|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2010‒07‒17
thirteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Tia Linda Zuze (Independent Researcher) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the important relationship between policy variables that represent a school’s human resources and product variables in the form of student performance in Botswana’s schools. A focus of particular interest is if the teaching environment is related to student success and whether it can promote equity in learning between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Data for the study are drawn from a rich survey of students, teachers and schools in Southern and Eastern Africa. There is modest evidence to suggest that students attending well resourced schools are likely to perform better, irrespective of their background. The results points to a clear association between teacher content preparation and student achievement. Regular assessment is associated with better performance and greater social equity between students within the same school. Policy implications related to teacher preparation programmes in Botswana are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Botswana, education production function, demand for schooling, teacher evaluation, teacher knowledge, teacher education |
| JEL: | C10 H52 I21 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers114&r=edu |
| By: | Yamamura, Eiji |
| Abstract: | Empirical results using cross-country data suggest that public spending on education increases the rate of students skipping school but does not influence the rate of students completing school. This infers that public spending on education leads to a deterioration in the effectiveness of education. |
| Keywords: | Public spending; education; skipping class; incentive; |
| JEL: | I21 H52 |
| Date: | 2010–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:23657&r=edu |
| By: | Falck, Oliver (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Woessmann, Ludger (Ifo Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | School choice research mostly focuses on academic outcomes. Policymakers increasingly view entrepreneurial traits as a non-cognitive outcome important for economic growth. We use international PISA-2006 student-level data to estimate the effect of private-school competition on students' entrepreneurial intentions. We exploit Catholic-Church resistance to state schooling in 19th century as a natural experiment to obtain exogenous variation in current private-school shares. Our instrumental-variable results suggest that a 10 percentage-point higher private-school share raises students' entrepreneurial intentions by 0.3-0.5 percentage points (11-18 percent of the international mean) even after controlling for current Catholic shares, students' academic skills, and parents' entrepreneurial occupation. |
| Keywords: | private school competition, entrepreneurship, Catholic schools |
| JEL: | I20 L33 L26 Z12 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5024&r=edu |
| By: | Green, Francis (Institute of Education, University of London); Machin, Stephen (University College London); Murphy, Richard (CEP, London School of Economics); Zhu, Yu (University of Kent) |
| Abstract: | Despite its relatively small size, the private school sector plays a prominent role in British society. This paper focuses on changing wage and education differentials between privately educated and state educated individuals in Britain. It reports evidence that the private/state school wage differential has risen significantly over time, despite the rising cost to sending children to private school. A significant factor underpinning this has been faster rising educational attainment for privately educated individuals. Despite these patterns of change, the proportion attending private school has not altered much, nor have the characteristics of those children (and their parents) attending private school. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the idea that the private school sector has been successful in transforming its ability to generate the academic outputs that are most in demand in the modern economy. Because of the increased earnings advantage, private school remains a good investment for parents who want to opt out, but it also contributes more to rising economic and social inequality. |
| Keywords: | returns to education, private schools |
| JEL: | I22 I29 J31 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5018&r=edu |
| By: | Mühlenweg, Andrea M. |
| Abstract: | Germany has recently made extensive reforms in its tertiary education system. Traditional degrees are being replaced by Bachelor and Master programs. This study examines the question of how the choice of a new Bachelor program as opposed to a traditional degree program has affected first-year students' satisfaction. Three dimensions of student satisfaction are focused upon: Student satisfaction with teaching, student satisfaction with the organization of the study programs, as well as an indicator for students' personal problems within the academic context. The selection into the type of program is taken into account as I control for individual performance at secondary school, motivation and family background and try different robustness checks. The main specification includes fixed effects on the level of institutions and subjects. Results robustly point to minor differences between the programs. The outcomes are slightly more favorable for students in the new programs compared to the traditional programs in recent years. -- |
| Keywords: | Bologna,reforms,evaluation,fixed effects,student satisfaction |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10040&r=edu |
| By: | Arnaud Chevalier (Royal Holloway - University of London and IZA); Colm Harmon (University College Dublin and IZA); Vincent O'Sullivan (University of Warwick); Ian Walker (Lancaster University Management School and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This paper addresses the intergenerational transmission of education and investigates the extent to which early school leaving (at age 16) may be due to variations in parental background. An important contribution of the paper is to distinguish between the causal effects of parental income and parental education levels. Least squares estimation reveals conventional results – weak effects of income (when the child is 16), stronger effects of maternal education than paternal, and stronger effects on sons than daughters. We find that the education effects remain significant even when household income is included. However, when we use instrumental variable methods to simultaneously account for the endogeneity of parental education and paternal income, only maternal education remains significant (for daughters only) and becomes stronger. These estimates are consistent to various set of instruments. The impact of paternal income varies between specifications but become insignificant in our preferred specification. Our results provide limited evidence that policies alleviating income constraints at age 16 can alter schooling decisions but that policies increasing permanent income would lead to increased participation (especially for daughters). There is also evidence of intergenerational transmissions of education choice from mothers to daughters. |
| Keywords: | Early school leaving, intergenerational transmission |
| JEL: | I20 J62 |
| Date: | 2010–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201032&r=edu |
| By: | Jones, A.;; Rice, N.;; Rosa Dias, P. |
| Abstract: | Members of the National Child Development Study (NCDS) cohort attended very different types of secondary school, as their schooling lay within the transition period of the comprehensive education reform in England and Wales. This provides a natural setting to explore the impact of educational attainment and of school quality on health and health-related behaviour later in life. We use a combination of matching methods and parametric regressions to deal with selection effects and to evaluate differences in adult health outcomes and health-related behaviour for cohort members exposed to the old selective and to the new comprehensive educational systems. |
| Keywords: | Health; Education; Comprehensive schooling; Cognitive ability; Non-cognitive skills; NCDS |
| JEL: | I12 I28 C21 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:10/11&r=edu |
| By: | Gill Wyness (Institute for Fiscal Studies, 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE, UK.) |
| Abstract: | The subject of how to finance Higher Education (HE) has been on the agenda of successive UK governments since the 1960s. The UK has moved from a situation where the taxpayer footed the entire bill for HE, to a system where graduates themselves must contribute part of the cost of their education. Further changes to the HE system are expected soon, as an independent review of the HE system, chaired by Lord Browne, makes its recommendations this year. This paper documents the entire time line of major policy events affecting UK higher education finance, starting from the 1960’s and going up to the present day. |
| Keywords: | higher education, education funding policy |
| JEL: | I22 I28 H52 N34 |
| Date: | 2010–07–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1015&r=edu |
| By: | Alan Smith |
| Abstract: | This paper examines truth and reconciliation commissions that have made reference to a longer-term role for education in coming to terms with the past and contributing towards future reconciliation. The countries reviewed are Guatemala, Liberia, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Timor-Leste. Some have developed strategies for children's participation and made recommendations for inclusion in the formal school curriculum. However, recommendations regarding a role for education have usually been very general in nature, with little specification of what is expected of educators in practical terms and little follow-through by education authorities. The paper therefore identifies a number of challenges if education is to have a role in truth and reconciliation. It also identifies potential areas for educational development and recommendations for future actions. |
| Keywords: | children in armed conflicts; education; juvenile justice; right of self-expression; right to care and protection; transitional justice; |
| JEL: | K19 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inwopa:inwopa607&r=edu |
| By: | Cortes, Kalena E. (Syracuse University); Friedson, Andrew I. (Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | Texas engaged in a large-scale policy experiment when it instituted the Top 10% Plan. This policy guarantees automatic admission to their state university of choice for all high school seniors who graduate in the top decile of their high school class. We find evidence that households reacted strategically to this policy by moving to neighborhoods with lower-performing schools, increasing both property values and the number of housing units in those areas. These effects are concentrated among schools that were very low-performing before the change in policy; property values and the number of housing units did not change discontinuously for previously high-performing school districts. We also find evidence that these strategic reactions were influenced by the number of local schooling options available: areas that had fewer school choices showed no reaction to the Top 10% Plan. |
| Keywords: | property values, college choice, affirmative action, Top 10% Plan |
| JEL: | H31 H41 H73 I20 |
| Date: | 2010–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5026&r=edu |
| By: | Martin Gustafsson (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Servaas van der Berg (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Debra Shepherd (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch); Cobus Burger (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | In South Africa there has been a surge in publicly funded adult literacy education in recent years. There is a recognition that for the effective monitoring of adult literacy, direct measures of literacy are required. Grade attainment, self-reported ability to read and behavioural variables relating to, for instance, reading habits produce vastly different measures of adult literacy in South Africa. It is noteworthy that self-reported values change over time as people’s perceptions of what consitutes literacy shifts. A 75% literacy rate is arguably a plausible figure, though the absence of a direct measure is problematic. An education production function suggests that literacy-related parent behaviour, independently of parent years of education, influences performance of learners in school. In a multivariate employment model, self-reported literacy is a statistically significant predictor of being employed. In a cross-country growth model, poor quality schooling emerges as the variable requiring the most urgent policy attention to sustain and improve South Africa’s economic development. Both microeconomic and macroeconomic estimates suggest that with a more typical level of school performance South Africa’s GDP would be 23% to 30% higher than it currently is. |
| Keywords: | Literacy, Illiteracy, South Africa, Education production function, Economic growth |
| JEL: | C35 D23 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers113&r=edu |
| By: | Claude Lemelin |
| Abstract: | The topic of this paper is public financing of university education in Quebec, which is analysed from the point of view of scarcity: even governments must submit to this reality. Our argument is built around three questions: How much should society spend? How should the burden be distributed between students or their relatives and governments? Which form should the public contribution take? Answers to these questions lead to proposals of reform. Ours pay attention to the distribution of burden and the form of public spending much more than to the level of overall spending. Student fees should be increased in Quebec, and reflect the varying costs of different programs. Student aid should also be increased but given more selectively, to those students who are more sensitive to price. A larger access to loans should be considered only on the condition that these loans cease to be subsidized. <P>Dans ce texte, nous considérons le financement public de l’enseignement universitaire au Québec. L’angle retenu est la rareté, à laquelle même les gouvernements sont soumis. Notre propos s’organise autour de trois questions : quel effort devrait consentir la société québécoise? Comment répartir le fardeau de cet effort entre les principaux acteurs : les étudiants ou leurs proches, et les gouvernements? Quelle forme donner à la contribution publique? La réponse à ces questions nous mène à suggérer des pistes de réforme. Plus que le niveau des dépenses, ce sont la répartition du fardeau et la forme de l’intervention publique qui devraient être modifiées en priorité. Nous sommes favorables à l’augmentation et à la modulation des droits de scolarité. L’aide financière aux étudiants devrait aussi être augmentée, mais continuer d’être réservée aux plus démunis; l’accès accru à cette aide ne devrait se faire qu’au prix de la disparition de la subvention aux prêts. |
| Keywords: | finance, public, education, university, student, fees, aid , financement public, enseignement, université, étudiant, droits de scolarité, aide |
| JEL: | I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2010–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirpro:2010rp-06&r=edu |
| By: | Mani, Subha; Hoddinott, John; Strauss, John |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies the cumulative impact of early schooling investments on later schooling outcomes in the context of a developing country, using enrollment status and relative grade attainment (RGA) as short- and long-run measures of schooling. Using a child-level longitudinal dataset from rural Ethiopia, we estimate a dynamic conditional schooling demand function where the coefficient estimate on the lagged dependent variable captures the impact of all previous periods’ schooling inputs and resources. We find that this lagged dependent variable indicates a strong positive association between current and lagged schooling. Past history matters more for girls than boys and for children from higher-income households compared with the poor. |
| Keywords: | panel data, Schooling, value-added, |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:981&r=edu |