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on Education |
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Issue of 2014‒04‒29
seven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Trachter, Nicholas (Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) |
| Abstract: | A stepping stone arises in risky environments with learning and transferable human capital. An example is the role played by academic two-year colleges in postsecondary education: Students, as they learn about the uncertain educational outcomes, can drop out or transfer up to harder and more rewarding schools, carrying a fraction of the accumulated human capital. A theory of education is built and contrasted empirically to find that i) option value explains a large part of returns to enrollment, ii) enrollment in academic two-year colleges is driven by the option to transfer up, and iii) the value of the stepping stone is small. |
| Keywords: | stepping stone; investment under uncertainty; academic learning; postsecondary education; college education; returns to education |
| JEL: | D83 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–02–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedrwp:14-03&r=edu |
| By: | James Heckman (University of Chicago); John Eric Humphries (University of Chicago); Gregory Veramendi (Arizona State University); Sergio Urzua (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:hka:wpaper:2014-007&r=edu |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (University of Warwick and CAGE); 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:wacage:186&r=edu |
| By: | Fitzenberger, Bernd; Licklederer, Stefanie |
| Abstract: | In Germany, the entry into the labor market for students in the nonacademic tracks of secondary schools may take multiple pathways. Students graduating from lower track secondary schools (LTSS) face major problems in school-towork transitions, prompting the provision of intensive career guidance in school. In a case study for the City of Freiburg, this paper analyzes skill formation, career guidance, and the first transition after graduation for LTSS students in the late 2000s. We find that only about 10% of LTSS students start an apprenticeship immediately after graduation. Instead, about half of the LTSS students, typically those with better school grades, participate in additional general teaching (AGT) and rather enter further schooling than an apprenticeship. In addition, the majority of students with poor school grades continue with pre-vocational training. The latter group involves a large share of male students with a migration background. Our findings show a large heterogeneity among LTSS students, most visible in the division between students with and without AGT. Furthermore, characteristics observable at the end of grade 7 have a strong predictive power on the transition after graduation, and focusing career guidance on the immediate start of an apprenticeship after graduation may be misplaced. -- |
| Keywords: | school-to-work transition,lower track secondary schools,vocational training,career guidance |
| JEL: | I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:14026&r=edu |
| By: | Saniter, Nils (DIW Berlin); Siedler, Thomas (University of Hamburg) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the causal link between individuals' occupational knowledge, educational choices, and labor market outcomes. We proxy occupational knowledge with mandatory visits to job information centers (JICs) in Germany while still attending school. Exogenous variation in the location and timing of JIC openings allow estimating causal effects in a difference-in-difference setup. Combining linked survey-administrative data with data on JICs permits to detect whether individuals benefited from the comprehensive information service when they were young. The results suggest that individuals, who went to school in administrative districts with a JIC, have higher educational attainments and a smoother transfer to the labor market than students who did not have access to these facilities. However, we find no effects on individuals' earnings in their first job or later in life. Overall, our results confirm the importance of policies that promote occupational knowledge among young adults. |
| Keywords: | education, uncertainty, job matching, information, job information centers |
| JEL: | I2 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8100&r=edu |
| By: | Jin, Hua |
| Abstract: | In this study, we explore collaboration between universities and industrial entities in the development of Chinese high-tech industries from the 1980s to the 2000s. For developing countries, the creation and cultivation of high-tech industries can be the key to economic development in a globalized era. Since the 1980s, China has served as an example of one of these developing countries. In attempting to create and develop high-tech industries in China, the Chinese government has long promoted university-industry collaboration. As a result, the Chinese government has been widely considered as the catalyst behind the development of university-industry collaboration. However, our analysis demonstrates that there are multiple proponents that have advocated multiple paths to successful university-industry collaboration in China. |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hjbswp:181&r=edu |
| By: | Hartog, Joop (University of Amsterdam); Diaz-Serrano, Luis (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) |
| Abstract: | While uncertainty abounds in almost any decision on investment in schooling, it is mostly ignored in research and virtually absent in labour economics text books. This paper documents the scope for risk, discusses the tough disentanglement of heterogeneity and risk, surveys the analytical models, laments the absence of a good workhorse model and points out the challenges worth tackling: document ex ante risk that investors face, develop a tractable and malleable analytical model and integrate the option of consumption smoothing in analytical and empirical work. Hedging labour market risk in the stock market can be safely ignored. |
| Keywords: | schooling, risk, human capital, labour supply |
| JEL: | I21 J22 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8110&r=edu |