order to diminish the gap between academic training and working world entrance. In other words, to recognize market needs, teachers and students representations about human resources requirements, and combine them to boost employability in business professions, must be a priority in today’s knowledge based economy. Taking into account the new teaching realities brought by Bologna agreement, as well as the exertion universities have been done in order to tune in enterprises and curricula, this activity intended to accede the way recruiters, alumni and college teachers from Catholic University [CU; Porto Regional Center (PRC), Economics and Management Faculty (MEF)] positioned themselves relatively to some recruitment and selection criteria for management and economics professions. Using a reflection activity based upon Régnier’s Abacus, participants were asked to positioned individually as experts (in their roles as recruiters, teachers or former CU alumni) in identifying market value skills, and afterwards to build a group debated conclusion to present to a larger audience. Results pointed out only one total consensual factor, that is, flexibility and adjustment skills as the most important factors when recruiting, followed by entrepreneur capabilities and valorization of work experiences in the candidates curricula. Discrepancies were found by group of experts when college of origin was the discussion subject, although there was consensus about the hierarchical place order in the three groups. |
| Keywords: | Market valued skills, Management and Economics College Teachers and Graduates, Employers, Régnier’s Abacus based activity |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cap:mpaper:012010&r=edu |
| By: | Rosario G. Manasan; Janet S. Cuenca; Eden C. Villanueva-Ruiz (Philippine Institute for Development Studies) |
| Abstract: | Government education spending is expected to improve the well-being of beneficiaries and enhance their capability to earn income in the future. In this sense, directing education expenditures to the poor holds a promise for breaking the inter-generational transmission of poverty. Given this perspective, the paper addresses the question- to what extent has the poor benefited from government spending on education? In particular, it uses benefit incidence analysis to evaluate whether expenditures on education had redistributive impact. |
| Keywords: | benefit incidence analysis, targeting, Gini coefficient, concentration coefficient, concentration curve, education, poverty reduction |
| JEL: | H52 I28 I38 |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eab:develo:1773&r=edu |
| By: | Tulio A. Cravo (Loughborough University); Elias Soukiazis (University of Coimbra) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the convergence process in Brazil over the period of 1985-2004, giving a special attention to the role of human capital as a conditioning factor to convergence. It examines how different levels of human capital influence growth in different regions of Brazil. Different measures of human capital are used in the growth regressions and the results show that they play a significant role in explaining the growth process. The evidence indicates that different levels of human capital have different impacts on the per capita income growth, depending on the level of development of the states. Lower levels of human capital explain better the convergence among the less developed states and higher levels of human capital are more adequate among the more developed states. The impact of the relative intermediate levels of human capital on growth is stronger in all samples, suggesting the existence of threshold effect in education. |
| Keywords: | conditional convergence, human capital thresholds, panel data |
| JEL: | O O1 O15 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inf:wpaper:2009.1&r=edu |