nep-edu New Economics Papers
on Education
Issue of 2012‒06‒13
eight papers chosen by
Joao Carlos Correia Leitao
University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon

  1. Class size, type of exam and student achievement By Madsen, Erik Strøjer
  2. Estimating Heterogeneous Returns to Education in Germany via Conditional Heteroskedasticity By Nils Saniter
  3. Current issues of motivation, academic performance and internet use- implications for an education of excellence By Turturean, Monica
  4. Education, Risk and Efficiency in Human Capital Investment By David Mayston; Juan Yang
  5. Estimating the causal effects of conflict on education in Côte d'Ivoire By Dabalen, Andrew L.; Paul, Saumik
  6. The Jordan education initiative : a multi-stakeholder partnership model to support education reform By Bannayan, Haif; Guaqueta, Juliana; Obeidat, Osama; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Porta, Emilio
  7. Students' e-skills, organizational change and diversity of learning processs: Evidence from French universities in 2010 By Ben Youssef, Adel; Dahmani, Mounir; Omrani, Nessrine
  8. Education and the Quality of Government By Juan Botero; Alejandro Ponce; Andrei Shleifer

  1. By: Madsen, Erik Strøjer (Department of Economics, Aarhus School of Business)
    Abstract: Education as a road to growth has been on the political agenda in recent years and promoted not least by the institutions of higher education. At the same time the universities have been squeezed for resources for a long period and the average class size has increased as a result. However, the production technology for higher education is not well known and this study highlights the relation between class size and student achievement using a large dataset of 80.000 gradings from the Aarhus School of Business. The estimations show a large negative effect of larger classes on the grade level of students. The type of exam also has a large and significant effect on student achievements and oral exam, take-home exam and group exam reward the student with a significantly higher grade compared with an on-site written exam
    Keywords: No; keywords
    JEL: A23 C23 I23
    Date: 2011–01–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:aareco:2011_005&r=edu
  2. By: Nils Saniter
    Abstract: In this paper I investigate the causal returns to education for different educational groups in Germany by employing a new method by Klein and Vella (2010) that bases identification on the presence of conditional heteroskedasticity. Compared to IV methods, key advantages of this approach are unbiased estimates in the absence of instruments and parameter interpretation that is not bounded to local average treatment effects. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) I find that the causal return to education is 8.5% for the entire sample, 2.3% for graduates from the basic school track and 11% for graduates from a higher school track. Across these groups the endogeneity bias in simple OLS regressions varies significantly. This confirms recent evidence in the literature on Germany. Various robustness checks support the findings.
    Keywords: Return to education, wage equation, control function approach, second moment exclusion restriction
    JEL: C3 I21 J31
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1213&r=edu
  3. By: Turturean, Monica
    Abstract: Today’s world is facing many problems caused by the economic crisis leading thus to an education crisis. Witnessing major changes in the curricula, at different ways of assessment, at teaching and learning in transdiciplinary manner which took by surprise the students who, in turn, feel disarmed and unable to cope with these changes that take place in a very fast rate. And internet has a big influence in students learning and their performance. Many universities try to introduce the internet and new technologies to facilitate student learning, to enhance their motivation for study and to improve their academic performance. Given that, if we want to provide an education of excellence, we have to know the student professional motivation, which determines them to obtain academic performance, to enhance their learning using internet to successfully cope with the challenges of knowledge-based society.
    Keywords: motivation; academic performance; internet technology; critical thinking; active learning
    JEL: I21
    Date: 2012–04–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39250&r=edu
  4. By: David Mayston; Juan Yang
    Abstract: University of York Beijing Normal University The efficiency of the process of investment in human capital through education is of considerable importance both to the individuals involved and to the wider economy. The paper develops an analytical framework in which issues of the efficiency of such investment can be considered alongside its interface with the operations of the labour market, and in which the risks posed by such educational investments when the labour market is less than fully efficient can be analysed. These issues are of particular relevance in the context of the major expansions in higher education which have taken place in recent years, not least in China, which is now second in its share of all 25 – 64 year olds internationally with tertiary education. The paper therefore complements its theoretical analysis with an empirical investigation of the risk factors which impact on the efficiency of this large-scale educational investment for individual graduates and for the wider economy
    Keywords: Human capital investment, higher education, graduate overeducation, risk factors, educational expansion in China.
    JEL: I21 I25 I28 J24 J31
    Date: 2012–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:12/15&r=edu
  5. By: Dabalen, Andrew L.; Paul, Saumik
    Abstract: This paper estimates the causal effects of civil war on years of education in the context of a school-going age cohort that is exposed to armed conflict in Cote d'Ivoire. Using year and department of birth to identify an individual's exposure to war, the difference-in-difference outcomes indicate that the average years of education for a school-going age cohort is .94 years fewer compared with an older cohort in war-affected regions. To minimize the potential bias in the estimated outcome, the authors use a set of victimization indicators to identify the true effect of war. The propensity score matching estimates do not alter the main findings. In addition, the outcomes of double-robust models minimize the specification errors in the model. Moreover, the paper finds the outcomes are robust across alternative matching methods, estimation by using subsamples, and other education outcome variables. Overall, the findings across different models suggest a drop in average years of education by a range of .2 to .9 fewer years.
    Keywords: Access&Equity in Basic Education,Population Policies,Post Conflict Reconstruction,Education For All,Primary Education
    Date: 2012–06–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6077&r=edu
  6. By: Bannayan, Haif; Guaqueta, Juliana; Obeidat, Osama; Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Porta, Emilio
    Abstract: The Jordan Education Initiative, launched in 2003 under the umbrella of the World Economic Forum, is a public-private partnership, or multi-stakeholder partnership, that integrates information and communication technologies into the education process as a tool for teaching and learning in grades 1-12. This initiative fits within the ongoing reform of the education system in Jordan that began in the 1990s. The Jordan Education Initiative's main objective is to help Jordanian students develop critical knowledge economy skills crucial for competitiveness and economic growth. The Initiative also seeks to build the capacity of the local information technology industry for the development of innovative learning solutions, and to build a sustainable model of reform supported by the private sector that could be scaled nationally and replicated in other developing countries.
    Keywords: Tertiary Education,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education
    Date: 2012–06–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6079&r=edu
  7. By: Ben Youssef, Adel; Dahmani, Mounir; Omrani, Nessrine
    Abstract: Driven by ICT, universities are changing in depth the nature and forms of learning processes, which are intended to prepare students to a better entry into the labour market. In this paper, we focus on the evolution of students' use of ICT in such an institution characterized by organizational changes and we analyse the determinants of students' e-skills using a 2010 dataset of French university students. We show that students' involvement in the use of ICT increases their e-skills. ICT learning by doing and ICT learning by using also increase some categories of students' e-skills. In addition, collaborative and cooperative learning are positively associated with students' advanced e-skills. --
    Keywords: Students,ICT,E-skills,Multinomial logit model,Labour market,New Organizational Practices
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:12031&r=edu
  8. By: Juan Botero; Alejandro Ponce; Andrei Shleifer
    Abstract: Generally speaking, better educated countries have better governments, an empirical regularity that holds in both dictatorships and democracies. We suggest that a possible reason for this fact is that educated people are more likely to complain about misconduct by government officials, so that, even when each complaint is unlikely to succeed, more frequent complaints encourage better behavior from officials. Newly assembled individual-level survey data from the World Justice Project show that, within countries, better educated people are more likely to report official misconduct. The results are confirmed using other survey data on reporting crime and corruption. Citizen complaints might thus be an operative mechanism that explains the link between education and the quality of government.
    JEL: D73 D78 O43
    Date: 2012–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18119&r=edu

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