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on Education |
| By: | Richard J. Murnane; Alejandro J. Ganimian |
| Abstract: | This paper describes four lessons derived from 115 rigorous impact evaluations of educational initiatives in 33 low- and middle-income countries. First, reducing the costs of going to school and providing alternatives to traditional public schools increase attendance and attainment, but do not consistently increase student achievement. Second, providing information about school quality and returns to schooling generally improves student attainment and achievement, but building parents’ capacity works only when focused on tasks they can easily learn to perform. Third, more or better resources do not improve student achievement unless they change children’s daily experiences at school. Finally, well-designed incentives for teachers increase their effort and improve the achievement of students in very low performance settings, but low-skilled teachers need specific guidance to reach minimally acceptable levels of instruction. |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I25 I32 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20284&r=edu |
| By: | Karthik Muralidharan; Jishnu Das; Alaka Holla; Aakash Mohpal |
| Abstract: | We construct a new nationally-representative panel dataset of schools across 1297 villages in India and find that the large investments in public primary education over the past decade have led to substantial improvements in input-based measures of school quality, including infrastructure, pupil-teacher ratios, and monitoring. However, teacher absence continues to be high, with 23.6 percent of teachers in public schools across rural India being absent during unannounced visits to schools. Improvements in school infrastructure and service conditions are not correlated with lower teacher absence. We find two robust correlations in the nationally-representative panel data that corroborate findings from smaller-scale experiments. First, reductions in pupil-teacher ratios are correlated with increased teacher absence. Second, increases in the frequency of inspections are strongly correlated with lower teacher absence. We estimate that the fiscal cost of teacher absence in India is around $1.5 billion per year, and that investing in better governance by hiring more inspectors to increase the frequency of monitoring could be over ten times more cost effective at increasing teacher-student contact time (net of teacher absence) than hiring more teachers. |
| JEL: | H52 I21 M54 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20299&r=edu |
| By: | Jellal, Mohamed |
| Abstract: | This paper is a theoretical introduction to modern governance of universities in developing countries. Indeed, adopting the approach of the paradigm of the theory of incentives Laffont and Tirole (1993), this paper discusses the effects of the presence of information asymmetry between the State and the university. The State, through taxation is responsible for funding education. We show that presence of asymmetric information between the state and a representative university generates a sub-optimal allocation. Indeed, the situation of private information on all relevant variables naturally creates a situation of rent for university. Therefore, given the cost of public funds and in order to reduce the rent of public universities the state is led to create strategic distortion that actually lead to limit the rent, which results in terms of allocation to a second-best solution associated to a decline in performance of university. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Universities, Regulation, Governance, Information , Contract theory |
| JEL: | D82 D86 I21 I22 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2014–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57275&r=edu |
| By: | Cebula, Richard; Nair-Reichert, Usha |
| Abstract: | Many states have experienced a large influx of undocumented migrants in recent years. This has created new demands on higher educational systems at the state level. Some states have passed legislation to restrict the access of undocumented migrants to higher public education whereas others provide access in various forms including in-state tuition. Our research examines a related issue that has not been researched much, namely, the impact of educational access on the location decisions of undocumented migrants in the US. Undocumented migrants appear to locate in states with high average median real per capita incomes. There is also evidence of clustering of undocumented migrants in states with large migrant networks. The effect of educational access on the percentage of undocumented workers in a state is mixed and small in most specifications, a finding perhaps indicative of a trade-off between competing priorities the choice of location. |
| Keywords: | undocumented migration; illegal immigration; migrant clustering; higher public education access |
| JEL: | H26 J61 J62 J69 |
| Date: | 2014–07–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:57277&r=edu |
| By: | Nathalie PICARD; François-Charles WOLFF (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA; lemna, Université de Nantes et ined, Paris) |
| Abstract: | While intergenerational transmission of human capital has been widely documented by economists, less is known about differences in schooling between siblings. This paper proposes a measure of educational inequality in France using a sample of 27,197 children from 11,694 families. Estimation of ordered Probit models with random effects and application of variance decomposition allow making a distinction between educational inequalities between families and educational inequalities within families, among siblings. Results show that differences in schooling between families amount to about two-thirds of the total variance. Compared to their siblings, girls and first-born children are more educated. |
| JEL: | D13 I21 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ema:worpap:2014-04&r=edu |
| By: | SANO Shinpei; KAWAMOTO Takaaki |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether the expansion of applicant eligibility for student loans promotes the college enrollment of high school graduates. Japan Student Services Organization revised the student loan system in 1999, and one of the revisions was the change of eligibility standard based on family income. Before the revision, the requirement income for student loan applicants was higher in the standard level A region than in the level B region (those regions correspond to the first/second level region of the Public Assistance System). After the revision, the eligibility standard in the level B region was adjusted to that of the level A region. This reform makes the exogenous cost reduction of enrollment for high school students who lived in the level B area. We conduct difference-in-differences estimation using municipal data from 1996-2003. Also, we implement triple difference estimation using individual data, because the effect of reform differs by family income within the same region. We find that the expansion of applicant eligibility for student loans improved college enrollment, but the impact becomes limited in just a year after reform. |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:14037&r=edu |
| By: | Monica Martinez-Bravo (CEMFI, Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros) |
| Abstract: | The extension of mass education not only affects the level of education of the labor force, but also raises the average education of local politicians. This paper investigates the impact of a large program of school construction in Indonesia on local governance and public good provision. By using a panel dataset of 10,000 villages and exploiting the staggered timing of local elections, I isolate the effects driven by changes in local governance. The results suggest that the school construction program led to important increases in the provision of public goods. Furthermore, the results are heterogeneous across villages: public goods experienced stronger increases in villages where there was a particular demand for that type of public good. I provide evidence that the results are driven by the increase in the level of education of the village head, which suggests that the level of human capital of local politicians is a key ingredient of public good provision in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Political leaders, education, local elections. |
| JEL: | D72 H75 O12 P16 |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2014_1404&r=edu |
| By: | Magnus Hatlebakk; Yogendra B. Gurung |
| Abstract: | A family survey was conducted in Nepal to investigate whether female empowerment leads to more education, in particular for girls. The relative economic power of the male and female side of the extended family was used as an instrument for female empowerment. The findings indicate, however, that both female empowerment and relative economic power affect education. There is a positive association between female empowerment and children’s education for both gender, while boys are prioritized if the male side of the family is economically weak. |
| Keywords: | Education, Intrahousehold, Female autonomy |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chm:wpaper:wp2014-7&r=edu |