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on Education |
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Issue of 2012‒08‒23
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Picot, Garnett<br/> Hou, Feng |
| Abstract: | This paper examines differences in postsecondary-participation rates between students with and without immigrant backgrounds in Switzerland and Canada. For both countries, a rich set of longitudinal data, including family background, family aspirations regarding postsecondary education, and students' secondary-school performance as measured by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, are used to explain these differences. Two groups are analyzed: all 15-year-old students; and all low-performing 15-year-old secondary-school students. |
| Keywords: | Ethnic diversity and immigration, Children and youth, Education, training and learning, Education, Immigrant children and youth, Education, training and skills, Outcomes of education |
| Date: | 2012–07–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2012344e&r=edu |
| By: | Kuehn, Zoe; Landeras, Pedro |
| Abstract: | While students from more advantageous family backgrounds tend to perform better, it is not clear that they exert more effort compared to those from less advantageous family backgrounds. We build a model of students, schools, and employers to study the interaction of family background and effort exerted by the student in the education process. Academic qualifications, which entail an income premium in the labor market, are noisily determined by effort and the student's ability to benefit from education, which in turn depends on her family background and innate talent. In a situation where schools set the optimal passing standard, two factors turn out to be key in determining the relationship between effort and family background: (i) the student's risk aversion and (ii) the degree with which family background alters the student's marginal productivity of effort. We show that when the degree of risk aversion is relatively low (high) compared to the sensitivity of the marginal productivity of the student's effort with respect to her family background, the relation between effort and family background is positive (negative) and students from more advantageous family backgrounds exert more (less) effort. Considering Spanish data and controlling for school fixed effects, we find that an improvement in parental education from not having completed compulsory education to holding a university degree is associated to around 15% more effort by the student(approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes of additional weekly homework). We also find empirical evidence consistent with our assumption that students' marginal productivity of effort varies with family background. |
| Keywords: | student effort; family background; risk aversion; educational standards |
| JEL: | D81 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40531&r=edu |
| By: | Eurico, Sofia (School of Tourism and Maritime Technology); Valle, Patrícia (cieo - research centre for spatial and organizational dynamics); Silva, João Albino (cieo - research centre for spatial and organizational dynamics); Marques, Catarina (Department of Quantitative Methods, ISCTE) |
| Abstract: | This research explores the European Consumer Satisfaction Index model applied to higher education in tourism by accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. In particular, it intends to identify segments of Higher Education Institutions’ consumers based on the structural model estimates of the European Consumer Satisfaction Index, enlarged with the employability construct. A model-based segmentation approach in Partial Least Squares path modelling is used. The European Consumer Satisfaction Index was properly adjusted to the educational framework and has shown its effectiveness when assessing students’ satisfaction regarding the attended Higher Education Institution. Two distinctive, graduates’ segments were identified using a sample of 166 Higher Education Institutions’ consumers. Results confirm the assumption of heterogeneity as the relationships differ across segments and the need for Higher Education Institutions to differently target those segments in such a competitive context. These results may be used strategically by Higher Education Institutions and policy makers as segments of graduates are identified according to their perception of employability and the future influence of this on their satisfaction. Deepening the knowledge on their consumers, Higher Education Institutions will be better prepared to adjust their educational performance to graduates’ best interests and to promote their offer. |
| Keywords: | ECSI; Segmentation; Higher Education; Employability |
| JEL: | M31 |
| Date: | 2012–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:cieodp:2012_007&r=edu |
| By: | Justine S. Hastings; Christopher A. Neilson; Seth D. Zimmerman |
| Abstract: | Using data on student outcomes and school choice lotteries from a low-income urban school district, we examine how school choice can affect student outcomes through increased motivation and personal effort as well as through improved school and peer inputs. First we use unique daily data on individual-level student absences and suspensions to show that lottery winners have significantly lower truancies after they learn about lottery outcomes but before they enroll in their new schools. The effects are largest for male students entering high school, whose truancy rates decline by 21% in the months after winning the lottery. We then examine the impact attending a chosen school has on student test score outcomes. We find substantial test score gains from attending a charter school and some evidence that choosing and attending a high value-added magnet school improves test scores as well. Our results contribute to current evidence that school choice programs can effectively raise test scores of participants. Our findings suggest that this may occur both through an immediate effect on student behavior and through the benefit of attending a higher-performing school. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18324&r=edu |
| By: | Turturean, Monica; TURTUREAN, Ciprian Ionel |
| Abstract: | In this article we will try to realize a comparative study in order to find out if the internet has a positive or a negative role for undergraduate’s university students. The purpose of this study is to identify the perception of undergraduate university students regarding the effects of the internet for their scientific activities and their training needs. The study is based on data obtained from the application of a sample survey which studies the opinion of undegraduate students regarding the role of internet in students education. The sample size was 496 students (students from „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi and from „Stefan cel Mare” University of Suceava. |
| Keywords: | higher education; internet role; attitude; academic performance; students’ training needs |
| JEL: | I23 I21 L86 |
| Date: | 2012–04–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:40434&r=edu |
| By: | Philip R. P. Coelho (Department of Economics, Ball State University); Tung Liu (Department of Economics, Ball State University) |
| Abstract: | We apply grouped college-level data to estimate the returns to a college education. After comparing different econometric methods for estimating cluster samples with grouped data, we argue that there are two sets of population parameters of concern: one for estimating withingroup effects, and the other for between-group effects. This leads to three major points: 1) the traditional use of fixed-effects models usually ignores the importance of between-group effects and may lead to erroneous conclusions; 2) regressions with group variables have several identifiable econometric issues; and 3) estimations of between-group estimators for betweengroup effects with grouped data are valid. We investigate the returns to higher education using explanatory variables representing characteristics for individuals, colleges and universities, and states with grouped data from over 500 colleges and universities. We generate a major index measuring college characteristics that are related to students’ disciplines in their degree majors. We find that college majors are important determinants of post-graduation incomes; in contrast the incremental value of private schooling over publically funded colleges is relatively modest. At zero rates of interest it takes approximately 59 years for the excess earnings in starting salaries attributable to a private education to equal the extra costs of four years of private schooling. |
| Keywords: | college education, between-group effects, cluster samples |
| JEL: | C23 C38 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsu:wpaper:201202&r=edu |
| By: | Laura Rosendahl Huber (University of Amsterdam); Randolph Sloof (University of Amsterdam); Mirjam van Praag (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of early entrepreneurship education. To this end, we conduct a randomized field experiment to evaluate a leading entrepreneurship education program that is taught worldwide in the final grade of primary school. We focus on pupils' development of relevant skill sets for entrepreneurial activity, both cognitive and non-cognitive. The results indicate that cognitive entrepreneurial skills are unaffected by the program. However, the program has a robust positive effect on non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills. This is surprising since previous evaluations found zero or negative effects. Because these earlier studies all pertain to education for adolescents, our result tentatively suggests that non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills are best developed at an early age. |
| Keywords: | Skill formation; field experiment; entrepreneurship education; entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | L26 I21 J24 C93 |
| Date: | 2012–04–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20120041&r=edu |
| By: | Jeffrey Brown; Chichun Fang; Francisco Gomes |
| Abstract: | We analyze the returns to education in a life-cycle framework that incorporates risk preferences, earnings volatility (including unemployment), and a progressive income tax and social insurance system. We show that such a framework significantly reduces the measured gains from education relative to simple present-value calculations, although the gains remain significant. For example, for a range of preference parameters, we find that individuals should be willing to pay 300 to 500 (200 to 250) thousand dollars to obtain a college (high school) degree in order to benefit from the 32 to 42 percent (20 to 38 percent) increase in annual certainty-equivalent consumption. We also explore how the measured value of education varies with preference parameters, by gender, and across time. In contrast to findings in the education wage-premia literature, which focuses on present values and which we replicate in our data, our model indicates that the gains from college education were flat in the 1980s and actually decreased significantly in 1991-2007 period. On the other hand, the gains to a high school education have increased quite dramatically over time. We also show that both high school and college education help to decrease the gender gap in life-time earnings, contrary again to the conclusion from wage premia calculations. |
| JEL: | G12 H52 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18300&r=edu |