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on Education |
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Issue of 2014‒07‒05
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Sarah Dahmann; Silke Anger |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the short-term effects of a reduction in the length of high school on students' personality traits using a school reform carried out at the state level in Germany as a quasi-natural experiment. Starting in 2001, academic-track high school (Gymnasium) was reduced from nine to eight years in most of Germany's federal states, leaving the overall curriculum unchanged. This enabled students to obtain a university entrance qualification (Abitur ) after a total of only 12 rather than 13 years of schooling. We exploit the variation in the length of academic-track high school over time and across states to identify the effect of schooling on students' Big Five personality traits and on their locus of control. Using rich data on adolescents and young adults from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, our estimates show that shortening high school caused students on average to be more extroverted and less emotionally stable.Our estimates point to important heterogeneous e ects. In addition to di erences between East and West Germany, we nd that male students and students from disrupted families showed stronger personality changes following the reform: they became more agreeable and more extroverted, respectively. We conclude that the educational system plays an important role in shaping adolescents' personality traits. |
| Keywords: | Non-cognitive Skills, Big Five, Locus of Control, Skill Formation, High School Reform |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp658&r=edu |
| By: | Bouoiyour, Jamal; Miftah, Amal |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the relationship between remittances and educational attainment in Morocco. We investigate how recipient households in Morocco decide to send their children to school.. We use newly survey data on the Souss-Massa-Draa region. Based on probit and instrumental variables estimates to control for endogeneity of remittances, we find a positive effect of remittances on the investments in education, especially for boys. Furthermore, the results show that family and community characteristics such as the level of parental education, the number of children enrolled in the household and the ICDH have a significant impact on the ability of households to support their children's education. They also show the importance of the child's sex in the educational success. |
| Keywords: | Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation, education attainments, Remittances, Morocco. |
| JEL: | F24 I21 |
| Date: | 2014–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57051&r=edu |
| By: | Kate Ambler; Diego Aycinena; Dean Yang |
| Abstract: | We implement a randomized experiment offering Salvadoran migrants matching funds for educational remittances, which are channeled directly to a beneficiary student in El Salvador chosen by the migrant. The matches lead to increased educational expenditures, higher private school attendance, and lower labor supply of youths in El Salvador households connected to migrant study participants. We find substantial “crowd-in” of educational investments: for each $1 received by beneficiaries, educational expenditures increase by $3.72. We find no shifting of expenditures away from other students, and no effect on remittances. |
| JEL: | C93 F22 F24 H24 I22 J15 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20262&r=edu |
| By: | Leuven, Edwin (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo); Plug, Erik (University of Amsterdam); Rønning, Marte (Statistics Norway, Research Department (SSB)) |
| Abstract: | There exists a strong educational gradient in cancer risk, which has been documented in a wide range of populations. Yet relatively little is known about the extent to which education is causally linked to cancer incidence and mortality. This paper exploits a large social experiment where an education reform expanded compulsory schooling during the 1960s in Norway. The reform led to a discontinuous increase in educational attainment, which we exploit to estimate the effect of the reform on various cancer outcomes. Our main finding is that education has little if any impact on cancer risk. This holds for all cancer sites together as well as the most common cancer sites in isolation, with two exceptions. The compulsory school reform lowered the risk of lung cancer for men, but increased the risk of colorectal cancer for women. |
| Keywords: | Education; Causality; Health; Cancer; |
| JEL: | I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2014–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:osloec:2014_006&r=edu |
| By: | Edmark, Karin (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Frölich, Markus (University of Mannheim); Wondratschek, Verena (Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses whether the Swedish school choice reform, enacted in 1992, had different effects on students from different socio-economic backgrounds. We use detailed geographical data on students’ and schools’ locations to construct measures of the degree of potential choice. This allows us to study the effects of choice opportunities among public schools, whereas previous studies have focused on newly opened private schools. Our results suggest small positive or no effects of choice opportunities, depending on specification and outcome. We find no strong evidence of differences between subgroups; if anything, effects tend to be slightly more positive for disadvantaged groups, such as students from low-income families. Taken together, the results indicate that students from a socio-economically disadvantaged or immigrant background were not harmed by the reform. |
| Keywords: | School choice; School competition; Treatment evaluation; Cognitive and non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | C21 I24 |
| Date: | 2014–06–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1030&r=edu |
| By: | Christopher Ksoll, Janny Aker, Danielle Miller, Karla C. Perez-Mendoza, and Susan L. Smalley |
| Abstract: | Over 755 million adults worldwide are unable to read and write in any language. Yet the widespread introduction of information and communication technology offers new opportunities to provide standardized distance education to underserved illiterate populations in both developed and developing countries. Using data from a randomized experiment of an innovative mobile phone-based adult education program (Cell-Ed) in Los Angeles, we find that the Cell-Ed program significantly increased students’ basic and broad reading scores, equivalent to a 2-4 year increase in reading levels over a four-month period. The program also increased participants’ self-esteem by 7 percent as compared with the comparison group. These results are robust to correcting for non-random attrition using a variety of non-parametric methods, including using the phase-in design to tighten the Lee bounds. Our results suggest that there is great scope for using information technology as a means of improving educational skills for illiterate adults. |
| Keywords: | education, communication technology, cell-ed |
| JEL: | D1 I2 O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:368&r=edu |
| By: | Theodore R. Breton |
| Abstract: | I use a dynamic augmented Solow model to estimate the effects of students’ test scores and investment in schooling on economic growth rates in 49 countries during 1985-2005. In the complete data set, either average test scores or investment in schooling explain economic growth rates, and more of either causes growth. Further analysis reveals that higher test scores only raised growth rates in countries with low average levels of schooling. In countries with more than 7.5 years of schooling attainment in 1985, more investment in schooling raised growth rates, but higher average test scores did not. |
| Keywords: | Education Expenditures; Human Capital; Test Scores; Economic Growth |
| JEL: | O41 I25 |
| Date: | 2013–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000122:011832&r=edu |
| By: | John Richards |
| Abstract: | Canadian educators can draw key lessons on how to improve student performance from the most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, according to a new C.D. Howe Institute publication. In “What Policies Work? Addressing the Concerns Raised by Canada’s PISA Results,” author John Richards addresses six widely discussed education policies that may reverse Canada’s falling PISA scores. Relying on the exhaustive background research undertaken by PISA, he concludes that four of the policies may work; two probably won’t. |
| Keywords: | Social Policy |
| JEL: | I28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdh:ebrief:177&r=edu |