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on Education |
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Issue of 2010‒04‒04
twelve papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Khattri, Nidhi; Ling, Cristina; Jha, Shreyasi |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effect of school-based management on student performance in the Philippines using the administrative dataset of all public schools in 23 school districts over a 3-year period, 2003-2005. The authors test whether schools that received early school-based management interventions (training in school-based management and direct funding for school-based reforms) attained higher average test scores than those that did not receive such inputs. The analysis uses school-level overall composite test scores (comprising all subject areas tested) and test scores in three separate subject areas: English, math, and science. Their preferred estimator, difference-in-difference with propensity score matching, shows that the average treatment effect of participation in school-based management was higher by 1.5 percentage points for overall composite scores, 1.2 percentage points for math scores, 1.4 percentage points for English scores, and 1.8 percentage points for science scores. These results suggest that the introduction of school-based management had a statistically significant, albeit small, overall positive effect on average school-level test scores in 23 school districts in the Philippines. The paper provides a first glimpse of the potential for school-based management in an East Asian context based on available administrative data. The authors suggest that the next order of research is to answer policy-related questions regarding the reforms: what aspects of the reform lead to desired results; are there differential effects across subpopulations; and what are the potential downsides to the reforms? The Philippines is embarking on a nation-wide implementation of school-based management and the authors recommend that mechanisms for rigorous evaluations be advanced simultaneously. Such evaluations should not only provide more accurate estimates of the effectiveness of the reforms, but also help answer policy-related questions regarding design and implementation of those reforms in different socio-cultural contexts. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Education For All,Teaching and Learning,Secondary Education,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2010–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5248&r=edu |
| By: | BenDavid-Hadar, Iris (Bar-Ilan University); Ziderman, Adrian (Bar-Ilan University) |
| Abstract: | This paper sets out a new budget allocation formula for schools, designed to achieve a more equitable distribution of educational achievement. In addition to needs-based elements, the suggested composite allocation formula includes an improvement component, whereby schools receive budgetary allocations based on a new incentive measure developed in this paper (Improvement in the Educational Achievement Distribution, or IEAD). The development of the budget allocation formula is demonstrated utilizing Israeli data. Large scale, nationwide data sets relating students’ academic achievement to student background variables, teacher profiles and school characteristics, were analyzed to identify appropriate needs-based formula components and to estimate their weights. The results are compared with the funding formulas currently used in Israel. |
| Keywords: | school finance, formular funding, needs-based funding, schools resource allocation, Israel |
| JEL: | I22 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4822&r=edu |
| By: | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (London School of Economics); Vassilis Tselios (University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC), London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Relatively little attention has been paid to the role that externalities play in determining the pecuniary returns to migration. This paper addresses this gap, using microeconomic data for more than 100,000 individuals living in the European Union (EU) for the period 1994-2001 in order to analyse whether the individual economic returns to education vary between migrants and nonmigrants and whether any observed differences in earnings between migrants and locals are affected by household and/or geographical (regional and interregional) externalities. The results point out that while education is a fundamental determinant of earnings., European labour markets – contrary to expectations – do not discriminate in the returns to education between migrants and non-migrants. The paper also finds that household, regional, and interregional externalities influence the economic returns to education, but that they do so in a similar way for local, intranational, and supra-national migrants. The results are robust to the introduction of a large number of individual, household, and regional controls. |
| Keywords: | Individual Earnings, Migration, Educational Attainment, Externalities, Household, Regions, Europe |
| JEL: | J |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2010.25&r=edu |
| By: | Thomas Otter; Varlos Villalobos Barría (University of Goettingen / Germany) |
| Abstract: | The idea that schooling scores depend on a combination of family background characteristics, ability and school (institutional) variables is quite clear. Regarding the issue of intergenerational transmission of inequality in the educational system, the most important question would be if and to what extent could a better institutional performance of the school service compensate for problems related to family background. By means of the estimation of a reduced form equation for selected scores, we investigate the impact of institutional performance on scores after controlling for family background and individual characteristics. We do this by using a novel data set and an OLS and quantile regression approach to analyze how heterogeneous the process of score generation can be. By providing integral health solutions, minimizing under-nutrition and providing ideal conditions in the classroom, training teachers can impact positively on low and mean learning outcomes, thus contributing to an improved educational quality and breaking cycles of intergenerational transmission of inequality. Increasing learning outcomes for levels above the median, only strengthens the transmission of inequality. Consequently, the equality approach should focus on trying to improve the worst scores and our results show that this can be reached at a significant level closing teacher training gaps, improving classroom conditions and improving health and nutrition. |
| JEL: | A21 H52 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2010–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:198&r=edu |
| By: | Corak, Miles (University of Ottawa); Lauzon, Darren (Statistics Canada) |
| Abstract: | This paper adopts the technique of DiNardo, Fortin and Lemieux (1996) to decompose differences in the distribution of PISA test scores in Canada, and assesses the relative contribution of differences in the distribution of “class size” and time-in-term, other school factors and student background factors. Class size and time-in-term are both important school choice variables and we examine how provincial achievement differences would change if the Alberta distribution of class size and time-in-term prevailed in the other provinces. Results differ by province, and for provinces where mean achievement gaps would be lower, not all students would benefit. |
| Keywords: | educational economics, human capital, input-output analysis |
| JEL: | I22 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4824&r=edu |
| By: | Hendrik Jürges (Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA)) |
| Abstract: | Using data from the Health Survey for England and the English Longitudinal Study on Ageing, we estimate the causal effect of schooling on health. Identification comes from two nation wide increases in British compulsory school leaving age in 1947 and 1973, respectively. Our study complements earlier studies exploiting compulsory schooling laws as source of exogenous variation in schooling by using biomarkers as measures of health outcomes in addition to self-reported measures. We find a strong positive correlation between education and health, both self-rated and measured by blood fibrinogen and C-reactive protein levels. However, we find ambiguous causal effects of schooling on women's self-rated health and insignificant causal effects of schooling on men's self-rated health and biomarker levels in both sexes. |
| Keywords: | Health, Compulsory schooling, Biomarkers, Regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2009–07–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mea:meawpa:09183&r=edu |
| By: | Brian Nolan (School of Applied Social Science, University College Dublin); Gosta Esping-Andersen (Universitat Pompeu Fabre, Barcelona); Christopher T. Whelan (School of Sociology, University College Dublin); Bertrand Maitre (The Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin) |
| Abstract: | The primary goal of inter-generational mobility (IGM) research has always been to explain how and why social origins influence peoples’ life chances. This has naturally placed family attributes at centre stage. But the role of social institutions, most notably education systems, as a mediating factor has also been central to IGM theory. Indeed, generations of stratification research were premised on the core assumption that equalizing access to education would weaken the impact of social origins. In theory, policies, institutions, as well as macro-economic and historical context, have been identified as crucial in shaping patterns of social mobility (D’Addio, 2007). But apart from education, empirical research has contributed little concrete evidence on how this occurs. |
| Date: | 2010–03–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201018&r=edu |
| By: | Belzil, Christian (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris); Hansen, Jörgen (Concordia University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate if, and under which conditions, the distinction between dictatorial and incentive-based policy interventions affects the capacity of Instrument Variable (IV) methods to estimate the relevant treatment effect parameter of an outcome equation. The analysis is set in a non-trivial framework, in which the right-hand side variable of interest is affected by selectivity, and the error term is driven by a sequence of unobserved life-cycle endogenous choices. We show that, for a wide class of outcome equations, incentive-based policies may be designed so to generate a sufficient degree of post-intervention randomization (a lesser degree of selection on individual endowments among the sub-population affected). This helps the instrument to fulfill the orthogonality condition. However, for a same class of outcome equation, dictatorial policies that enforce minimum consumption cannot meet this condition. We illustrate these concepts within a calibrated dynamic life cycle model of human capital accumulation, and focus on the estimation of the returns to schooling using instruments generated from mandatory schooling reforms and education subsidies. We show how the nature of the skill accumulation process (substitutability vs complementarity) may play a fundamental role in interpreting IV estimates of the returns to schooling. |
| Keywords: | returns to schooling, instrumental variable methods, dynamic discrete choice, dynamic programming, local average treatment effects |
| JEL: | B4 C1 C3 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4835&r=edu |
| By: | Strulik, Holger |
| Abstract: | This paper theoretically investigates how community approval or disapproval affects school attendance and child labor and how aggregate behavior of the community feeds back towards the formation and persistence of an anti- (or pro-) schooling norm. The proposed community-model continues to take aggregate and idiosyncratic poverty into account as an important driver of low school attendance and child labor. But it provides also an explanation for why equally poor villages or regions can display different attitudes towards schooling. Distinguishing between three different modes of child time allocation, school attendance, work, and leisure, the paper shows how the time costs of schooling and child labor productivity contribute to the existence of a locally stable anti-schooling norm. It proposes policies that effectively exploit the social dynamics and initiate a permanent escape from the anti-schooling equilibrium. An extension of the model explores how an education contingent subsidy paid to the poorest families of a community manages to initiate a bandwagon effect towards "education for all". The optimal mechanism design of such a targeted transfer program is investigated. |
| Keywords: | School Attendance, Child Labor, Social Norms, Targeted Transfers |
| JEL: | I20 I29 J13 O12 |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:han:dpaper:dp-441&r=edu |
| By: | Di Pietro, Giorgio (University of Westminster) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a regression-discontinuity design to identify the causal impact of degree class on the first destinations of UK graduates. We exploit the discontinuous relationship between degree class and the mean grade achieved by graduates in their last year at university, which is induced by the administrative rules used for the determination of degree class. More specifically, we compare the average first-destination outcome of graduates with a mean grade that just allowed them to get a given class of degree with the average first-destination outcome of those with a mean grade that made them just miss the chance of achieving the same class of degree. Our empirical analysis focuses on graduates who graduated from a post-1992 university in the period January-July 2008. The results are consistent with the view that degree class does not truly affect the first destinations of graduates, but it picks up the effect of other ability indicators that are typically not observed by researchers. Hence this finding questions the signaling role of degree class. |
| Keywords: | first destinations of graduates, regression discontinuity design, degree classification |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J23 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4836&r=edu |
| By: | Camacho, Carmen (Université Catholique de Louvain); Shen, I-Ling (Université Catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the role of public education in the context of parental migration, and it studies the effects of an expansive income tax policy that is adopted to increase public education expenditure per pupil. It is shown that such a policy may exacerbate income inequality in the long run if for the less skilled dynasties, the benefits of more public spending on education does not make up for the negative effects of increased parental absences. However, if the migration-induced tax base erosion is not severe, an expansive income tax policy indeed enhances future human capital for all dynasties, and moreover, it may help the less skilled households escape from the poverty trap, thus reducing long-run income inequality. |
| Keywords: | human capital, income inequality, parental migration, public education expenditure, tax base erosion |
| JEL: | H20 H52 O15 O40 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4833&r=edu |
| By: | Tomoki Sekiguchi (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the potential benefit of college students' part-time work on their career development by focusing on leader-member exchange (LMX) and taking charge behavior in the workplace. Using a sample of Japanese college students, results from this study indicate that taking charge behavior in part-time work mediates the relationship between LMX quality with supervisors and career development (focus of career exploration, self-efficacy toward postcollege employment and proactive career behavior). The results also indicate that proactive personality and conscientiousness moderate the relationship between LMX quality and taking charge behavior, and that job autonomy and skill variety moderate the relationship between taking charge behaviors and career development. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. |
| Keywords: | part-time work, leader-member exchange, taking charge behavior, career development, college student |
| JEL: | J24 J40 M12 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1010&r=edu |