|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2012‒04‒10
eleven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | NISHIMURA Kazuo; HIRATA Junichi; YAGI Tadashi; URASAKA Junko |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examined the impact of changes in the content of science learning on the formation of personal capacity and on the competitiveness of workers in the labor market, by analyzing data on the incomes of university graduates. In order to analyze the impact of changes in the Guidelines for the curriculum, we divided the samples into three groups according to the curriculum applied to their high school education (pre-Yutori Education generation, Yutori Education generation, New Outlook on Academic Achievement generation). Our analysis showed that the younger the sampled subject, or, to put it another way, the lesser the emphasis on subject-based learning, the greater the negative effect on learning in the science subjects, manifesting itself in a tendency for students to adopt an unfavorable view of science subjects. Moreover, our results also showed that, in every generation, physics learning contributed to an increase in income, and further implied that physics learning was also a significant factor in the formation of earning capacity. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:12001&r=edu |
| By: | Riddell, Chris; Riddell, Craig |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether policies that encourage recipients to exit welfare for full-time employment influence participation in educational activity. The Self-Sufficiency Project (‘SSP’) was a demonstration project where long-term welfare recipients randomly assigned to the treatment group were offered a generous earnings supplement if they exited welfare for full-time employment. We find that treatment group members were less likely to upgrade their education along all dimensions: high-school completion, enrolling in a community college or trade school, and enrolling in university. Thus, ‘work-first’ policies that encourage full-time employment may reduce educational activity and may have adverse consequences on the long-run earnings capacity of welfare recipients. We also find that there was a substantial amount of educational upgrading in this population. For instance, among high-school dropouts at the baseline, 19% completed their diploma by the end of the demonstration. Finally, we simulate the consequences of the earnings supplement in the absence of adverse effects on educational upgrading. Doing so alters the interpretation of the lessons from the SSP demonstration. |
| Keywords: | welfare policy, human capital, experimental methods, earnings supplementation |
| JEL: | I38 J08 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2012-11&r=edu |
| By: | Naci H. Mocan; Duha Tore Altindag |
| Abstract: | Using data from the NLSY97 we analyze the impact of education on health behaviors, measured by smoking and heavy drinking. Controlling for health knowledge does not influence the impact of education on health behaviors, supporting the productive efficiency hypothesis. Although cognition, as measured by test scores, appears to have an effect on the relationship between education and health behaviors, this effect disappears once the models control for family fixed effects. Similarly, the impact of education on smoking and heavy drinking is the same between those with and without a learning disability, suggesting that cognition is not likely to be a significant factor in explaining the impact of education on health behaviors. |
| JEL: | I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17949&r=edu |
| By: | Esther Duflo; Pascaline Dupas; Michael Kremer |
| Abstract: | We examine a program that enabled Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) in Kenya to hire novice teachers on short-term contracts, reducing class sizes in grade one from 82 to 44 on average. PTA teachers earned approximately one-quarter as much as teachers operating under central government civil-service institutions but were absent one day per week less and their students learned more. In the weak institutional environment we study, civil-service teachers responded to the program along two margins: first, they reduced their effort in response to the drop in the pupil-teacher ratio, and second, they influenced PTA committees to hire their relatives. Both effects reduced the educational impact of the program. A governance program that empowered parents within PTAs mitigated both effects. Better performing contract teachers are more likely to transition into civil-service positions and we estimate large potential dynamic benefits of contract teacher programs on the teacher workforce. |
| JEL: | D71 I21 M51 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17939&r=edu |
| By: | Barr, Abigail; Packard, Truman; Serra, Danila |
| Abstract: | There is general agreement that the existence of participatory institutions is a necessary condition for accountability, especially where top-down institutions are malfunctioning or missing. In education, the evidence on the effectiveness of participatory accountability is mixed. This paper argues that participation is a social dilemma and therefore depends, at least partly, on individuals'propensity to cooperate with others for the common good. This being the case, the mixed evidence could be owing to society-level heterogeneities in individuals'willingness and ability to overcome collective action problems. The authors investigate whether individuals'propensity to cooperate plays a role in parents'decisions to participate in both a school accountability system -- a"short route"to accountability -- and parliamentary elections -- a"long route"to accountability -- by combining survey data on 1,800 individuals'participation decisions with measures of their willingness to contribute to a public good in the context of a very simple, clearly defined laboratory experiment. They conduct a study in a new democracy, Albania, involving parents of children enrolled in primary schools. The findings confirm that, both across individuals within communities and across communities, the decision to hold teachers and school directors accountable directly through participation at the school level, and indirectly through political participation correlates with cooperativeness in a simple public goods game. |
| Keywords: | Parliamentary Government,Education For All,Tertiary Education,Primary Education,Governance Indicators |
| Date: | 2012–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6027&r=edu |
| By: | Mohd Amran Mahat; Lai Ming Ling |
| Abstract: | Purpose –This paper aimed (i) to solicit undergraduates‟ opinions on tax education, and (ii) to identify undergraduates‟ preferences on taxation topics. Design/methodology/approach – The paper used a survey to collect data. Survey questionnaires were personally administered on 575 undergraduates from accounting and non-accounting faculties in one of the public universities in Malaysia. Findings – The findings revealed that more than 90% of the respondents perceived that tax education is important and relevant, and should be introduced at the undergraduate levels. The survey also found that „Personal Taxation‟ and „Tax Planning for Individuals‟ were the two most preferred tax topics that undergraduates wished to learn. Originality/value – The paper support the call to introduce tax education into non-accounting curriculum in disseminating tax knowledge for better tax compliance among future taxpayers. -- |
| Keywords: | Tax education,Non-accounting curriculum,Undergraduates,Malaysia |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esconf:56066&r=edu |
| By: | Somlanaré Romuald Kinda (CERDI - Centre d'études et de recherches sur le developpement international - CNRS : UMR6587 - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the existence of convergence and the importance of education on carbon dioxide growth per capita, over the period 1970-2004 for 85 countries. We use panel data and apply GMM-System estimation. This rigorous approach takes into account the observed and unobserved heterogeneity of countries, and solves the endogeneity problems associated with some variables. Our results suggest a divergence in per capita carbon dioxide emissions around the world, and that education is not a factor in carbon dioxide emissions growth. Contrary to commonly held beliefs based on intuition, we provide evidence that, in developing countries, there is no convergence, and that education is not a factor in carbon dioxide growth. In developed countries, we find a convergence for per capita carbon dioxide emissions. Education was found to be a factor in pollution growth, although its effect is mitigated by the presence of political institutions. |
| Keywords: | Convergence in carbon dioxide; Education; System GMM |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00684315&r=edu |
| By: | O'Sullivan, Vincent |
| Abstract: | Using data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, I find that exogenous changes in the schooling of men born into lower social class families in Ireland during the late 1940s and 1950s had a statistically significant positive effect on their self-reported health in later life. I also find that the increased level of schooling had a statistically significant positive effect on physical exercise in later life as well as reducing the probability of an individual experiencing certain non-cardiovascular chronic conditions. However no statistically significant effect was found in relation to cardiovascular disease, self-rated mental health, smoking behaviour or self-reported and objectively measured memory although there is a high degree of imprecision in these estimates. |
| Keywords: | education/data/Social class/Ireland |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp429&r=edu |
| By: | Svensson, Mikael (Dept. of Economics); Persson, Mattias (Örebro University) |
| Abstract: | We use a discrete choice experiment conducted in Sweden to elicit the willingness to pay (WTP) to reduce school bullying. The estimations indicate a mean marginal WTP of 5.95 to 8.48 Swedish kronor (€0.66 to €0.95), which implies that the aggregate WTP for each reduced statistical victim of bullying (the value of a statistical bullying-victim - VSBV) is 585,090 to 835,280 Swedish kronor (€65,446 to €93,431). The results may be used to conduct economic evaluations of antibullying programs, with an example shown in this paper, and provide policymakers with useful information on taxpayers’ preferred allocations to antibullying programs |
| Keywords: | Willingness to Pay; Discrete Choice Experiment; Bullying; School; Adolescents |
| JEL: | D61 I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2012–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:kaunek:0003&r=edu |
| By: | Yoshito Takasaki |
| Abstract: | Rapidly decreasing gender gaps in schooling in developing countries can be a result of a gendered division of child farm labor as a coping response to increased natural disasters. This paper makes a case for this conjecture by analyzing original household survey data from rural Fiji. Boys, not girls, contribute to farming only among cyclone victims with dwelling damage, independent of housing aid receipt. Boys' school enrollment is significantly lower than girls' only among victims who did not receive aid early enough. Boys with no elder brother and an educated father are particularly vulnerable in their progression to higher-level schools. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tsu:tewpjp:2012-001&r=edu |
| By: | Chia-Lin Chang; Esfandiar Maasoumi; Michael McAleer |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the robustness of rankings of academic journal quality and research impact in general, and in Economics, in particular, based on the widely-used Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science citations database (ISI). The paper analyses 299 leading international journals in Economics using quantifiable Research Assessment Measures (RAMs), and highlights the similarities and differences in various RAMs, which are based on alternative transformations of citations. All existing RAMs to date have been static, so two new dynamic RAMs are developed to capture changes in impact factor over time and escalating journal self citations. Alternative RAMs may be calculated annually or updated daily to determine When, Where and How (frequently) published papers are cited (see Chang et al. (2011a, b, c)). The RAMs are grouped in four distinct classes that include impact factor, mean citations and non-citations, journal policy, number of high quality papers, and journal influence and article influence. These classes include the most widely used RAMs, namely the classic 2-year impact factor including journal self citations (2YIF), 2-year impact factor excluding journal self citations (2YIF*), 5-year impact factor including journal self citations (5YIF), Eigenfactor (or Journal Influence), Article Influence, h-index, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). As all existing RAMs to date have been static, two new dynamic RAMs are developed to capture changes in impact factor over time (5YD2 =5YIF/2YIF) and Escalating Self Citations. We highlight robust rankings based on the harmonic mean of the ranks of RAMs across the 4 classes. It is shown that emphasizing the 2-year impact factor of a journal, which partly answers the question as to When published papers are cited, to the exclusion of other informative RAMs, which answer Where and How (frequently) published papers are cited, can lead to a distorted evaluation of journal quality, impact and influence relative to the harmonic mean of the ranks. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emo:wp2003:1204&r=edu |