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on Education |
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Issue of 2012‒07‒01
nine papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Nirav Mehta (University of Western Ontario) |
| Abstract: | I develop a model of competition between charter schools and traditional public schools and estimate the model using administrative data from North Carolina. I use the model to quantify how existing charter schools have affected test scores for both charter and public school students and simulate charter school entry and student test scores were binding caps on charters lifted. I find that i) the mean effect of charter schools on attendant students (direct effect) is 25% of a standard deviation, ii) there is substantial heterogeneity in the mean direct effect by market, iii) the mean spillover effect on public school students is marginal, and iv) lifting caps on charter schools would more than double entry and cause increases in mean test scores similar to those under the capped scenario. |
| Keywords: | School Choice; Charter Schools; Education; Structural Estimation; General Equilibrium; Public Economics |
| JEL: | D58 I20 I28 H41 H72 L30 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uwo:hcuwoc:20123&r=edu |
| By: | Traag Tanja; Lubbers Miranda Jessica; Velden Rolf van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate if peer relations affect a student’s risk of early schoolleaving.We use the sociometric data collection from the Dutch “Secondary EducationPupil Cohort 1999” to identify peer relations in a sample of almost 20,000 students inthe first grade of secondary education (mean age 13). This information is matched todata on educational attainment from 1999 to 2010 for these students, to measure laterearly school-leaving by both the focal students as well as their peers. Our results showthat both being friends with future early school-leavers as well as popularity amongfuture early school-leavers increases the risk of students to be early school-leaverslater in their educational career while other characteristics of the peer group such asgender composition, ethnic composition, average (non)cognitive skills and averagesocioeconomic background have no effects on the risk of early school-leaving. And whilecharacteristics like gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background play an importantrole in peer selection, the future dropout status does not have a major impact on peerselection. |
| Keywords: | labour market entry and occupational careers; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012006&r=edu |
| By: | Sofia N. Andreou and Panos Pashardes |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the willingness of households to pay for level (mean score) and egalitarian (deprivation compensating) components of the Contextual Value Added (CVA) indicator of school quality, which is used in England. Semi-parametric and parametric analysis shows that consumers are willing to pay for houses in the catchment area of primary and secondary schools with high academic achievement as measures by mean score; whereas, the component of the CVA indicating egalitarian education attainment is found to have zero and negative valuation at primary and secondary education levels, respectively. The implications of our findings for recently proposed changes in school funding policy to combat education inequalities are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Consumer Valuation, Egalitarian Education, School Quality, Hedonic Analysis, Contextual Value Added |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucy:cypeua:10-2012&r=edu |
| By: | Ghazala Azmat; José Garcia Montalvo |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the determinants of school choice, focusing on the role of information. We consider how parents' search efforts and their capacity to process information (i.e., to correctly assess schools) affect the quality of the schools they choose for their children. Using a novel dataset, we are able to identify parents' awareness of schools in their neighborhood and measure their capacity to rank the quality of the school with respect to the official rankings. We find that parents’ education and wealth are important factors in determining their level of school awareness and information gathering. Moreover, these search efforts have important consequences in terms of the quality of school choice. |
| Keywords: | school choice, education in developing country, information gathering, household behavior |
| JEL: | I21 O12 D1 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1324&r=edu |
| By: | Evan Borkum; Fang He; Leigh L. Linden |
| Abstract: | We conduct a randomized evaluation of a school library program on children’s language skills. We find that the program had little impact on students’ scores on a language test administered 16 months after implementation. The estimates are sufficiently precise to rule out effects larger than 0.13 and 0.11 standard deviations based on the 95 and 90 percent confidence intervals. The finding of zero effects is robust to different modes of implementation, individual tested language competencies and various subsets of the student population. We also find no impact on test scores in other subjects or on school attendance rates. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18183&r=edu |
| By: | Naito, Katsuyuki; Nishida, Keigo |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a simple theory to study how the allocation of public funds between primary and higher education affects human capital accumulation. The allocation is endogenously determined through majority voting. Public funding for higher education is not supported when a majority is poor. In some cases, higher education starts to be realized as a majority of individuals accumulate enough human capital through primary education. Although the emergence of higher education can accelerate aggregate human capital accumulation, it widens income inequality because the very poor are excluded from higher education and the declined budget share for primary education decreases its quality. |
| Keywords: | Public Education; Economic Development; Income Inequality; Majority Voting |
| JEL: | O11 O15 D72 O40 |
| Date: | 2012–06–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39603&r=edu |
| By: | Silke J. Forbes; Nora E. Gordon |
| Abstract: | We investigate decision-making and the potential for social learning among school administrators in the market for school reform consulting services. Specifically, we estimate whether public schools are more likely to choose given Comprehensive School Reform service providers if their “peer” schools—defined by common governance or geography—have performed unusually well with those providers in the past. We find strong evidence that schools tend to contract with providers used by other schools in their own districts in the past, regardless of past performance. In addition, our point estimates are consistent with school administrators using information from peers to choose the plans they perceive to have performed best in the past. Despite choosing a market with an unusually comprehensive data source on contracts between public schools and private firms, our statistical power is sufficiently weak that we cannot reject the absence of social learning. |
| JEL: | H52 I2 L14 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18185&r=edu |
| By: | Büchner Charlotte; Cörvers Frank; Traag Tanja; Velden Rolf van der (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes four different transmission mechanisms, through which father’searnings affect son’s earnings: the educational attainment, cognitive skills, the culturalcapital of the family and the social capital in the neighborhood. Using a unique dataset that combines panel data from a birth cohort with earnings data from a largenationwide income survey and national tax files, our findings show that cognitive skillsand schooling of the son account for 50% of the father-son earnings elasticity. Educationby far accounts for the largest part, while cognitive skills mainly work indirectly througheducational attainment. Social capital of the neighborhood and cultural capital of theparents account for an additional 6% of the intergeneration income persistence. Fromthese two additional mechanisms, social capital appears to play a stronger role than thecultural capital of the parents. This means that 44% of the intergenerational persistenceis due to other unobserved characteristics for example personality traits or spillovereffects of family assets. |
| Keywords: | labour economics ; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2012007&r=edu |
| By: | Buckles, Kasey (University of Notre Dame); Malamud, Ofer (University of Chicago); Morrill, Melinda Sandler (North Carolina State University); Wozniak, Abigail (University of Notre Dame) |
| Abstract: | We exploit exogenous variation in college completion induced by draft-avoidance behavior during the Vietnam War to examine the impact of college completion on adult mortality. Our preferred estimates imply that increasing college completion rates from the level of the state with the lowest induced rate to the highest would decrease cumulative mortality by 28 percent relative to the mean. Most of the reduction in mortality is from deaths due to cancer and heart disease. We also explore potential mechanisms, including differential earnings, health insurance, and health behaviors, using data from the Census, ACS, and NHIS. |
| Keywords: | health, college education |
| JEL: | I12 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6659&r=edu |