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on Education |
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Issue of 2014‒03‒22
23 papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Nieto, Sandra (University of Barcelona); Ramos, Raul (University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | Our objective is to analyse the role of teacher and school quality to explain differences in students' educational outcomes. With this aim, we use PISA microdata for 10 middle income and 2 high income countries and we apply decomposition methods in order to identify the role of these factors for different groups of students. Our results show that school and teacher quality and better practices matter even in different institutional settings. From a policy perspective, this evidence supports actions addressed at improving both factors in order to reduce cross‐country differences but also between students at the top and bottom distribution in terms of socio‐economic characteristics. |
| Keywords: | educational outcomes, teacher and school quality, PISA, decomposition methods, middle‐income countries |
| JEL: | J24 I21 I25 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8028&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | When students believe that investing effort in learning will make a difference, they score significantly higher in mathematics. The fact that large proportions of students in most countries consistently believe that student achievement is mainly a product of hard work, rather than inherited intelligence, suggests that education and its social context can make a difference in instilling values that foster success in education. Teachers’ use of cognitive-activation strategies, such as giving students problems that require them to think for an extended time, presenting problems for which there is no immediately obvious way of arriving at a solution, and helping students to learn from their mistakes, is associated with students’ drive. Students whose teachers set clear goals for learning and offer feedback on their performance in mathematics also tend to report higher levels of perseverance and openness to problem solving. |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:37-en&r=edu |
| By: | Matthew Johnson; Eric Lundquist; Cleo Jacobs Johnson; Claudia Gentile |
| Abstract: | The Kauffman School is a charter school in Kansas City, Missouri that opened in 2011 to serve middle and high school students from the city’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods . This report evaluates the effectiveness of the School at improving student achievement, attendance, and discipline outcomes during its first two years of operation. |
| Keywords: | Kauffman School, Long-Term Outcomes, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2014–03–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:8059&r=edu |
| By: | Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago); Humphries, John Eric (University of Chicago); Veramendi, Gregory (Arizona State University); Urzua, Sergio (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops and estimates a model with multiple schooling choices that identifies the causal effect of different levels of schooling on health, health-related behaviors, and labor market outcomes. We develop an approach that is a halfway house between a reduced form treatment effect model and a fully formulated dynamic discrete choice model. It is computationally tractable and identifies the causal effects of educational choices at different margins. We estimate distributions of responses to education and find evidence for substantial heterogeneity in unobserved variables on which agents make choices. The estimated treatment effects of education are decomposed into the direct benefits of attaining a given level of schooling and indirect benefits from the option to continue on to further schooling. Continuation values are an important component of our estimated treatment effects. While the estimated causal effects of education are substantial for most outcomes, we also estimate a quantitatively important effect of unobservables on outcomes. Both cognitive and socioemotional factors contribute to shaping educational choices and labor market and health outcomes. We improve on LATE by identifying the groups affected by variations in the instruments. We find benefits of cognition on most outcomes apart from its effect on schooling attainment. The benefits of socioemotional skills on outcomes beyond their effects on schooling attainment are less precisely estimated. |
| Keywords: | education, early endowments, factor models, health, treatment effects |
| JEL: | C32 C38 I12 I14 I21 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8027&r=edu |
| By: | Fredriksson, Peter (Stockholm University); Öckert, Björn (IFAU); Oosterbeek, Hessel (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Studies on the effect of class size on student achievement typically find that disadvantaged students benefit more from reduced class size than others. To better understand this differential impact, we analyze changes in the learning environment due to class size, and behavioral responses to class size among parents, schools, teachers and students. The variation in class size is induced by a maximum class size rule applying to upper primary schools in Sweden. We find that in response to an increase in class size: i) teachers seem to assign more responsibility to students; ii) low-income students find their teachers hard to follow when taught in full-class iii) high-income parents help their children more with homework; iv) parents are more likely to change schools; and v) other school inputs and student effort adjust very little. These findings help explain why we find that the negative effect of class size on achievement in our data is concentrated among low-income students. |
| Keywords: | class size, social background, heterogenous effects, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 C31 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8019&r=edu |
| By: | De Paola, Maria (University of Calabria); Scoppa, Vincenzo (University of Calabria) |
| Abstract: | Procrastination produces harmful effects for human capital investments and studying activities. Using data from a large sample of Italian undergraduates, we measure procrastination with the actual behaviour of students, considering the delay in finalizing their university enrolment procedure. We firstly show that procrastination is a strong predictor of students' educational achievements. This result holds true controlling for quite reliable measures of cognitive abilities, a number of background characteristics and indicators of students' motivation. Secondly, we investigate, using a Regression Discontinuity Design, the effects of a remedial program in helping students with different propensity to procrastinate. We show that the policy especially advantages students who tend to procrastinate, suggesting that also policies not directly aimed at handling procrastination can help to solve self-control problems. |
| Keywords: | procrastination, self-control, time preferences, time consistency, impatience, human capital, academic success, dropout, remedial courses |
| JEL: | D03 I21 D91 J01 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8021&r=edu |
| By: | Kenzo Asahi |
| Abstract: | This paper identifies and quantifies the effects of better transport accessibility on student performance measured by mathematics test scores. A 27 km new subway line and the extension of an existing line in Santiago (Chile) in the mid-2000s reduced the distance between some schools and their nearest subway station. Estimates are derived using fixed effects models that account for endogeneity in the relation between student performance and school-subway network distance. Increased proximity to the subway network is associated with substantially lower test scores. |
| Keywords: | School accessibility, subway, test scores, student achievement, transport innovations |
| JEL: | R42 H41 I29 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:sercdp:0156&r=edu |
| By: | Cesur, Resul (University of Connecticut); Mocan, Naci (Louisiana State University) |
| Abstract: | Using a unique survey of adults in Turkey, we find that an increase in educational attainment, due to an exogenous secular education reform, decreases women's propensity to identify themselves as religious, lowers their tendency to wear a religious head cover (head scarf, turban or burka) and increases the tendency for modernity. Education reduces women's propensity to vote for Islamic parties. There is no statistically significant impact of education on men's religiosity or their tendency to vote for Islamic parties and education does not influence the propensity to cast a vote in national elections for men or women. The impact of education on religiosity and voting preference is not working through migration, residential location or labor force participation. |
| Keywords: | education, religion, Islam, Muslim, voting, modernity, head scarf, burka, Islamic party |
| JEL: | I2 Z12 D72 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8017&r=edu |
| By: | Pekkarinen, Tuomas (Government Institute for Economic Research, Helsinki) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies gender differences in performance in university entrance examinations. We exploit data from the exams that the nine Finnish universities providing education in economics and business use to choose their students. These exams are multiple choice tests where wrong answers are penalized by minus points and omissions yield zero points. This scoring rule means that the number of omitted items will affect the probability of entry. The strategic setting of the applicants varies depending on the university where she is applying to and on the amount of starting points that she is rewarded based on her high school success. The results show that, controlling for starting points, women perform worse than men in the entrance exam and are less likely to gain entry. Women also omit more items in the exam. Using the Rasch Model to derive the predicted probabilities of answering items correctly for each applicant, we show that women deviate more from the number of answered items that would maximise the predicted probability of entry than men and that they do so because they answer to too few items. |
| Keywords: | gender differences, competition, multiple choice exams |
| JEL: | J16 I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8018&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Students whose parents work in professional occupations generally outperform other students in mathematics, while students whose parents work in elementary occupations tend to underachieve compared to their peers. The strength of the relationship between parents’ occupations and student performance varies considerably across countries: for example, when it comes to mathematics performance, the children of cleaners in Shanghai-China outperform the children of professionals in the United States, and the children of professionals in Germany outperform the children of professionals in Finland, on average. Finland and Japan achieve high levels of performance by ensuring that the children of parents who work in elementary occupations are given the same education opportunities and the same encouragement as the children of professionals. |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:36-en&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Across OECD countries, 18% of students skipped classes at least once in the two weeks prior to the PISA test, and 15% of students skipped a day of school or more over the same period. Few students in high-performing school systems skip classes or days of school. For students in OECD countries, skipping classes is associated with a 32-point lower score in mathematics, while skipping days of school is associated with a 52-point lower score. Truancy is observed among all students, whether advantaged or disadvantaged. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:35-en&r=edu |
| By: | Fossen, Frank M.; Glocker, Daniela |
| Abstract: | Stated survey measures of risk preferences are increasingly being used in the literature, and they have been compared to revealed risk aversion primarily by means of experiments such as lottery choice tasks. In this paper, we investigate educational choice, which involves the comparison of risky future income paths and therefore depends on risk and time preferences. In contrast to experimental settings, educational choice is one of the most important economic decisions taken by individuals, and we observe actual choices in representative panel data. We estimate a structural microeconometric model to jointly reveal risk and time preferences based on educational choices, allowing for unobserved heterogeneity in the Arrow-Pratt risk aversion parameter. The probabilities of membership in the latent classes of persons with higher or lower risk aversion are modelled as functions of stated risk preferences elicited in the survey using standard questions. Two types are identified: A small group with high risk aversion and a large group with low risk aversion. The results indicate that persons who state that they are generally less willing to take risks in the survey tend to belong to the latent class with higher revealed risk aversion, which indicates consistency of stated and revealed risk preferences. The relevance of the distinction between the two types for educational choice is demonstrated by their distinct reactions to a simulated tax policy scenario. -- |
| Keywords: | educational choice,stated preferences,revealed preferences,risk aversion,time preference |
| JEL: | I20 D81 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20143&r=edu |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (University of Warwick); Nagler, Markus (University of Munich); Woessmann, Ludger (University of Munich) |
| Abstract: | Why did substantial parts of Europe abandon the institutionalized churches around 1900? Empirical studies using modern data mostly contradict the traditional view that education was a leading source of the seismic social phenomenon of secularization. We construct a unique panel dataset of advanced-school enrollment and Protestant church attendance in German cities between 1890 and 1930. Our cross-sectional estimates replicate a positive association. By contrast, in panel models where fixed effects account for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, education – but not income or urbanization – is negatively related to church attendance. In panel models with lagged explanatory variables, educational expansion precedes reduced church attendance. |
| Keywords: | Secularization, education, history, Germany |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:warwcg:186&r=edu |
| By: | Rao, T. V.; Saxena, Siddhartha |
| Abstract: | Questionnaire surveys of perceptions of institutional environment have been found to be a good diagnostic tool to facilitate self-renewal, leading to effective management of institutions of Higher education. Normally, such tools are developed by interviewing multiple stakeholders (faculty, students, staff, etc.). By now, a number of tools have been developed and used. This paper presents four such tools that have been used extensively as diagnostic tools. One of them was developed to predict the adoption of innovations in engineering colleges and polytechnics. The second one was developed as a part of the self-renewal effort of one of the institutes of professional education and used to bring about change. The third one was developed using the Stern’s framework based on Henry Murray’s need-press model, which attempts to study student preference for activities or student interests (needs) and correlate them with corresponding Institutional environment (press) as perceived by the students. The questionnaires have been found to give more useful data about institutions, in addition to what the theoretical models offer. In using these tools, the authors promote a collaborative approach of Institutions based in the same location or managed by the common stakeholders of these institutions for bench marking, self-renewal and improvements. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:12816&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | More than one-third of male primary school teachers in OECD countries are now over 50 years old. Across OECD countries, the average age of secondary school teachers has increased by one month every year in the last decade. Only a few countries have managed to develop policies which lower the average age of teachers significantly. Increasing the numbers of female teachers no longer lowers the average age, as the female teaching workforce is ageing faster than its male counterpart. |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaf:20-en&r=edu |
| By: | Meyer, Sophie-Charlotte (University of Wuppertal); Künn-Nelen, Annemarie (ROA, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent occupation-specific demands explain the relationship between education and health. We concentrate on ergonomic, environmental, psychical, social and time demands. Merging the German Microcensus 2009 data with a dataset including detailed occupational demands (German Employment Survey 2006), we have a unique dataset to analyze the mediating role of occupational demands in the relationship between education and health status on the one hand and education and health behavior (BMI and smoking) on the other. We base our analyses on the entire working population and therefore also include those who no longer work, taking occupational demands related to their last job. First, we find that occupational demands are significantly related to subjective health and health behaviors. This holds even stronger for those who are no longer employed. Second, we find that whereas occupational demands do not explain educational differences in subjective health status, they do partially mediate the education gradient in the considered health behaviors. Educational differences in smoking status can partly be explained by ergonomic, environmental, psychical and social demands. The educational gradient in BMI is partly attributable to social occupational demands. |
| Keywords: | education, occupational demands, working conditions, occupations, health, health behavior |
| JEL: | I1 J2 I2 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8011&r=edu |
| By: | Schnepf, Sylke V. (University of Southampton) |
| Abstract: | Tertiary education has been expanding hugely over the last decades, so that tertiary dropout students will constitute a growing distinctive group in future labour markets. University dropout is regularly discussed as a 'negative' indicator in terms of reinforcing socio-economic inequalities and being a sign of university inefficiency. However, research on actual career trajectory of dropout students is virtually non-existent. Using data from the 2011 Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) this study first validates the uncommon self-reported measure of dropout used and compares the percentage of adults with tertiary dropout experience between OECD countries. Second, we examine whether tertiary dropout is a permanent decision as a considerable part of literature assumes. In a third step, we investigate characteristics of adults with dropout experience. Finally, we estimate the effect of dropout in terms of their employment status and success of entering managerial professions comparing results of logistic regressions and propensity score matching taking individuals' socio-economic and demographic background, work experience and cognitive skills into account. Results indicate that consistently across countries dropout is repeatedly a 'positive' indicator in the labour market. This is first due to the fact that the dropout decision is often not a permanent one as well as that for those adults who do not re-enrol into tertiary education labour market chances are better than for equally educated adults in about half of the countries examined. |
| Keywords: | European countries, labour market chances, tertiary dropout, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8015&r=edu |
| By: | B. Jahanshahi |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to highlight the importance of considering endogenous peer effects, as defined by Manski (1993), in order to identify gender composition effect on education outcome appropriately. Using Manski (1993) linear-in-means model, this paper illustrates that the gender composition effect that is currently estimated in education function is the function of three parameters: social multiplier, gender differences in outcome and gender composition effect (known as a gender peer effect). The appropriate gender peer effect is identified after using Graham's variance restriction method to identify and rule out a social multiplier effect. The findings suggest that a social multiplier plays a crucial role in learning process for Italian secondary and US primary students, although a gender peer effect is not as important as highlighted in previous literatures (Hoxby, 2000; Whitmore, 2005; Lavy and Schlosser, 2011). |
| JEL: | I21 J16 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp932&r=edu |
| By: | Alexey Bessudnov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at the effect of parental occupational status on their children’s occupational status and earnings in Russia. The analysis based on twelve surveys conducted from 1991 to 2011 (n=21,639) demonstrates a statistically significant effect of parental occupational status on respondents’ occupational status and earnings even after controlling for respondents’ education. Contrary to previous findings (Gerber and Hout 2004), the association between social origins and destinations did not strengthen over time. The size of the effect of parental status in Russia is similar to other European countries. A separate analysis shows that monetary returns on higher education increased in post-Soviet Russia, while returns on higher education in terms of occupational status decreased. |
| Keywords: | returns on education, social mobility, parental occupational status, ISEI, earnings |
| JEL: | I24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:36/soc/2014&r=edu |
| By: | Bodas Freitas , Isabel Maria; Geuna, Aldo; Lawson, Cornelia; Rossi, Federica (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | We investigate under what circumstances firms (industry inventors) are more likely to engage in interactions where governance of the relationship is shared between the firm and the university, as opposed to interactions where the relationship is governed unilaterally by the firm. Using PIEMINV, an original dataset of European industry patents in the Italian region of Piedmont, we analyse the characteristics of inventors with diverse experience in projects involving interactions with universities, governed by institutional contracts or personal contracts. Our results suggest that reliance among inventors of the two forms of governance is almost equal, and that unilateral governance forms are preferred when there are high levels of trust among the parties based on embeddedness in local social and education networks. This is likely because it involves less cumbersome and more direct interactions. We find also that knowledge characteristics are not particularly important discriminants of the choice between governance forms: the advantage of shared governance seems to reside mainly in the possibility to mitigate monitoring and asymmetric information problems in contexts of relatively low levels of mutual knowledge and trust. |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201402&r=edu |
| By: | Nybom, Martin (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | - |
| Keywords: | - |
| Date: | 2014–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2014_002&r=edu |
| By: | Klaesson, Johan (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) and Centre of Excellence in Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS)); Larsson, Johan P (Centre for Entrepreneurship and Spatial Economics (CEnSE), Jönköping International Business School (JIBS) and Centre of Excellence in Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS)) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between entrepreneurship and education length and field. Entrepreneurship and education are both used as policy vehicles for achieving employment and economic growth, regionally and nationally. If entrepreneurship in the form of new firms is the objective, then how will more education influence its achievability? We examine this question at the individual level using a full population data-set, and analyze the influence of education length and field on the propensity of leaving employment in 2007 for self-employment in 2008. The fields of education we investigate is: education, humanities and arts, social sciences, business and law and science. The effect of education on the probability of an individual turning from wage-employment into self-employment is positive overall, but differs considerably with respect to field of education on average and on the margin. The positive effects seem to almost exclusively come from the fields, science, social sciences and business and law. For the other fields the effect is essentially zero or even negative. In the empirics we control for a large set of variables controlling for individual, employer, and regional heterogeneity. |
| Keywords: | Self-employment; Entry; Human capital; Education; Industry; Region |
| JEL: | C21 L26 R10 |
| Date: | 2014–03–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0345&r=edu |
| By: | Jin, Jang C; Choi, E Kwan |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates the determinants of citations based on the publicationof the top 100 most often cited economists. The effects of publication age and author fame onsubsequent citations are found to be positive and significant. Citations are also significantly affectedby popular subfields in economics. However, journal quality measures, such as impact factors,download statistics and top-4 elite journals, have insignificant effects on citations. In contrast, thecitation effect of scholarly books is positive and significant, and its impact is even greater than thoseof journal quality measures. |
| Keywords: | citations; most often cited economists |
| JEL: | A1 |
| Date: | 2014–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:37372&r=edu |