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on Education |
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Issue of 2012‒06‒05
twenty-two papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Jaap Dronkers (Maastricht University); Rolf van der Velden (Maastricht University); Allison Dunne (GHK Consulting Ltd) |
| Abstract: | The main research question of this paper is the combined estimation of the effects of educational systems, school composition, track level, and country of origin on the educational achievement of 15-year-old migrant students. We focus specifically on the effects of socioeconomic and ethnic background on achievement scores and the extent to which these effects are affected by characteristics of the school, track, or educational system in which these students are enrolled. In doing so, we examine the ‘sorting’ mechanisms of schools and tracks in highly stratified, moderately stratified, and comprehensive education systems. We use data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) wave. Compared with previous research in this area, the paper’s main contribution is that we explicitly include the tracks-within-school level as a separate unit of analyses, which leads to less biased results concerning the effects of educational system characteristics. The results highlight the importance of including factors of track level and school composition in the debate surrounding educational inequality of opportunity for students in different education contexts. The findings clearly indicate that the effects of educational system characteristics are flawed if the analysis only uses a country- and a student level and ignores the tracks-within-school level characteristics. From a policy perspective, the most important finding is that educational systems are neither uniformly ‘good’ nor ‘bad’, but they can result in different consequences for different migrant groups. Some migrant groups are better off in comprehensive systems, while others are better off in moderately stratified systems. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:1215&r=edu |
| By: | Diette, Timothy M. (Washington and Lee University); Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth (Georgia Tech) |
| Abstract: | The influx of immigrants has shifted the ethnic composition of public schools in many states. Given the perceived negative impact of significant immigrant inflows, we are interested in investigating if these inflows into a school affect the academic performance of native students who remain. To address this question, we analyze education data from North Carolina, a state that has experienced a significant immigrant influx in the last two decades. We focus on the share of the English Language Learners in the student population for students between fourth and eighth grade over the period from 1999 to 2006 and the potential effects of the presence of these students on the level of achievement in math and reading for native students. Our analysis suggests some evidence of immigrant peer effects though the effects are heterogeneous. Specifically, we find some evidence of positive effects among those in the middle and bottom portions of the achievement distribution while we find small negative effects at the top of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | immigrants, student achievement, peer effects, education |
| JEL: | I20 I21 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6561&r=edu |
| By: | Charlotte Geay; Sandra McNally; Shqiponja Telhaj |
| Abstract: | In recent years there has been an increase in the number of children going to school in England who do not speak English as a first language. We investigate whether this has an impact on the educational outcomes of native English speakers at the end of primary school. We show that the negative correlation observed in the raw data is mainly an artefact of selection: non-native speakers are more likely to attend school with disadvantaged native speakers. We attempt to identify a causal impact of changes in the percentage of non-native speakers within the year group. In general, our results suggest zero effect and rule out negative effects. |
| Keywords: | primary school education, UK, educational attainment, curriculum, immigration, language |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:368&r=edu |
| By: | Brindusa Anghel; Antonio Cabrales; Jesús M. Carro |
| Abstract: | We evaluate a program that introduced bilingual education in English and Spanish in primary education in some public schools of the Madrid region in 2004. Under this program students not only study English as a foreign language but also some subjects (at least Science, History and Geography) are taught in English. Spanish and Mathematics are taught only in Spanish. The first class receiving full treatment finished Primary education in June 2010 and they took the standardized test for all 6th grade students in Madrid on the skills considered "indispensable" at that age. This test is our measure of the outcome of primary education to evaluate the program. We have to face a double self-selection problem. One is caused by schools who decide to apply for the program, and a second one caused by students when choosing school. We take several routes to control for these selection problems. The main route to control for self-selected schools is to take advantage of the test being conducted in the same schools before and after the program was implemented in 6th grade. To control for students self-selection we combine the use of several observable characteristics (like parents' education and occupation) with the fact that most students were already enrolled at the different schools before the program was announced. Our results indicate that there is a clear negative effect on learning the subject taught in English for children whose parents have less than upper secondary education, and no clear effect for anyone on mathematical and reading skills, which were taught in Spanish. |
| Keywords: | Bilingual education, Program evaluation, Teaching in English |
| JEL: | H40 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:we1214&r=edu |
| By: | Steve Gibbons; Sandra McNally; Martina Viarengo |
| Abstract: | This research paper is motivated by a long tail at the bottom of the educational distribution, educational inequality between those from high and low socio-economic groups and the question as to what role an increase in school resources has in changing all this. The issue about whether investing more money in schools is effective has long been controversial in the academic literature. It is also a controversial policy issue in this time of public expenditure cuts and reforms to educational finance. With regard to the latter, the Pupil Premium is an important new policy introduced this year - and this paper is useful for considering the potential effects. |
| Keywords: | education, government policy, pupil premium, education funding, inequality |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:367&r=edu |
| By: | A Aggarwal; R Freguglia; Geraint Johnes; G Spricigo |
| Abstract: | The impact of education on labour market outcomes is analysed using data from various rounds of the National Sample Survey of India. Occupational destination is examined using both multinomial logit analyses and structural dynamic discrete choice modelling. The latter approach involves the use of a novel approach to constructing a pseudo-panel from repeated cross-section data, and is particularly useful as a means of evaluating policy impacts over time. We find that policy to expand educational provision leads initially to an increased takeup of education, and in the longer term leads to an increased propensity for workers to enter non-manual employment. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lan:wpaper:4445&r=edu |
| By: | Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Yvonne Oswald (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of financial incentives on student performance and analyzes for the first time how the incentive effect in education is moderated by students’ risk and time preferences. To examine this interaction we use a natural experiment that we combine with data from surveys and economic experiments on risk and time preferences. We not only find that students who are offered financial incentives for better grades have on average better first- and second-year grade point averages, but more importantly, we find that highly impatient students respond more strongly to financial incentives than less impatient students. This finding suggests that financial incentives are most effective if they solve educational problems of myopic students. |
| Keywords: | Student performance; Financial incentive; Time preference; Risk preference |
| JEL: | I20 C91 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0079&r=edu |
| By: | Espey, Molly |
| Abstract: | While critical thinking may be difficult to define, development of critical thinking skills is a principle goal of education, particularly higher education. It is vital that college graduates can question assumptions, synthesize information, evaluate evidence, draw inferences, and make reasoned arguments. Critical thinking skills do not improve without practice; effective teaching methods engage students with course material and each other, challenging them to think through issues and problems relevant to the real world. Engagement or problem solving alone, however, does not guarantee improved critical thinking. This study evaluates the impact of one alternative teaching method, team-based learning, on students’ perceptions of the development of critical thinking skills. |
| Keywords: | Economic Education, Economics, Education, Pedagogical, Pedagogy, Teaching, Teaching of Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, A200, A220, |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123521&r=edu |
| By: | Lundborg, Petter (Lund University); Nilsson, Anton (Lund University); Rooth, Dan-Olof (Linnaeus University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we exploit the Swedish compulsory schooling reform in order to estimate the causal effect of parental education on son's outcomes. We use data from the Swedish enlistment register on the entire population of males and focus on outcomes such as cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and various dimensions of health at the age of 18. We find significant and positive effects of maternal education on sons' skills and health status. Although the reform had equally strong effects on father's education as on mother's education, we find little evidence that paternal education improves son's outcomes. |
| Keywords: | education, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, health, causality, schooling reforms |
| JEL: | I12 I28 J13 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6570&r=edu |
| By: | Kazianga, Harounan (Oklahoma State University); Levy, Dan (Harvard Kennedy School); Linden, Leigh L. (University of Texas at Austin); Sloan, Matt (Mathematica Policy Research) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the causal effects of a program that constructed high quality "girl-friendly" primary schools in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design 2.5 years after the program started. We find that the program increased enrollment of all children between the ages of 5 and 12 by 20 percentage points and increased their test scores by 0.45 standard deviations. The change in test scores for those children caused to attend school by the program is 2.2 standard deviations. We also find that the program was particularly effective for girls, increasing their enrollment rate by 5 percentage points more than boys', although this did not translate into a differential effect on test scores. Disentangling the effects of school access from the unique characteristics of the new schools, we find that the unique characteristics were responsible for a 13 percentage point increase in enrollment and 0.35 standard deviations in test scores, while simply providing a school increased enrollment by 26.5 percentage points and test scores by 0.323 standard deviations. The unique characteristics of the school account for the entire difference in the treatment effect by gender. |
| Keywords: | Africa, education, gender inequality, enrollment |
| JEL: | I24 I25 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6574&r=edu |
| By: | Hermannsson, Kristinn; Lisenkova, Katerina; McGregor, Peter G. |
| Abstract: | This paper replicates the analysis of Scottish HEIs in Hermannsson et al (2010a) for the case of Northern Ireland in order to provide a self-contained analysis that is readily accessible by those whose primary concern is with the regional impacts of Northern-Irish HEIs. When we treat each of the four Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that existed in Northern Ireland in 2006 as separate sectors in conventional input-output analysis, their expenditure impacts per unit of final demand appear rather homogenous, with the apparent heterogeneity of their overall impacts being primarily driven by scale. However, a disaggregation of their income by source reveals considerable variation in their dependence upon funding from the devolved Assembly and their ability to draw in income/funding from external sources. Acknowledging the binding budget constraint of the Northern Ireland Assembly and deriving balanced expenditure multipliers reveals large differences in the netexpenditure impact of HEIs upon the Northern Irish economy, with the source of variation being the origin of income. Applying a novel treatment of student expenditure impacts, identifying the amount of exogenous spending per student, modifies the heterogeneity of the overall expenditure impacts. On balance this suggests that the impacts of impending budget cut-backs will be quite different by institution depending on their sensitivity to public funding. However, predicting the outcome of budget cutbacks at the margin is problematic for reasons that we identify. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education Institutions, Input-Output, Northern Ireland, Impact study, Multipliers, Devolution, |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edn:sirdps:249&r=edu |
| By: | Philippe Lefebvre (CGS - Centre de Gestion Scientifique - Mines ParisTech); Frédérique Pallez (CGS - Centre de Gestion Scientifique - Mines ParisTech); Daniel Fixari (CGS - Centre de Gestion Scientifique - Mines ParisTech) |
| Abstract: | The importance of proximity in the field of innovation has been highlighted, notably, in studies which emphasize the growing role of the third mission of the universities, namely, regional economic development. Using an empirical approach, we have attempted to gain an insight into the ways in which networks involving local economic and academic actors are created. This study focuses on France, where the State has recently promoted an aggressive policy designed to develop clusters and reform higher education and research, with a view to bringing together universities, creating centres of excellence, research networks at the local level and promoting connections of both to clusters. The study reveals the existence of a wide variety of configurations and, in spite of globally positive dynamics, highlights areas in which insufficiently well coordinated governmental approaches could be improved. The study also underlines a number of hitherto neglected aspects: a less global approach to institutions should be taken, and analyses of the variety of possible links between science and innovation should be more nuanced. Lastly, the study highlights a profound transformation in the approaches taken by governmental agencies. |
| Keywords: | Clusters ;Territories; Regional studies;Universities;Science and Innovation ;Public policy |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00699879&r=edu |
| By: | Salamon, Petra; Weible, Daniela; Buergelt, Doreen; Christoph, Inken B.; Peter, Guenter |
| Abstract: | A German federal research was established to analyse determinants on school milk demand. Among those, individual factors, like children’s eating habits, attitudes, preferences and socio-economic variables were considered but also contextual factors like attitudes and habits of class teachers and school variables were regarded; and more, price effects on demand were derived via a price experiment. As girls order significantly less school milk than boys this paper aims to analysis gender-specific decisions. In the analysis, a database is used in which individual order information are merged with survey results concerning pupils, parents, class teachers, school principals and school milk managers of the sampled schools. A multilevel analysis is applied, because included explanatory variables of gender-specific school milk orders can be assigned to different groups (individual, class, school, price phase) in which the independence of variable distributions may be hampered; whereas equations are established as ordinary logistic function. Estimates for both genders comprise individual factors affecting positively the school milk orders like e.g., the provision of school milk free of charge, or when pupils think that `milk tastes good´ and contextual factors such as their class teachers’ involvement. Gender-specific distinctions cover e.g., the fact that male pupils have a higher probability to order school milk and react to price incentives. Concerning the context variables, boys react to teachers and principal attitudes. In contrast, with girls prices have a very limited impact, but their parents and teachers are regarded as role models. Girls prefer more choices in product differentiation. These results indicate gender-specific programs integrating their family and teachers, and a wider range of product choices. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, multilevel analysis, school milk, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaeafe:123532&r=edu |
| By: | Noel, Jay E.; Qenani, Eivis |
| Abstract: | The goal of this study was to improve the current understanding of labor market demands for various skills and attributes of college graduates. Changes such as globalization, technological advancements and the emergence of the knowledge economy have caused educational institutions to focus their attention in revising and redesigning their curriculum. The timely identification and the effective response to these changes requires that higher education revisits the issue of the set of skills essential to the economy and the labor market, and the best ways to transfer them to college graduates. A choice-based conjoint experiment was used to identify labor market preferences for college graduate attributes. A web survey with employers in the food and fiber industry was carried out during the months of September 2011-April 2012. Using an experimental design, hypothetical candidate profiles were created and used in an interactive conjoint survey. Hierarchical Bayesian method was used to estimate marginal utilities for college graduate attributes. Results of the study indicate that there has been a shift in the needs for skills in the labor market. New skills, such as creativity are emerging as important attributes to the knowledge economy. |
| Keywords: | Graduate Skills, Creativity, Hierarchical Bayesian, Conjoint Analysis, Agribusiness, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123947&r=edu |
| By: | Marco Bertoni; Giorgio Brunello; Lorenzo Rocco |
| Abstract: | Using a natural experiment designed by the Italian national test administrator (INVALSI) to monitor test procedures in Italian primary schools, this paper shows that the presence of an external examiner who monitors test procedures has both a direct and an indirect effect on the measured performance of monitored classes and schools. The direct effect is the difference in the test performance between classes of the same school with and without external examiners. The indirect effect is instead the difference in performance between un-monitored classes in a school with an external examiner and un-monitored classes in schools without external monitoring. We find that having an external examiner in the class reduces the proportion of correct answers by 5.5 to 8.6 percent compared to classes in schools with no external monitor, and by 1.2 to 1.9 percent compared to un-monitored classes of the same school. The size of the overall effect of external supervision varies significantly across regions and it is highest in Southern Italy. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0845&r=edu |
| By: | Noel, Jay E.; Qenani, Eivis |
| Abstract: | The goal of this study was to improve the current understanding of labor market demands for various skills and attributes of college graduates. Changes such as globalization, technological advancements and the emergence of the knowledge economy have caused educational institutions to focus their attention in revising and redesigning their curriculum. The timely identification and the effective response to these changes requires that higher education revisits the issue of the set of skills essential to the economy and the labor market, and the best ways to transfer them to college graduates. A choice-based conjoint experiment was used to identify labor market preferences for college graduate attributes. A web survey with employers in the food and fiber industry was carried out during the months of September 2011-April 2012. Using an experimental design, hypothetical candidate profiles were created and used in an interactive conjoint survey. Hierarchical Bayesian method was used to estimate marginal utilities for college graduate attributes. Results of the study indicate that there has been a shift in the needs for skills in the labor market. New skills, such as creativity are emerging as important attributes to the knowledge economy. |
| Keywords: | Graduate Attributes, Creativity, Hierarchical Bayesian, Conjoint Analysis, Agribusiness, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123948&r=edu |
| By: | Simone N. Tuor Sartore (University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration); Uschi Backes-Gellner (University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | Drawing on an unusually large set of employer-employee data, we examine how workers’ pay is related to the educational composition within their occupational group. We find that educational composition as measured by the educational diversity and the educational level of an occupational group is positively related to its workers’ pay within that group. In addition, our findings suggest that the educational level moderates the positive effect of educational diversity, i.e. that pay increases related to diversity are higher in occupational groups with higher levels of education. We also discuss implications for management practice and possible further theoretical developments. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge spillovers, educational diversity, pay, work groups |
| JEL: | I21 J24 J31 L20 M52 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0078&r=edu |
| By: | Capogrossi, Kristen; You, Wen |
| Abstract: | The School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP) are two federally assisted school meal programs that currently serve over 31.7 million children each day. Most of the existing literature examines the nutritional quality of school meals with a handful studying the impacts on child weight. A couple of studies also examine whether SBP has impacts on academic performance, and, to our knowledge, no studies examine the direct or indirect effects of NSLP participation on performance. Using full-information maximum likelihood, we simultaneously estimate the child weight and academic performance production functions along with child choice equations and program participation equations to examine potential spillover effects of SBP and NSLP on academic performance through the mediator of child weight. Results do show spillover effects on 8th grade math and English scores with particularly large impacts on FRP eligible participants: negative impacts of NSLP participation and positive impacts of SBP participation on achievement. |
| Keywords: | child weight, academic achievement, school meal programs, structural equation models, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123836&r=edu |
| By: | Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Cockx, Bart (Ghent University); Verhaest, Dieter (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether young unemployed graduates who accept a job below their level of education accelerate or delay the transition into a job that matches their level of education. We adopt the Timing of Events approach to identify this dynamic treatment effect using monthly calendar data from a representative sample of Flemish (Belgian) youth who started searching for a job right after leaving formal education. We find that overeducation is a trap. This trap is especially important early in the unemployment spell. Our results are robust across various specifications and for two overeducation measures. |
| Keywords: | dynamic treatment, duration analysis, school-to-work transitions, underemployment, overqualification |
| JEL: | C21 C41 I21 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6562&r=edu |
| By: | Capogrossi, Kristen; You, Wen |
| Abstract: | Schools have significant influence on children’s health making health interventions targeting schools more likely to succeed such as the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP). A key question that this literature currently concentrates on is to what extent do SBP and/or NSLP directly contribute to the observed outcome of child weight? This study assesses the impact by analyzing multiple simultaneous treatments on weight as the child progresses from 1st to 8th grade while acknowledging self-selection into the programs. Specifically, we utilize Average Treatment Effect on the Treated (ATT) and Difference-in-Differences (DID) methodologies to address the issue. We find that participating in only NSLP decreases the probability of overweight; however, participating in both programs decreases the probability of healthy weight and increases the probability of overweight. |
| Keywords: | Child weight, school nutrition programs, treatment analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea12:123816&r=edu |
| By: | Graevenitz, Georg von; Weber, Richard |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurship education has two purposes: To improve students’ entrepreneurial skills and to provide impetus to those suited to entrepreneurship while discouraging the rest. While entrepreneurship education helps students to make a vocational decision its effects may conflict for those not suited to entrepreneurship. This study shows that vocational and the skill formation effects of entrepreneurship education can be identified empirically by drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior. This is embedded in a structural equation model which we estimate and test using a robust 2SLS estimator. We find that the attitudinal factors posited by the Theory of Planned Behavior are positively correlated with students’ entrepreneurial intentions. While conflicting effects of vocational and skill directed course content are observed in some individuals, overall these types of content are complements. This finding contradicts previous results in the literature. We reconcile the conflicting findings and discuss implications for the design of entrepreneurship courses. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurial intention; theory of planned behavior; structural equation models; two stage least squares. |
| JEL: | L11 L13 O34 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:msmdpa:12440&r=edu |
| By: | Ishdorj, Ariun; Crepinsek, Mary Kay; Jensen, Helen H. |
| Abstract: | Considering most children spend a majority of their weekdays at school and, on average, obtain more than one-third of their daily caloric intake from meals consumed at school during the school year, school is a natural place to implement nutrition policies that would help develop healthy eating habits and improve health and well-being of children. At the same time, local school meal policies may influence what foods are offered and how the foods are prepared. In this regard, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) two school meal programs can play an important role in children’s diets and food habit formation and thus positively influence children’s health. The focus of our research is children’s intakes of fruits and vegetables by location of consumption. We include intake of the fruits and vegetables at school and at home and evaluate whether the school meal intake substitutes or supplements intake at home. We use data from the third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-III), and estimate jointly the student’s latent consumption of target foods (fruits and vegetables) by location of consumption and the student’s endogenous decision to participate in the school meal program. We find demographic effects influence consumption, and although school food policies examined had little effect on participation in the school meal program, some school policies do affect fruits and vegetables consumption. There is evidence that increased exposure to fruits and vegetables in school will positively affect home consumption. |
| Keywords: | Food Assistance, Fruits and Vegetables, School Meals, Endogeneity, Censoring, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, C11, C34, C36, |
| Date: | 2012–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaeafe:123534&r=edu |