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on Education |
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Issue of 2013‒10‒11
ten papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Karthik Muralidharan; Venkatesh Sundararaman |
| Abstract: | We present experimental evidence on the impact of a school choice program in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) that featured a unique two-stage lottery-based allocation of school vouchers that created both a student-level and a market-level experiment. This design allows us to study both the individual and the aggregate effects of school choice (including spillovers). We find that private-school teachers have lower levels of formal education and training than public-school teachers, and are paid much lower salaries. On the other hand, private schools have a longer school day, a longer school year, smaller class sizes, lower teacher absence, higher teaching activity, and better school hygiene. After two and four years of the program, we find no difference between the test scores of lottery winners and losers on math and Telugu (native language). However, private schools spend significantly less instructional time on these subjects, and use the extra time to teach more English, Science, Social Studies, and Hindi. Averaged across all subjects, lottery winners score 0.13σ higher, and students who attend private schools score 0.23σ higher. We find no evidence of spillovers on public-school students who do not apply for the voucher, or on students who start out in private schools to begin with, suggesting that the program had no adverse effects on these groups. Finally, the mean cost per student in the private schools in our sample is less than a third of the cost in public schools. Our results suggest that private schools in this setting deliver (slightly) better test score gains than their public counterparts, and do so at substantially lower costs per student. More generally, our results highlight that ignoring heterogeneity among schools' instructional programs and patterns of time use may lead to incorrect inference on the impact of school choice on learning outcomes. |
| JEL: | C93 H44 H52 I21 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19441&r=edu |
| By: | Pigini, Claudia; Staffolani, Stefano |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the higher education choices of Italian secondary school leavers by addressing the roles of university quality, costs and geographical distance to the institution as well as the relationship between students’ choices and their personal and household’s attributes, such as individual secondary school background and the socio-economic condition of the family of origin. Grounding such decision process on the framework of the Random Utility Model (RUM), we provide empirical evidence on the determinants of students’ choices by estimating a nested logit model on the ISTAT survey of secondary school graduates. Results show that the effects of increasing costs of enrollments and university standards are strongly differentiated across sub-groups of individuals. In particular, the choice probability of weaker students, in the sense of secondary school background and household’s socio–economic condition, is more sensitive to changes in university costs and quality. |
| Keywords: | Enrollment cost, university quality, geographical distance, university choice, Random Utility Maximization model. |
| JEL: | C25 I21 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–10–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50364&r=edu |
| By: | David Flacher (CEPN - CNRS (UMR 7234) Université Paris 13); Hugo Harari-Kermadec (IDHE - CNRS (UMR 8533) ENS Cachan); Léonard Moulin (CEPN - CNRS (UMR 7234) Université Paris 13) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the higher education financing based on the classical contributory versus self-funded pension funding scheme. We provide a brief discussion of how a system based on student debt can be seen ’funded’ and why it fails to ensure equity and efficiency and funding for the longer term. We also define a contributory financing scheme for higher education based on income tax and social security contributions, and study its strengths and weaknesses. By contributory, we mean a scheme that ensures free access to university, providing for students’ expenses and the costs of research and teaching. We show that such a system would be efficient and equitable, and we discuss under what conditions it would be efficient. We show also that it would prevent polarization in the higher education system. We conclude with an implementation of our contributory financing scheme in the case of France (it increases university funding by €5bn and provides €19bn for students’ expenditure) and illustrate the effect of such a scheme on some typical households. |
| Keywords: | Universal Autonomy Allowance, contributory scheme, funded education scheme, financing higher education, equity, efficiency |
| JEL: | H81 I21 I22 I24 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2013/6/doc2013-34&r=edu |
| By: | Wontratschek, Verena (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Edmark, Karin (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Frölich, Markus (University of Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effects of a major Swedish school choice reform. The reform in 1992 increased school choice and competition among public schools as well as through a large-scale introduction of private schools. We estimate the effects of school choice and competition, using precise geographical information on the locations of school buildings and children’s homes for the entire Swedish population for several cohorts affected at different stages in their educational career. We can measure the long-term effects up to age 25. We find that increased school choice had very small, but positive, effects on marks at the end of compulsory schooling, but virtually zero effects on longer term outcomes such as university education, employment, criminal activity and health. |
| Keywords: | School choice; School competition; Treatment evaluation; Cognitive and non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | C21 I20 |
| Date: | 2013–10–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0981&r=edu |
| By: | Kendrick, Neil |
| Abstract: | As one of the world’s most unequal societies, Brazil is often referred to as a land of contrasts: the causes of its high levels of income inequality continuously debated. When solutions are discussed, one of the more frequently recited policy prescriptions is to expand the supply of education within the economy. Through utilisation of socio-economic profiles of students who subscribed to and were enrolled in Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), one of the more progressive public higher education establishments, the data indicates that, between1987- 2010, the Brazilian education system could in fact have exacerbated inequality, despite society having undertaken national educational expansion. The data illustrates how, during the period analysed, less than 35% of UNICAMP students attended only public education; and that moreover, while 61% had attended entrance examination preparation courses, nearly three quarters of participants at these examinations failed to be enrolled at the first time of asking. It is also estimated that more than 60% of UNICAMP students are from households from the 9th and 10th income decile. With the socio-economic profiles of public higher education tending to favour high income households, the curative effects of educational expansion on income inequality appear to be paradoxical. Therefore, a more qualitative approach to public education expansion may be required if a more egalitarian society is to be engendered by tuition-free public higher institutions. |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2013–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:50970&r=edu |
| By: | Tommaso Agasisti (Politecnico di Milano); Samuele Murtinu (Politecnico di Milano) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we estimate the effect of receiving a financial aid for a cohort of students who enrolled at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in the year 2007/08, through a Propensity Score Matching approach. Using administrative data about these students for four years, we were able to evaluate the impact of the financial aid on several dimensions of academic performance: formative credits obtained after one year, dropout probability in the first and second year, graduation in the legal duration of the course, and graduation after four years. Overall, we find a positive and statistically significant effect of the grant; this finding is stable across several robustness checks. Exploring the heterogeneity of this effect, we demonstrate that this latter is higher for immigrants, Italians who moved from another region for studying, and students attending an Engineering course. We also find evidence that unobservable factors (such as students’ own intrinsic academic motivation) account for an important part of the estimated impact of the financial aid. |
| Keywords: | Financial aid, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | H52 I22 I23 I28 C21 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:2013/6/doc2013-33&r=edu |
| By: | Alessandro Arrighetti (Department of Economics, University of Parma); Luca Caricati (Department of Economics, University of Parma); Fabio Landini (Department of Economics, University of Parma); Nadia Monacelli (Department of Economics, University of Parma) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents one of the first studies on the entrepreneurial orientation of Italian university students. For a large sample of students from the University of Parma (Italy), we estimate the sources of entrepreneurial intent, distinguishing between the propensity to start a new business and the perceived likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. In line with previous research in other countries, entrepreneurial intent is explained by a wide set of variables, including psychological, social and contextual factors. For Italian university students, the current economic crisis and the consequent increase in uncertainty do not seem to significantly weaken the importance of psychological variables as factors shaping entrepreneurial intent, confirming that these variables maintain primary relevance regardless of the context and the economic situation. While the perception of a lack of economic opportunities does not significantly affect the propensity to start a new venture, it does have a negative impact on the perceived likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. This, in turn, suggests that the ongoing economic recession may indeed have a negative impact on the future entrepreneurial supply through a discouragement effect. Finally, the impact of family and business associations on stimulating entrepreneurial intent turns out not to be statistically significant. The combination of these results significantly contributes to our general understanding of entrepreneurial intent among Italian university students. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurial intent, university students, Italy, economic crisis |
| Date: | 2013–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cme:wpaper:1301&r=edu |
| By: | Irineu de Carvalho Filho; Stephan Litschig |
| Abstract: | This paper provides regression discontinuity evidence on long-run and intergenerational education impacts of a temporary increase in federal transfers to local governments in Brazil. Revenues and expenditures of the communities benefiting from extra transfers temporarily increased by about 20% during the 4 year period from 1982 to the end of 1985. Schooling and literacy gains for directly exposed cohorts established in previous work that used the 1991 census are attenuated but persist in the 2000 and 2010 censuses. Children and adolescents of the next generation---born after the extra funding had disappeared---show gains of about 0.08 standard deviation across the entire score distribution of two nationwide exams at the end of the 2000s. While we find no evidence of persistent improvements in school resources, we document discontinuities in education levels, literacy rates and incomes of test takers' parents that are consistent with intergenerational human capital spillovers. |
| Keywords: | intergovernmental grants, human capital, test scores, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | H40 H72 I21 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:718&r=edu |
| By: | Natalia Shmatko (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, Department for Human Capital Studies, head of Department) |
| Abstract: | The paper highlights key research questions that concern skills and abilities of highly qualified personnel who are employed in the innovation related professions in the labour market. Developing a national system of competencies which would allow selecting and training personnel capable of creating and applying innovations is a very challenging task. The solution implies first of all the construction of the relevant methodologies and tools for the assessment of competencies acquired during vocational education and training and competencies required at working places. A survey of engineers conducted by the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in 2011 strives for moving beyond the simple slogans of the knowledge economy and the received wisdom about shifts from low to higher skills, from blue to white collars. This study investigates how far the trend in skill requirements follows market expectations. Two large groups of highly qualified STI personnel are studied: the first includes the engineering and technical personnel with top-level qualifications employed by industrial enterprises, the other involves the staff of research, development, design organisations whose responsibilities include R&D (à total of 3158 graduates were surveyed). The paper is organized as follows. First, the data collection approach and analysis methodology are introduced and results discussed. Second, engineering education and application of acquired skills are analysed. The paper concludes with a summary of the major findings that show the important role of ‘general’ competencies required from engineers at their jobs, such as self-organisation, openness to new information, the ability and willingness to learn, and communication skills. |
| Keywords: | competency; innovation economy; engineers, graduates; knowledge economy; labour market; researchers; skills; vocational education and training. |
| JEL: | I2 L2 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:wpbrp13sti2013&r=edu |
| By: | Michel Beine; Romain Noël; Lionel Ragot |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the determinants of the choice of location of international students. Building on the documented trends in international migration of students, we develop a small theoretical model allowing to identify the various factors associated to the attraction of migrants as well as the costs of moving abroad. Using new data capturing the number of students from a large set of origin countries studying in a set of 13 OECD countries, we assess the importance of the various factors identified in the theory. We find support for a significant network effect in the migration of students, a result so far undocumented in the literature. We also find a significant role for cost factors such as housing prices and for attractiveness variables such as the reported quality of universities. In contrast, we do not find an important role for registration fees (reverse causality, signal of quality, covered by grants). |
| Keywords: | student mobility;network effect;migration costs;attractiveness policy |
| JEL: | F22 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2013-30&r=edu |