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on Education |
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Issue of 2010‒03‒06
two papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Steve Bradley; Jim Taylor; Giuseppe Migali |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effect on test scores of a UK education reform which has increased funding of schools and encouraged their specialisation in particular subject areas, en- hancing pupil choice and competition between schools. Using several data sets we apply matching methods to confront issues of the choice of an appropriate control group and different forms of selection bias. We demonstrate a statistically significant causal effect of the specialist schools policy on test score outcomes and test score gain. The effect peaks after 4 years, at which point the additional funding ceases. A specialisation effect occurs yielding relatively large improvements in test scores in particular subjects. |
| Keywords: | School Quality, Subject Specialisation, Matching models |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:006416&r=edu |
| By: | Cristina Cattaneo (Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | The present paper analyses the expenditure behavior of Albanian families. The objective is to cast some light upon the relationship between education expenditure and the volume of remittances, sent from abroad by household members. To assess the existence of an education enhancing effect of remittances, an Engel curve framework is employed, where heterogeneity in interests or in bargaining power among the members within the households is assumed. The empirical estimation accounts for the censored nature of the education expenditure through using Heckman two-step as well as a semiparametric model for sample selection. Finally, quintile regression analysis is employed to investigate whether migrants’ remittances have a differentiated effect on various quantiles of the conditional distribution of the education consumption. |
| Keywords: | Migrant Remittances, Engel Curves, Education expenditure |
| JEL: | R J |
| Date: | 2010–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2010.1&r=edu |