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on Education |
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Issue of 2010‒02‒27
fourteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Peter Schneider; Dieter Sadowski (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EC, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | In many European countries efforts are undertaken to improve doctoral education. In the context of new public governance in the Higher Education sector, less state, more competition, less academic self-governance, more internal hierarchy and more influence by external stakeholders under the common roof of New Public Management (NPM) are considered most promising for successful PhD education. Therefore according to a steering model of American research universities many initiatives are undertaken to introduce more managerial elements in European university departments. Based on an explorative analysis of qualitative and quantitative data of 26 continental European, English and American economics departments, we investigate the steering effects of the five above mentioned governance dimensions in the years 2001 to 2002 on subsequent placement success of PhD graduates. To control the impact of resources on PhD education, next to governance regimes we added four different resource conditions to the analysis: financial resources, publication record of the department, total number of professors in a department and annual number of PhD graduates in a department, Using fuzzy-set QCA to analyze the data, our results deliver strong support for local best ways of steering configurations and no superiority of one system over the other. Introducing market elements though seems to be important in any governance system but only in combination with different co-conditions. In respect to our control conditions only financial resources contribute considerably to the understanding of steering PhD education. Our results strengthen the strong impact of competition as an effective governance instrument and take into account the relevance of financial resources. |
| Keywords: | New Public Governance, competition, higher education, PhD education, fsQCA |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:wpaper:201001&r=edu |
| By: | Chowdry, H.; Crawford, C.; Goodman, A. |
| Abstract: | This study examined why young people from poor families have lower attainment in school, are more likely to become NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) after compulsory education, and are more likely to participate in a range of risky behaviours whilst teenagers. The Longitudinal Study of Young People in England is combined with school and neighbourhood information to document the links between lower socio-economic position and poorer outcomes: identifying the key factors amongst parental education and material resources; school and neighbourhood peer groups; and the attitudes and beliefs of young people and their parents that help sustain those links. |
| Date: | 2009–04–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:ucllon:http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/18314/&r=edu |
| By: | Rodney Andrews; Vimal Ranchhod; Vijay Sathy |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of Texas's Top Ten Percent Rule - which grants automatic to any public college in Texas for Texas high school graduates who graduate in the top decile - and subsequent targeted recruitment programs initiated by Texas's flagship universities. Using data on SAT test takers in Texas from 1996-2004, we find that the Top Ten Percent rule affects the set of colleges that students consider, and the targeted recruitment programs are able to attract the attention of students from poor high schools that were not traditional sources of students for the flagships in Texas. |
| Date: | 2009–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:33&r=edu |
| By: | Sharmila, N; Dhas, Albert Christopher |
| Abstract: | Women constitute almost half of the population of the world. Education for women is the best way to improve the health, nutrition and economic status of a household that constitute a micro unit of a nation economy. In this context, it can be argued that lack of woman education can be an impediment to the country’s economic development. In India, women achieve far less education that of men. As per the Census report 2001, the literacy rate of women is 54.16 per cent and that of men is 65.38 per cent. There has been a sincere effort to improve the education attainment of women by both government and voluntary organizations. The changes in the policies and infrastructural supports on primary, secondary and higher education reflect the initiatives of the Government of India towards women education. This paper examined the trends in women education, the investments on education and infrastructural supports in India. The study revealed that there had been significant progress in the performance of women education revealed from female literacy levels and its change over time. It was also observed that the gaps between rural and urban female literacy rates are narrowing down. It was observed that rural poverty acts as a push factors for women’s education rather than as an obstacle to women’s education. The significant influence of urbanization on women’s education implied that urbanization had been playing a beneficial role in the attainment of women’s education in India. At the same time, the drop-out rate had a negative effect on women’s education. It revealed that that reduction of girl’s drop-out rates is necessary for achieving women’s education. The initiatives of the government through investment and infrastructure in developing education in India were examined. With regard to facilities in schools, it had improved significantly, but a lot more need to be done. In sum, the study revealed that there have been concerted efforts to encourage girls to attend schools, which would lead to higher literacy in future. The study also revealed that there are several infrastructural barriers to women education in India. The study calls for focused approach towards increasing women centred educational infrastructure so as to reduce the women drop-out rates and to improve female literacy levels in India. |
| Keywords: | Women Development; women education; women literacy; education infrastructure; Female literacy rate; women in India; Indian women; primary education; secondary education; higher education; India |
| JEL: | I2 A2 B54 |
| Date: | 2010–02–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:20680&r=edu |
| By: | Jorgen Hansen |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), this paper provides an up-to-date description of educational and labour market pathways (or transitions) among Canadian youth. It also estimates the effect of academic abilities, measured by PISA math and reading scores, on such transitions. Descriptive statistics show that educational success is positively related to math and reading achievements as well as family background characteristics. Further, working while in high school reduces educational attainment while participation in school organised activities increases the probability of grade progression. The results also indicate that students with low reading achievements are not only less likely to remain in school; they are also less likely to return to school once they have left school. Finally, the risk of entering unemployment after school is inversely related to the level of completed schooling.<BR>À partir des données de l’Enquête auprès des jeunes en transition (EJET), le présent document fournit une description actualisée des parcours (ou transitions) emprunté(e)s par les jeunes Canadiens dans les études et sur le marché du travail. Il évalue également l’effet de l’aptitude aux études, telle que mesurée par les scores PISA en mathématiques et compréhension de l’écrit, sur ces transitions. Des statistiques descriptives montrent que le succès dans les études est positivement corrélé à la réussite en mathématiques et en compréhension de l’écrit, ainsi qu’aux caractéristiques du contexte familial. Ensuite, on constate que le fait d’avoir un emploi lorsque l’on est encore dans l’enseignement secondaire exerce un effet négatif sur le niveau d’enseignement, tandis que la participation à des activités organisées par l’établissement scolaire augmente la probabilité d’obtenir de meilleures notes. Les résultats indiquent en outre que les élèves ayant obtenu de faibles scores en compréhension de l’écrit ne sont pas seulement moins susceptibles de rester dans l’éducation ; ils sont aussi moins susceptibles de retourner à leurs études une fois qu’ils les ont arrêtées. Enfin, le risque d’être au chômage après sa formation est inversement corrélé au niveau d’enseignement atteint. |
| Date: | 2010–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:30-en&r=edu |
| By: | López Bóo, Florencia (Inter-American Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Returns to schooling in urban Argentina increased from 1992 to 2003, a period of economic reforms and macroeconomic volatility. In this paper I provide the most consistent estimates of returns to education so far, while I also investigate earnings profiles over time. This paper contributes to the existing literature by employing a variety of methodologies in order to estimate these returns and by using macroeconomic time series to explore shifts in earnings. The pattern of the increasing returns to education changes after the 2001 crisis. Until then, increasing convexity in the earnings-education profile reflects increasing or stable earnings for college graduates combined with decreasing earnings for the less educated. After the crisis, the increasing premium to education results from wages falling at a faster pace for the less educated than for college graduates. This result is robust to endogenous supply responses, selection, specification, changes in the functional form and to the inclusion of household fixed effects. I also find that rates of return to education are upward biased by up to 20 per cent by the omission of unobserved family background factors (i.e. family fixed effects). Surprisingly, after controlling for macroeconomic variables I still find a statistically and economically significant downward trend for all earnings, particularly those of primary completers. |
| Keywords: | returns to schooling, earnings profiles, occupations, macroeconomic shocks, policy swings, Argentina |
| JEL: | I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4753&r=edu |
| By: | Fan, Elliott (Australian National University); Meng, Xin (Australian National University); Wei, Zhichao (Brown University); Zhao, Guochang (Australian National University) |
| Abstract: | Estimating the rate of return to a university degree has always been difficult due to the problem of omitted variable biases. Benefiting from a special feature of the University Admission system in China, which has clear cutoffs for university entry, combined with a unique data set with information on individual National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) scores, we estimate the Local Average Treatment Effects (LATE) of university education based on a Regression Discontinuity design. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to use RD design to estimate the causal effect of a university education on earnings. Our results show that the rates of return to 4-year university education relative to 3-year college education are 40 and 60 per cent for the compliers in the male and female samples, respectively, which are much larger than the simple OLS estimations revealed in previous literature. Since in our sample a large proportion of individuals are compliers (45 per cent for males and 48 per cent for females), the LATEs estimated in this paper have a relatively general implication. In addition, we find that the LATEs are likely to be larger than ATEs, suggesting that the inference drawn from average treatment effects might understate the true effects of the university expansion program introduced in China in 1999 and thereafter. |
| Keywords: | rate of return to education, regression discontinuity design, China |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4749&r=edu |
| By: | Peter Schneider (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EC, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | We present an explorative analysis from qualitative and quantitative data of fourteen European economics departments for the years 2001 to 2003 and investigate how one component of a successful PhD education, which is socializing PhD students into the academic community, should be designed in order to support intercultural collaboration among PhD students. We employ Multi-Value Qualitative Comparative Analysis (MVQCA) to analyze the data. Our results reveal unique patterns of socializing strategies present in economics departments with either high or low intercultural collaboration among PhD students. It turns out that high intercultural collaboration is characterized by two configurations of different socializing strategies. In the first configuration we find that a “high number of foreign PhD students” in a department sufficiently explains high intercultural collaboration as it is realized in American research universities. In the second configuration we find that a combination of “different backgrounds in academic disciplines” among PhD students with “active support for research visits” sufficiently explains high intercultural collaboration. Low intercultural collaboration is characterized by three single strategies: “Financing attendance at academic conferences or events about once per year”, “no active support for research visits” and a “small number of foreign PhD students”. Each condition is sufficient to explain the outcome. The results for high intercultural collaboration are not affected by any of five resource conditions we added as controls. Low intercultural collaboration though was partly co-explained by low amounts of extra time among faculty and low financial resources of the department. The results indicate that high intercultural collaboration is not only supported by a socializing strategy typical for American research universities but can also be achieved by different socializing strategies. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:wpaper:201002&r=edu |
| By: | Proto, Eugenio (University of Warwick); Sgroi, Daniel (University of Warwick); Oswald, Andrew J. (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | We live in a high-divorce age. It is now common for university faculty to have students who are touched by a recent divorce. It is likely that parents themselves worry about effects on their children. Yet there has been almost no formal research into the important issue of how recent parental-divorce affects students at university. This paper designs such a study. In it, to avoid 'priming', we measure students' happiness with life before we inquire into their family background. We also measure student achievement in a randomized-trial productivity task. Our results seem both of scientific interest and of potential interest to parents. This study finds no evidence that students suffer after parental divorce |
| Keywords: | labor productivity, divorce, well-being, happiness, experimental economics |
| JEL: | J24 C91 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4755&r=edu |
| By: | de Luna, Xavier (Umeå University); Stenberg, Anders (Stockholm University); Westerlund, Olle (Umeå University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine whether adult education delays retirement and increases labour force participation among the elderly, a mechanism suggested in the OECD strategy for “active ageing” and the “Lisbon strategy” of the EU. Using register data from Sweden, we analyse transcripts from adult education for the period 1979–2004 and annual earnings 1982–2004. We match samples of treated individuals, in adult education 1986–1989, and untreated on the propensity score. The timing of exit from the workforce is assessed by non-parametric estimation of survival rates in the labour force. The results indicate no effects of adult education on the timing of retirement. |
| Keywords: | Adult education; Retirement; Human capital; Labour supply; Pensions |
| JEL: | H52 H55 H75 I28 J14 J26 |
| Date: | 2010–01–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2010_002&r=edu |
| By: | Cally Ardington (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town); Murray Leibbrandt (SALDRU, School of Economics, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | This paper makes use of the Cape Area Panel study (CAPS), a longitudinal study of youth and their families in metropolitan Cape Town in order to broaden the empirical body of evidence of the causal impact of parental death on children’s schooling in South Africa in two dimensions. First, analysis of CAPS allows us to examine the extent to which results may generalize across geographically and socioeconomically distinct areas. Second, CAPS allows for an explicit exploration of whether the causal impact lessens as time since the parental death lengthens. Evidence from the CAPS is consistent with that from a large demographic surveillance site in rural KwaZulu-Natal in supporting the findings that mother’s deaths have a causal impact on children’s schooling outcomes and that there is no evidence of a causal effect of paternal loss on schooling for African children. The loss of a father has a significant negative impact on the education of coloured children but a significant amount of this impact is driven by socioeconomic status. We exploit the longitudinal data to investigate the extent to which orphan disadvantage precedes parental death and whether orphans begin to recover in the period following a parent’s death or whether they continue to fall behind. We find no evidence of orphan recovery in the period following their parent’s death and results suggest that negative impacts increase with the time since the parent died. The longer-run impact of parental death in childhood is also evident in an analysis of the completion of secondary schooling by early adulthood. These results suggest that parental death will reduce the ultimate human capital attainment of the child. |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:42&r=edu |
| By: | Amélie Goossens (DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.); Pierre-Guillaume Méon (Centre Emile Bernheim and DULBEA, Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.) |
| Abstract: | Using a survey of a large group of first and final-year students of different disciplines, to study their belief in the existence of mutual benefits of voluntary transactions, we observe significant differences between economics and business students on the one hand, and students of other disciplines on the other hand. Those differences increase over time, due to economics students increasingly supporting that belief, and other students increasingly disagreeing with it. Beliefs of students specializing in the same topic also become more homogeneous over time. We therefore report evidence of both a selection and a learning effect of studying different disciplines. |
| Keywords: | Higher education, learning, self-selection, beliefs, fairness of the market. |
| JEL: | A13 A20 B40 D01 D63 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:10-012&r=edu |
| By: | Tomasz Gluszynski; Justin Bayard |
| Abstract: | Over the last decade, Canada has experienced a substantial increase in the number of individuals participating in post-secondary education (PSE). This trend emphasizes the importance of understanding the pathways leading to PSE enrolment and the competencies that are associated with them. This chapter describes a range of possible education and work outcomes at the age of 21, and the pathways that led to them. It describes the wealth of information that is available in the combination of the PISA and YITS databases. This overview provides a useful context in which to consider the complexity and importance of transitioning to postsecondary education and work.<BR>Au cours des dix dernières années, le Canada a vu augmenter de façon substantielle le nombre de ses étudiants dans l’enseignement post-secondaire. Cette tendance montre bien l’importance de la compréhension des parcours menant à l’inscription dans l’enseignement post-secondaire et des compétences qui y sont associées. Le présent chapitre passe en revue une gamme de résultats possibles dans les études et sur le marché du travail à l’âge de 21 ans, ainsi que les parcours qui y ont mené. Il décrit l’abondance des informations disponibles via la mise en commun des bases de données PISA et EJET. Cette vue d’ensemble fournit un contexte utile pour examiner la complexité et l’importance des transitions vers l’enseignement post-secondaire et le travail. |
| Date: | 2010–02–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:31-en&r=edu |
| By: | Pia Lünstroth (Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the EC, University of Trier) |
| Abstract: | One of the main issues of the reform regarding a professor’s remuneration at German universities is the introduction of a performance-dependent salary. This paper applies relative rank order tournaments to special performance benefits at university level. It turns out that the awarding procedure can be categorized as different tournament types: the “Stufen-Modell” (level-model) is characterized as a U-type tournament and the “Leistungspunkte-Modell” (merit points-model) is described as a J-type tournament. Finally, procedures at 60 public-financed German universities are analyzed and compared to the explanations offered by tournament theory. |
| Keywords: | Reform der Professorenbesoldung, U-Typ und J-Typ-Turnier |
| JEL: | J33 M52 I23 |
| Date: | 2009–11–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iaa:wpaper:200904&r=edu |