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on Education |
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Issue of 2012‒07‒14
seven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Chin, Aimee (University of Houston); Daysal, N. Meltem (Tilburg University); Imberman, Scott A. (Michigan State University) |
| Abstract: | Texas requires a school district to offer bilingual education when its enrollment of limited English proficient (LEP) students in a particular elementary grade and language is twenty or higher. Using school panel data, we find a significant increase in the probability that a district offers bilingual education above this 20-student cutoff. Using this discontinuity as an instrument for district bilingual education provision, we find that bilingual education programs do not significantly impact the standardized test scores of students with Spanish as their home language (comprised primarily of ever-LEP students). However, there are significant positive spillover effects to their non-LEP peers. |
| Keywords: | bilingual education |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6694&r=edu |
| By: | Böhlmark, Anders (SOFI, Stockholm University); Lindahl, Mikael (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates average educational performance effects of an expanding independent-school sector at the compulsory level by assessing a radical voucher reform that was implemented in Sweden in 1992. Starting from a situation where all public schools were essentially local monopolists, the degree of independent schools has developed very differently across municipalities over time as a result of this reform. We regress the change in educational performance outcomes on the increase in the share of independent-school students between Swedish municipalities. We find that an increase in the share of independent-school students improves average performance at the end of compulsory school as well as long-run educational outcomes. We show that these effects are very robust with respect to a number of potential issues, such as grade inflation and pre-reform trends. However, for most outcomes, we do not detect positive and statistically significant effects until approximately a decade after the reform. This is notable, but not surprising given that it took time for independent schools to become more than a marginal phenomenon in Sweden. We do not find positive effects on school expenditures. Hence, the educational performance effects are interpretable as positive effects on school productivity. We further find that the average effects primarily are due to external effects (e.g., school competition), and not that independent-school students gain significantly more than public-school students. |
| Keywords: | school choice, independent schools, educational performance, external effects |
| JEL: | I2 H4 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6683&r=edu |
| By: | Ritzen, Jo (IZA and Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | Higher education is in the position to save Europe by rendering a substantial contribution to sustainable economic growth. For that purpose higher education must strengthen its innovative power in entrepreneurship education and by focusing research more on societal problems, while being better empowered and enabled by Governments. Universities must show leadership in resolving or channeling the major societal questions. More European competition between universities in education and research would be helpful. Universities can contribute to recreating hope and optimism through more innovation in the economy. |
| Keywords: | hope, attitudes, Europe, economic growth, higher education, labor market, innovation, competition |
| JEL: | D31 F55 I22 I23 I24 I25 I28 J24 O31 O47 O52 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izapps:pp44&r=edu |
| By: | Cid, Alejandro; Balsa, Ana |
| Abstract: | Using a randomized trial, we evaluate the impact of a free privately-managed middle school in a poor neighborhood. The research compares over time adolescents randomly selected to enter Liceo-Jubilar and those that were not drawn in the lottery. Besides positive impacts on expectations, we find better educational outcomes in the treatment group relative to control subjects. The features of Liceo-Jubilar -autonomy of management, capacity for innovation, and adaptation to the context- contrast with the Uruguayan highly centralized and inflexible public education system. Our results shed light on new approaches to education that may contribute to improve opportunities for disadvantaged adolescents in developing countries. Unlike the experiences of charter schools in developed countries, Liceo-Jubilar does not have autonomy regarding the formal school curricula nor depends on public funding by any means. |
| Keywords: | Education; Field Experiment; Poverty; Impact Evaluation |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:39913&r=edu |
| By: | Stijn BAERT (Ghent University, Department of Social Economics); Bart COCKX (Ghent University (Department of Social Economics), Université catholique de Louvain (IRES), CESIfo and IZA); Dieter VERHAEST (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel (Human Relations Research Group) and Ghent University (Department of Social Economics)) |
| 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: | overqualification, underemployment, school-to-work transitions, duration analysis, dynamic treatment |
| JEL: | C21 C41 I21 J24 J64 |
| Date: | 2012–05–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2012012&r=edu |
| By: | Fredriksson, Peter (Stockholm University, IZA, IFAU, and UCLS); Öckert, Björn (Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), Uppsala University and UCLS); Oosterbeek, Hessel (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the long-term effects of class size in primary school. We use rich data from Sweden and exploit variation in class size created by a maximum class size rule. Smaller classes in the last three years of primary school (age 10 to 13) are beneficial for cognitive and non-cognitive ability at age 13, and improve achievement at age 16. Most importantly, we find that smaller classes have positive effects on completed education, wages, and earnings at age 27 to 42. The estimated wage effect is much larger than any imputed estimate of the wage effect, and is large enough to pass a cost-benefit test. |
| Keywords: | Class size; regression discontinuity; cognitive skills; non-cognitive skills; educational attainment; earnings |
| JEL: | C31 I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–07–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2012_0008&r=edu |
| By: | Machin Stephen; Marie Olivier; Vujić Sunčica (METEOR) |
| Abstract: | We present new evidence on the causal impact of education on crime, by considering a largeexpansion of the UK post-compulsory education system that occurred in the late 1980s and early1990s. The education expansion raised education levels across the whole education distributionand, in particular for our analysis, at the bottom end enabling us to develop an instrumentalvariable strategy to study the crime-education relationship. At the same time as the educationexpansion, youth crime fell, revealing a significant cross-cohort relationship between crime andeducation. The causal crime reducing effect of education is estimated to be negative andsignificant, and considerably bigger in (absolute) magnitude than ordinary least squaresestimates. The education boost also significantly impacted other productivity related economicvariables (qualification attainment and wages), demonstrating that the incapacitation effect ofadditional time spent in school is not the sole driver of the results. |
| Keywords: | public economics ; |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2012037&r=edu |