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on Education |
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Issue of 2014‒11‒17
twelve papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Brendan Houng (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Moshe Justman (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; and Department of Economics, Ben Gurion University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the extent to which year-9 performance on the National Assessment Program—Language Arts and Numeracy (NAPLAN) predicts access to higher education as determined by subsequent achievement on year-12 Victoria Certificate of Education (VCE) exams. VCE performance is measured via three binary indicators: achieving an Australian tertiary admission rank (ATAR) above 50 ("ATAR50"), above 70 ("ATAR70"), and above 90 ("ATAR90"); and two continuous indicators: ATAR and the Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA). We find that a four-way classification of year-9 NAPLAN results explains 35% of the variance in ATAR50, 37% in ATAR70 and 26% in ATAR90; and NAPLAN scores and basic demographic indicators explain 38% of the variance in ATAR and 42% of the variance in TEA values. Examining the joint effect of year-9 NAPLAN scores and socio-economic status in predicting VCE outcomes, we find that while both are significant, NAPLAN scores have a much stronger effect. At the school level, we find that predictions of success rates based on NAPLAN scores and basic demographic indicators explain over 82% of the variance in school achievement in each of the binary indicators. |
| Keywords: | Standardized tests, NAPLAN, ATAR, longitudinal analysis, predicting educational achievement, socio-economic gradient of achievement, school effects, Victoria, Australia |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2014n22&r=edu |
| By: | Yuki, Takako; Kameyama, Yuriko |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds light on a potential risk of trade-off between access to primary education and the quality of education in underserved areas in the case of Yemen, which still faces challenges in access, equity, and quality in spite of its rapid improvement over the past decade. It will first examine the level of learning achievement in relation to an improvement of enrollments and gender parity in rural schools where girls were more disadvantaged in 2004, when Yemen started the national basic education strategy toward 2015. It will also examine the level of learning achievement in relation to the other supply-side variables, of which quality and quantity are often affected by expansion of access. The data used here are the student- and school-level data collected by the JICA Research Institute at rural schools in Yemen in 2011 and the data from the TIMSS in 2011. The analyses point to a trade-off between improved access and quality of learning. The results indicated that the school-level increase of gender parity in enrollment and the total enrollment growth of boys and girls alike over the past three years are negatively associated with the current students’ math test scores. The estimation results of trade-offs are valid while controlling for basic students and family characteristics, such as parental education and occupation. As anticipated from previous education production function analyses, some policy variables, such as teacher availability and existence of participatory school management committees, change across schools, and they are important for explaining the learning differences in the relatively underserved rural areas of Yemen. These findings underscore the need of revisiting such policy measures in further increasing access while ensuring the quality standards for disadvantaged areas and avoiding widening of the quality difference within the country and ensuring learning for all. |
| Keywords: | quality of learning , universal primary education (UPE) , gender , community , class size |
| Date: | 2014–03–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:73&r=edu |
| By: | Ejermo, Olof (CIRCLE, Lund University); Hansen, Høgni Kalsø (Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Geography Section, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | Using the whole population and almost all individuals in Sweden listed as inventors, we study how the probability of being listed on a patent as inventor is influenced by the density of other future inventors residing in the same region, while controlling for demographic and sector effects along with the educational characteristics of parents. We focus on three such densities: a) future inventors in the municipality around the time of birth, b) future inventors around the time of graduation from high school and c) future inventors at graduation from higher education. We find suggestive evidence that co-locating with future inventors impact on the probability of becoming an inventor in some cases. The most consistent of these effects is found for place of higher education, with some positive effects also most likely coming from birthplace, whereas no consistent positive effect is found from the individuals’ high school location. Formative influences to become an inventor therefore seem mainly to derive from family upbringing, birth region and from local milieu effects derived from conscious choices into higher education. |
| Keywords: | inventor; time-space; regional unevenness; context; local milieu |
| JEL: | I21 J24 O18 O31 O33 R12 Y91 |
| Date: | 2014–09–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2014_015&r=edu |
| By: | Eszter Czibor (University of Amsterdam); Sander Onderstal (University of Amsterdam); Randolph Sloof (University of Amsterdam); Mirjam van Praag (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | The provision of non-pecuniary incentives in education is a topic that has received much scholarly attention lately. Our paper contributes to this discussion by investigating the effectiveness of grade incentives in increasing student performance. We perform a direct comparison of the two most commonly used grading practices: the absolute (i.e., criterion-referenced) and the relative (i.e., norm-referenced) grading schemes in a large-scale field experiment at a university. We hypothesize that relative grading, by creating a rank-order tournament in the classroom, provides stronger incentives for male students than absolute grading. In the full sample, we find weak support for our hypothesis. Among the more motivated students we find evidence that men indeed score significantly higher on the test when graded on a curve. Female students, irrespective of their motivation, do not increase their scores under relative grading. Since women slightly outperform men under absolute grading, grading on a curve actually narrows the gender gap in performance. |
| Keywords: | Education, Test performance, Grade incentives, Competition, Gender, Field experiment |
| JEL: | I21 I23 A22 D03 C93 |
| Date: | 2014–08–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20140116&r=edu |
| By: | John Jerrim (Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, University of London); Lindsey Macmillan (Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, University of London) |
| Abstract: | It is widely believed that countries with greater levels of income inequality also have lower levels of intergenerational mobility. This relationship, known as the Great Gatsby Curve (GGC), has been prominently cited by high-ranking public policy makers, best-selling authors and Nobel Prize winning academics. Yet relatively little cross-national work has empirically examined the mechanisms thought to underpin the GGC – particularly with regards to the role of educational attainment. This paper uses the cross-nationally comparable Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) dataset to shed new light on this issue. We find that income inequality is associated with several key components of the intergenerational transmission process – including access to higher education, the financial returns to education, and the direct effect of parental education upon labour market earnings. Thus, consistent with theoretical models, we find that educational attainment is an important driver of the relationship between intergenerational mobility and income inequality. We hence conclude that unequal access to financial resources plays a central role in the intergenerational transmission of advantage. |
| Keywords: | Income inequality, intergenerational mobility, Great Gatsby Curve, PIAAC. |
| JEL: | I20 J62 J24 |
| Date: | 2014–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1418&r=edu |
| By: | Stefan P.T. Groot (Centraal Planbureau, The Hague, the Netherlands); Henri L.F. de Groot (VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands) |
| Abstract: | This paper employs a unique set of micro-data covering almost one third of the Dutch labor force, to estimate the relationship between agglomeration externalities and the level of education. While the positive relationship between economic density and productivity and wages has long been established in the economic literature, less is known about the effects of density on the productivity of different types of workers. This paper shows that there is substantial heterogeneity in the relationship between density and productivity for workers with different types of education. Apart from estimating the impact of aggregate density, we also estimate whether the composition of the local labor market in terms of education is related to the productivity of different types of workers. Using the presence of universities as an instrument, we estimate the effect of the supply of university graduates on wages, i.e. the social return to education. |
| Keywords: | agglomeration, education, knowledge-spillovers, wages, local labor markets |
| Date: | 2014–07–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:uvatin:20140088&r=edu |
| By: | Ozsoz, Emre |
| Abstract: | One of the most cited criticism for US fashion brands is their exploitation of workers in their overseas manufacturing facilities. This paper studies whether such textile and apparel production facilities (also known as “sweatshopsâ€) lead to lower education and thus a lower socio-economic status for women working in them. Results suggest it is not as a clear-cut conclusion. Evidence suggests a higher ratio of women receive primary education as apparel and textile exports increase while at the secondary level of education however, the results suggest the opposite. We also evaluate to see if women marry at a later age as a result of working in these factories, yet fail to find any conclusive evidence. |
| Keywords: | sweatshops, economic development, |
| JEL: | O1 O15 |
| Date: | 2014–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58125&r=edu |
| By: | Lotito, Gianna; Maffioletti, Anna; Novarese, Marco |
| Abstract: | In this work we use data from two sets of midterm exams and question-by-question evaluations of confidence levels and construct different indicators in order to study predictive ability and overconfidence. Our results show that (1) there is a significant evidence of a good ability of self-evaluation on the side of the best students; (2) worse metacognition does not seem to explain overconfidence. This suggests that different methods of investigating overconfidence might lead to results which are at least partially different from the ones discussed in the existing literature |
| Keywords: | overconfidence; metacognition; predictive ability; performance |
| JEL: | A22 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uca:ucapdv:177&r=edu |
| By: | Luis Armando Galvis |
| Abstract: | En el presente trabajo se realiza un análisis del uso de los recursos públicos destinados a salud y educación. El objetivo es evaluar la “calidad” del gasto territorial con recursos del Sistema General de Participaciones –SGP-, a partir del estudio de la eficiencia relativa. Para este fin se emplea la metodología del Análisis Envolvente de Datos, enfatizando en estos dos sectores debido a que representan aproximadamente un 96% de los recursos provenientes del SGP. Los resultados indican que la eficiencia promedio en la cobertura se encuentra en 62,3 y 63,4% para educación y salud, respectivamente. En calidad la eficiencia en educación solo llega al 48,8% y en salud al 50,6%. Ello implica que, sobre todo en calidad, los municipios requieren esfuerzos para mejorar su desempeño y la eficiencia con que emplean los recursos provenientes del SGP.*****ABSTRACT: In this paper we analyze the efficiency with which resources from the central government are used for the provision of education and health services. The purpose is to evaluate the "quality" of public spending at the subnational level, specifically relative efficiency in the use of resources coming from the General System of Participations GSP. To this end, we employ the methodology known as Data Envelopment Analysis –DEA-, emphasizing in the case of education and health services, due to the fact that they represent around 96% of the funds coming from GSP. The results indicate that the average efficiency is 62.3% and 63.4% in the provision of education and health services, respectively. As to the case of the quality of those services, their efficiency reaches only 48.8% education in the case of education and 50.6% for health. This result indicates that the municipalities require additional efforts to improve performance and efficiency with which employ resources from the GSP, specially improving in the quality of the provision of those services. |
| Keywords: | Análisis de la envolvente de datos, eficiencia, recursos públicos, SGP, educación, salud |
| JEL: | C01 C02 C24 H51 H52 |
| Date: | 2014–08–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000102:012064&r=edu |
| By: | E. Roy Weintraub |
| Abstract: | Over the past twenty-five years the Duke history of economics faculty, together with the collection development librarians in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, have been gathering the papers of notable (mostly) twentieth century economists in what is now called The Economists Papers Project (EPP). Over time that archive has grown and become central to historical research on economics in the postwar period. The papers of Edwin Burmeister, Evsey Domar, Franklin Fisher, Duncan Foley, Lawrence Klein, Franco Modigliani, and Robert Solow, all MIT faculty or students, have attracted scholars from around the world. After Paul Samuelson’s death in December 2009, his papers, by prior arrangement, came to the EPP and quickly became a magnet for historians of economics. In response, early in 2010 I was encouraged by my colleagues Kevin Hoover, Bruce Caldwell, Craufurd Goodwin, and Neil De Marchi to plan a conference in the History of Political Economy Annual Conference series to examine the history of MIT economics. After a year’s worth of conversations and emails, I invited a number of individuals to consider a variety of projects exploring MIT’s role in the transformation of American economics in the postwar period. That conference, held in April 2013 at the R. David Thomas Conference Center at Duke University, was sponsored as usual by the Duke University Press. However the very generous financial support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation made possible the expansion of the “standard” HOPE Conference into one that included a larger number of participants and papers. In the end the conferees learned that telling the story of MIT’s role in the postwar period required attending to both the particular circumstances that shaped MIT and the various ways in which economics itself was changing. |
| Keywords: | MIT, Paul Samuelson, E. B. Wilson, Robert Solow, Graduate Education, historiography of economics |
| JEL: | A1 A2 B2 B3 D00 E00 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hec:heccee:2014-14&r=edu |
| By: | Ãngel de la Fuente; Rafael Doménech |
| Abstract: | We survey a number of papers that have focused on the construction of cross-country data sets on average years of schooling. We discuss the construction of the different series, compare their profiles and construct indicators of their information content. The discussion focuses on a sample of OECD countries but we also provide some results for a large non-OECD sample. |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fda:fdaddt:2014-15&r=edu |
| By: | Runu Bhakta (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research); A. Ganesh Kumar (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research) |
| Abstract: | The objective of the study is to analyse the impact of provision of health care facilities on the child health status taking into account the utilization of these available facilities. The study offers an insight into how parental education plays a significant role in explaining the slow progress in the health status of children. The results confirm that additional provision of health care facilities leads to significant increase in utilization of institutional delivery services and antenatal care which in turn improves the health status of a child. At the same time, we have observed that mere provision of more health care services will not solve the problem at the rate required to achieve acceptable levels of child health status. The model for utilization of health services reveals the fact that, schooling affects health seeking behavior among women which in turn results in greater utilization of institutional benefits in a region where the services are available. Thus female education must be enhanced to increase the utilization of antenatal care at a faster rate. Further, educated parents can manage child care practices in more efficient ways which offer them an additional edge among those who availed those facilities. To have a better utilization of available health care services and to raise the pace of reduction in child mortality rates government has to pay attention to increase education level of adults along with the expansion of health care centres. |
| Keywords: | Child health status, Health care services, Parental education, Child care, Ordered Probit Model |
| JEL: | I11 I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2014-036&r=edu |