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on Education |
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Issue of 2013‒05‒24
nine papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Robert W. Fairlie; Jonathan Robinson |
| Abstract: | Computers are an important part of modern education, yet many schoolchildren lack access to a computer at home. We test whether this impedes educational achievement by conducting the largest-ever field experiment that randomly provides free home computers to students. Although computer ownership and use increased substantially, we find no effects on any educational outcomes, including grades, test scores, credits earned, attendance and disciplinary actions. Our estimates are precise enough to rule out even modestly-sized positive or negative impacts. The estimated null effect is consistent with survey evidence showing no change in homework time or other "intermediate" inputs in education. |
| JEL: | I24 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19060&r=edu |
| By: | Carlos Garriga (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis); Mark P. Keightley (Florida State University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the effectiveness of three different types of education policies: tuition subsidies (broad based, merit based, and flat tuition), grant subsidies (broad based and merit based), and loan limit restrictions. We develop a quantitative theory of college within the context of general equilibrium overlapping generations economy. College is modeled as a multi-period risky investment with endogenous enrollment, time-to-degree, and dropout behavior. Tuition costs can be financed using federal grants, student loans, and working while at college. We show that our model accounts for the main statistics regarding education (enrollment rate, dropout rate, and time to degree) while matching the observed aggregate wage premiums. Our model predicts that broad based tuition subsidies and grants increase college enrollment. However, due to the correlation between ability and financial resources most of these new students are from the lower end of the ability distribution and eventually dropout or take longer than average to complete college. Merit based education policies counteract this adverse selection problem but at the cost of a muted enrollment response. Our last policy experiment highlights an important interaction between the labor-supply margin and borrowing. A significant decrease in enrollment is found to occur only when borrowing constraints are severely tightened and the option to work while in school is removed. This result suggests that previous models that have ignored the student's labor supply when analyzing borrowing constraints may be insufficient. |
| Keywords: | Student Loans, Education Subsidies, Higher Education |
| JEL: | E0 H52 H75 I22 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2013-02&r=edu |
| By: | Leguizamon, Sebastian; Leguizamon, Susane; Christafore, David |
| Abstract: | We examine the varying influence of the presence of homosexual couples on average home prices with different compositions of educational attainment and race. We find that a higher number of homosexuals in relatively higher educated areas is associated with higher average prices and lower average prices in areas with less educated residents. The magnitude of positive influence and negative influence is lower when the number of black residents increases. This suggests that education is associated with a greater revealed tolerance for homosexuals, but the influence of education is less for areas with a higher percent black, perhaps due to homophily. |
| Keywords: | Sexual Orientation; Homophily; Race; Education; Prejudice |
| JEL: | J15 R21 |
| Date: | 2013–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:47068&r=edu |
| By: | Nora E. Gordon |
| Abstract: | Goldin and Katz (2008) document the key role that the educational attainment of native-born workers in the U.S. has played in determining changing returns to skill and income distribution in the twentieth century, emphasizing the need to understand the forces driving the supply of educated workers. This paper examines stagnation in high school graduation rates from about 1970 to 2000, alongside dramatic changes in elementary and secondary educational institutions and income inequality over those years. I review the policy history of major changes in educational institutions, including but not limited to the massive increase in school spending, and related literature. I then present descriptive analysis of the relationships between income inequality and both graduation and school spending from 1963 to 2007. Results suggest that inequality at the top of the income distribution, which was negatively correlated with the establishment of public secondary schooling earlier in the twentieth century, was positively correlated not only with education spending levels but also with aggregate high school graduation rates at the state level in this later period. |
| JEL: | I2 I20 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19049&r=edu |
| By: | Guyonne Kalb (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)); Jan C. van Ours (Department of Economics and CentER, Tilburg University; Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne; CESifo (Munich); Centre for Economic Policy Research (London); and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the importance of parents reading to their young children. Using Australian data we find that parental reading to children at age 4 to 5 has positive and significant effects on reading skills and cognitive skills of these children at least up to age 10 or 11. Our findings are robust to a wide range of sensitivity analyses. |
| Keywords: | Reading to children, reading skills, other cognitive skills |
| JEL: | C26 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2013n17&r=edu |
| By: | Fouad El Ouardighi (Operation management Department - ESSEC Business School); Konstantin Kogan (Faculty of Social Sciences - Bar-Ilan University); Radu Vranceanu (Economics Department - ESSEC Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how faculty members dynamically allocate their efforts between improving their research and teaching skills, taking into account the organizational structures and incentives implemented by academic institutions. The model builds on the assumption that organizational structures have an impact on the nature of spillover effects between teaching and research competencies. We analyze the dynamic equilibrium under unilateral and bilateral spillovers, using the no-spillover case as a benchmark. The bilateral spillover case is the most appealing as it achieves the highest overall performance; however, the nature of the equilibrium and the career paths can be quite different depending on the parameters of the problem such as the obsolescence of competencies or the strength of the spillover effect. This finding provides interesting insights on what could be the most productive configuration of a higher education institution. |
| Keywords: | Teaching; Research; Competency spillovers; Effort allocation; Faculty management |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00823514&r=edu |
| By: | Florentino Felgueroso; María Gutiérrez-Domènech; Sergi Jiménez-Martín |
| Abstract: | Over the last 50 years, some important reforms in European countries were aimed at improving the system of vocational studies. By contrast, the Spanish educational law (LOGSE) from 1990 moved in the opposite direction. While the LOGSE increased the number of compulsory schooling years from 8 to 10, it also eliminated vocational studies of first grade (FP-I, ages 14 to 16), thereby reducing flexibility. Dropout rates in Spain decreased from 70% in 1977 to 30% in 1995, but remained at roughly 30% until recent years, twice the EU27 average. This paper analyses the role of LOGSE, and other factors, in explaining why school dropout stopped its declining trend in the last two decades. Results show that the introduction of the new system was negative for male dropout and the abolishment of FP-I for female dropout. The reform also decreased the track choice opportunities for students and, hence, it reduced the probability of following the vocational track after completion of the compulsory stage. It is quite likely that the lack of FP-I affected more males, which in turn could help explain why we find that the reform was negative for male students while somehow positive for females. |
| Date: | 2013–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2013-04&r=edu |
| By: | Sundström, Marianne (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of growing up in a blended family or a stepfamily on children’s educational outcomes. I use a random sample of 40,000 Swedish children born in the mid-1960s matched to their full and half-siblings born in 1960-1970, in total 76,000 children. Childhood family and siblings structure is inferred using the censuses combined with the Swedish multigenerational register. The children are followed into adulthood and their education examined. The cross-section results indicate that growing up with half-siblings is negatively correlated with education and living with both biological parents and no half-siblings is associated with more schooling than living with a single parent or a stepparent. To assess causality I estimate sibling-difference models and find that the negative correlations disappear which is consistent with selection explaining the cross-section results. Narrowing the siblings sample to children in stable blended families reveals that joint children obtain significantly more schooling than stepchildren. In stable stepfather blended families the difference is even larger. Possible explanations for these interesting findings are that fathers are more willing and able to support their children with their current spouse and that stepfathers do not share their income equally between their biological children and their stepchildren. |
| Keywords: | Family structure; stepfamilies; stepfathers; sibling differences; educational attainment |
| Date: | 2013–05–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2013_002&r=edu |
| By: | Novella, Rafael |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether the distribution of bargaining power between parents affects permanent and transitory nutritional indicators in the early stages of boys and girls life. I use the Young Lives sample, which is a survey of young children living in poor households in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh state), Peru and Vietnam. By adopting a methodology to disentangle gender differences produced by technology and preferences, I find evidence that the allocation of household resources varies with the gender of the child and the gender of the parents. After accounting for the potential endogeneity of the indicator of power distribution within the household, related to assortative mating in the marriage market, I find that maternal power has larger effects on girls health than on boys health in Peru and Vietnam. In contrast, in India, maternal bargaining power has a negative effect on girls health, whereas in Ethiopia no differential effect is found. Further analysis confirms that differences in parental behaviour drive the estimated effects and that these are robust to the inclusion of genetic information. |
| Date: | 2013–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2013-06&r=edu |