|
on Education |
| By: | Francisco Cabrera-Hernandez (Department of Economics, University of Sussex, UK) |
| Abstract: | Mexican educational authorities face a significant and challenging problem of low achievement in standardized tests applied to pupils in primary schools. This research looks at a Full-Time Primary Schools Program implemented in 2007, to work out if changing the time pupils spend at school and a modification in the structure of teaching can enhance skills in language and mathematics. The results of Differences in Differences (DiD) and Propensity Score Match plus DiD, point to a significant impact of the program with an improvement of 0.11 SD on mathematics and Spanish test scores after four years of treatment. More importantly, these improvements are significantly higher in schools located in deprived areas, ranging from 0.12 SD to 0.29 SD on both subjects after two and four years of treatment, respectively. The impacts also show a significant average decrease in the proportion of students graded as ‘insufficient’, combined with an increase of those graded as ‘excellent’. Further analysis on causal channels shows that policy effects do not come from changes in the composition of pupils in treated schools. These findings are of strong significance when laced into the wider education debate about what works best in schools for improving pupil performance. |
| Keywords: | full-time schools, test scores, school reform, time of instruction, school’s inputs |
| JEL: | I2 I21 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sus:susewp:7415&r=edu |
| By: | Sandra McNally |
| Abstract: | England's performance in international tests of student achievement continues to be disappointing. Further improvement is essential not only for students' themselves but also for economic growth. This briefing considers the impact of Academies, school spending and teacher quality. Research evidence suggests that it is right to protect school budgets but too early to judge the Coalition's Academies policy. Although there was a large improvement in the first 200 schools (about 4 years after conversion), those schools were disadvantaged and underperforming (unlike the more recent academies) and the current programme is much larger scale. There is broad agreement that high quality teaching matters hugely for student achievement, but there is no magic national formula to bring this about. |
| Keywords: | UK, education, government policy, academies, teaching, educational resources, #ElectionEconomics |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepeap:023&r=edu |
| By: | Pedro Carneiro; Oswald Koussihouèdé; Nathalie Lahire; Costas Meghir; Corina Mommaerts |
| Abstract: | The impact of school resources on the quality of education in developing countries may depend crucially on whether resources are targeted efficiently. In this paper we use a randomized experiment to analyze the impact of a school grants program in Senegal, which decentralized a portion of the country’s education budget. We find large positive effects on test scores at younger grades that persist at least two years. We show that these effects are concentrated among schools that focused funds on human resources improvements rather than school materials, suggesting that teachers and principals may be a central determinant of school quality. |
| JEL: | H52 I22 I25 O15 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21063&r=edu |
| By: | Angrist, Joshua (MIT); Battistin, Erich (Queen Mary, University of London); Vuri, Daniela (University of Rome Tor Vergata) |
| Abstract: | An instrumental variables (IV) identification strategy that exploits statutory class size caps shows significant achievement gains in smaller classes in Italian primary schools. Gains from small classes are driven mainly by schools in Southern Italy, suggesting a substantial return to class size reductions for residents of the Mezzogiorno. In addition to high unemployment and other social problems, however, the Mezzogiorno is distinguished by pervasive manipulation of standardized test scores, a finding revealed in a natural experiment that randomly assigns school monitors. IV estimates also show that small classes increase score manipulation. Dishonest scoring appears to be a consequence of teacher shirking in grade transcription, rather than cheating by either students or teachers. Estimates of a causal model for achievement with two endogenous variables, class size and score manipulation, suggest that the effects of class size on measured achievement are driven entirely by the relationship between class size and manipulation. These findings show how consequential score manipulation can arise even in assessment systems with few NCLB-style accountability concerns. |
| Keywords: | test scores, education production, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | C26 C31 I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8959&r=edu |
| By: | Gershenson, Seth (American University); Tekin, Erdal (American University) |
| Abstract: | Community traumatic events such as mass shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural or man-made disasters have the potential to disrupt student learning in numerous ways. For example, these events can reduce instructional time by causing teacher and student absences, school closures, and disturbances to usual classroom routines. Similarly, they might also disrupt home environments. This paper uses a quasi-experimental research design to identify the effects of the 2002 "Beltway Sniper" attacks on student achievement in Virginia's public schools. In order to identify the causal impact of these events, the empirical analysis uses a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits geographic variation in schools' proximity to the attacks. The main results indicate that the attacks significantly reduced school-level proficiency rates in schools within five miles of an attack. Evidence of a causal effect is most robust for third grade reading and third and fifth grade math proficiency, suggesting that the shootings caused a decline in school proficiency rates of about five to nine percentage points. Particularly concerning from an equity standpoint, these effects appear to be entirely driven by achievement declines in schools that serve higher proportions of racial minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Finally, results from supplementary analyses suggest that these deleterious effects faded out in subsequent years. |
| Keywords: | crime, student, school, sniper, trauma, terrorism, achievement, shooting, guns, homicides |
| JEL: | I12 I21 K42 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8958&r=edu |
| By: | Andrabi,Tahir; Das,Jishnu; Khwaja,Asim Ijaz |
| Abstract: | This paper studies study the impact of providing school and child test scores on subsequent test scores, prices, and enrollment in markets with multiple public and private providers. A randomly selected half of the sample villages (markets) received report cards. This increased test scores by 0.11 standard deviations, decreased private school fees by 17 percent, and increased primary enrollment by 4.5 percent. Heterogeneity in the treatment impact by initial school quality is consistent with canonical models of asymmetric information. Information provision facilitates better comparisons across providers, improves market efficiency and raises child welfare through higher test scores, higher enrollment, and lower fees. |
| Keywords: | Primary Education,Education For All,Secondary Education,Tertiary Education,Effective Schools and Teachers |
| Date: | 2015–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7226&r=edu |
| By: | James Berry; Dean Karlan; Menno Pradhan |
| Abstract: | We evaluate, using a randomized trial, two school-based financial literacy education programs in government-run primary and junior high schools in Ghana. One program integrated financial and social education, whereas the second program only offered financial education. Both programs included a voluntary after-school savings club that provided students with a locked money box. After nine months, both programs had significant impacts on savings behavior relative to the control group, mostly because children moved savings from home to school. We observed few other impacts. We do find that financial education, when not accompanied by social education, led children to work more compared to the control group, whereas no such effect is found for the integrated curriculum; however, the difference between the two treatment effects on child labor is not statistically significant. |
| JEL: | D14 J22 J24 O12 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21068&r=edu |
| By: | Falck, Oliver (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Mang, Constantin (Ifo Institute for Economic Research); Woessmann, Ludger (Ifo Institute for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Most studies find little to no effect of classroom computers on student achievement. We suggest that this null effect may combine positive effects of computer uses without equivalently effective alternative traditional teaching practices and negative effects of uses that substitute more effective teaching practices. Our correlated random effects models exploit within-student between-subject variation in different computer uses in the international TIMSS test. We find positive effects of using computers to look up information and negative effects of using computers to practice skills, resulting in overall null effects. Effects are larger for high-SES students and mostly confined to developed countries. |
| Keywords: | computers, teaching methods, student achievement, TIMSS |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8939&r=edu |
| By: | Johannes G. Hoogeveen (World Bank); Mariacristina Rossi (University of Torino, CeRP-CCA and Netspar); Dario Sansone (Georgetown University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses new data available from a school census in Togo to analyze differences in primary school performances across regions. Our results, obtained from a stochastic frontier analysis, suggest that differences in efficiency explain only part of the observed variation, while resource availability is the most important driver of performance differences. In addition to this, the paper notes that resources are distributed quite unevenly among regions and schools. By improving access to inputs, particularly in the underserved schools, performance can be expected to go up considerably. |
| Keywords: | efficiency, education, Togo, stochastic frontier, performances |
| JEL: | C21 I21 I25 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:145&r=edu |
| By: | Sandra E Black (University of Texas); Paul J Devereux (University College Dublin); Petter Lundborg (Lund University); Kaveh Majlesi (Lund University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether acquiring more education when young has long-term effects on risktaking behavior in financial markets and whether the effects spill over to spouses and children. There is substantial evidence that more educated people are more likely to invest in the stock market. However, little is known about whether this is a causal effect of education or whether it arises from the correlation of education with unobserved characteristics. Using exogenous variation in education arising from a Swedish compulsory schooling reform in the 1950s and 1960s, and the wealth holdings of the population of Sweden in 2000, we estimate the effect of education on stock market participation and risky asset holdings. We find that an extra year of education increases stock market participation by about 2% for men but there is no evidence of any positive effect for women. More education also leads men to hold a greater proportion of their financial assets in stocks and other risky financial assets. We find no evidence of spillover effects from male schooling to the financial decisions of spouses or children. |
| Keywords: | Financial decision-making; Returns to education; Portfolio choice |
| JEL: | G11 D14 I24 D31 |
| Date: | 2015–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201509&r=edu |
| By: | Francisco Martínez; Salomé Martínez; Alejandra Mizala |
| Abstract: | Using a survey-experiment methodology we evaluate whether pre-service elementary school teachers’ expectations about students’ achievement, and beliefs about students’ need for academic support, are influenced by future teachers’ mathematics anxiety level or by gender and socioeconomic status of the student. We found that mathematics anxiety can negatively influence pre-service elementary school teachers’ expectations about students, and that participants assign lower expectations of future mathematics achievement to girls than boys. These two effects, however, appear to be strictly independent as we did not find statistically significant interaction effects between pre-service teacher’s mathematics anxiety and the expectations biases associated with student’s gender. Our results also suggest that mathematics anxiety could affect pre-service teachers’ capacity to develop inclusive learning environments in their classrooms. |
| Keywords: | Pre-service Teachers, Teachers Expectations of Students, Mathematics Anxiety, Gender Bias, Survey-experiment Methodology |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:edj:ceauch:310&r=edu |
| By: | Lawson, Cornelia; Geuna, Aldo; Ana Fernández-Zubieta; Toselli, Manuel; Kataishi, Rodrigo (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This chapter analyses the mobility of academic biomedical researchers in the US and the UK. Both countries are at the forefront of research in biomedicine, and able to attract promising researchers from other countries as well as fostering mobility between the US and the UK. Using a database of 292 UK based academics and 327 US based academics covering the period 1956 to 2012, the descriptive analysis shows a high level of international mobility at education level (BA, PhD and Postdoc) with small, but significant transatlantic exchanges, and shows high levels of cross-border mobility amongst senior academics based in the UK. There is a high level of career mobility with 50% of the sample having changed jobs at least once, and 40% having moved within academia. There is no significant difference in job-job mobility between the two countries although there are some interesting institutional differences concerning international and cross-sector mobility. The empirical analysis focuses on the importance of postdoctoral training in the US and the UK. The results indicate that working in the US is correlated to higher researcher performance in terms of both publication numbers and impact/quality adjusted publications (in top journals and average impact). The publications of researchers with postdoctoral experience are generally of a higher average impact. This applies especially to postdoc experience at top-quality US institutions although a postdoc at a UK top institution is associated with higher top journal publications and higher average impact. In relation to the UK sample, we find that a US postdoc (especially in a top institution) is correlated to subsequent performance in the UK academic market. Finally, we see that US postdocs that stay in the US publish more and publications with higher impact/quality than those that move to the UK; however, these effects are stronger for those who studied for their PhD degree outside the US. Therefore, we find some evidence that the US is able to retain high performing incoming PhD graduates. |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:labeco:201504&r=edu |
| By: | Black, Sandra; Devereux, Paul J.; Lundborg, Petter; Majlesi, Kaveh |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether acquiring more education when young has long-term effects on risk-taking behavior in financial markets and whether the effects spill over to spouses and children. There is substantial evidence that more educated people are more likely to invest in the stock market. However, little is known about whether this is a causal effect of education or whether it arises from the correlation of education with unobserved characteristics. Using exogenous variation in education arising from a Swedish compulsory schooling reform in the 1950s and 1960s, and the wealth holdings of the population of Sweden in 2000, we estimate the effect of education on stock market participation and risky asset holdings. We find that an extra year of education increases stock market participation by about 2% for men but there is no evidence of any positive effect for women. More education also leads men to hold a greater proportion of their financial assets in stocks and other risky financial assets. We find no evidence of spillover effects from male schooling to the financial decisions of spouses or children. |
| Keywords: | financial decision-making; portfolio choice; returns to education |
| JEL: | D14 D31 G11 I24 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10525&r=edu |
| By: | Camille Terrier |
| Abstract: | This paper tests if gender-discrimination in grading affects pupils' achievements and course choices. I use a unique dataset containing grades given by teachers, scores obtained anonymously by pupils at different ages, and their course choice during high school. Based on double-differences, the identification of the gender bias in grades suggests that girls benefit from a substantive positive discrimination in math but not in French. This bias is not explained by girls' better behavior and only marginally by their lower initial achievement. I then use the heterogeneity in teachers' discriminatory behavior to show that classes in which teachers present a high degree of discrimination in favor of girls are also classes in which girls tend to progress significantly more than boys, during the school year but also during the next four years. Teachers' biases also increase the relative probability that girls attend a general high school and chose science courses. |
| Keywords: | Gender, grading, discrimination, progress |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1341&r=edu |
| By: | Simon Thacker; Juan Manuel Moreno |
| Keywords: | Teaching and Learning Access and Equity in Basic Education Education - Education For All Education - Primary Education Macroeconomics and Economic Growth - Regional Economic Development |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:21640&r=edu |
| By: | Daniele Gualdi; Francesca Melagranati |
| Abstract: | Many authoritative scholars of Business Administration reported limits to teaching exclusively through frontal lectures, as traditionally taught in degree courses in Economics. The IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) recommends a less passive approach to teaching by providing more opportunities for participation to encourage greater involvement of the student in the learning process. Educational theories, such as constructivism, suggest providing learning environments that simulate real life. Among these is Virtual Enterprise (or Practice Firm), a method that applies a proactive teaching approach, founded on action oriented learning, and aimed at problem solving, teamwork, and critical thinking. The following research highlights the awareness in students from two Italian Schools of Economics, Forlí and Parma, of the benefits to studying more actively, and their motivations and expectations with respect to the teaching methodology of Virtual Enterprise |
| Keywords: | Virtual Enterprise; Practice Firm; Accounting Education; Constructivism |
| JEL: | A M |
| Date: | 2015–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:2015074&r=edu |
| By: | John Kennan |
| Abstract: | In the U.S. there are large differences across States in the extent to which college education is subsidized, and there are also large differences across States in the proportion of college graduates in the labor force. State subsidies are apparently motivated in part by the perceived benefits of having a more educated workforce. The paper extends the migration model of Kennan and Walker (2011) to analyze how geographical variation in college education subsidies affects the migration decisions of college graduates. The model is estimated using NLSY data, and used to quantify the sensitivity of migration and college enrollment decisions to differences in expected net lifetime income, focusing on how cross-State differences in public college financing affect the educational composition of the labor force. The main finding is that these differences have substantial effects on college enrollment, with no evidence that these effects are dissipated through migration |
| JEL: | I22 I23 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21065&r=edu |
| By: | Gill Wyness |
| Abstract: | The UK Higher Education sector has changed radically as a result of Coalition Policies - most obviously through the dramatic increase in the tuition fee cap from £3,375 to £9,000 per year. However, the greatest issue arising from the reforms has not been university applications, which have continued to grow, but the sustainability of the system. Recent estimates show that the reforms have generated only a small taxpayer saving because of the high cost of financing tuition fee loans - nearly three quarters of graduates will not clear their government-backed loans before they are written off. For these reasons, the level of tuition fees looks likely to be a pre-election issue. The Conservatives have refused to rule out an increase in the fee cap should they be elected - though by itself this is unlikely to bring in any extra taxpayer revenue since it would merely increase the amount of unpaid loans. The Labour Party, meanwhile, have yet to confirm their much-anticipated policy to reduce the fee cap to £6,000 a year. Such a policy is likely to be bad news for universities - who could see their 2012 funding increase reversed - but good news for would-be students. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, University fees, government policy, Post Graduate, #ElectionEconomics |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepeap:026&r=edu |
| By: | BELLEFLAMME, Paul (Université catholique de Louvain, CORE, Belgium); JACQMIN, Julien (LAMETA, University of Montpellier, France) |
| Abstract: | We start by using various economic and pedagogical concepts to understand the specificities of MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) platforms. We then discuss how the private provision of MOOCs, seen as pure public goods, can be sustained. Based on the theory of multisided platforms, we analyse five ways to monetize the MOOC business. Our conclusion is that the most sustainable approach is what we call the ‘subcontractor model’, flavored by touches of the other four models. We then claim that MOOC platforms can play a key transformative role in the higher education sector by making teaching practices evolve, rather than by replacing incumbent institutions. Finally, we derive a number of directions for public policy: governments should act to foster the cooperation between MOOC platforms and other higher education institutions, so as to improve the benefits that can arise from these technological innovations; a particular focus should also be given to professors in order to encourage them to innovate in their teaching practices |
| Keywords: | higher education, distance learning, multisided platforms |
| JEL: | I23 I21 L31 L86 |
| Date: | 2014–11–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2014039&r=edu |
| By: | Márquez-Padilla,Fernanda; Pérez-Arce,Francisco; Rodriguez Castelan,Carlos |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the sharp increase in violence experienced in Mexico after 2006, known as"The War on Drugs,"and its effects on human capital accumulation. The upsurge in violence is expected to have direct effects on individuals'schooling decisions, but not indirect effects, because there was no severe destruction of infrastructure. The fact that the marked increases in violence were concentrated in some municipalities (and not in others) allows for implementation of a fixed-effects methodology to study the effects of violence on educational outcomes. Different from several recent studies that have found significant negative effects of violence on economic outcomes in Mexico, the paper finds evidence that this is not the case, at least for human capital accumulation. The paper uses several sources of data on homicides and educational outcomes and shows that, at most, there are very small effects on total enrollment. These small effects may be driven by some students being displaced from high-violence municipalities to low-violence municipalities; but the education decisions of individuals do not seem to be highly impacted. The analysis discards the possibility that the effects on enrollment of young adults appear small because of a counteracting effect from ex-workers returning to school. The results stand in contrast with recent evidence of the negative effects of violence on short-term economic growth, since minimal to null effects on human capital accumulation today should have little to no adverse effects on long-term growth outcomes in Mexico. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Crime and Society,Population Policies,Youth and Government,Tertiary Education |
| Date: | 2015–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7230&r=edu |
| By: | Cerdan-Infantes,Pedro; Filmer,Deon P. |
| Abstract: | Improving education outcomes by disseminating information to parents and thereby encouraging them to become more actively engaged in school oversight is attractive, since it can be done relatively cheaply. This study evaluates the impact of alternative approaches to disseminating information about a school grants program in Indonesia on parents'knowledge about the program in general, knowledge about the implementation of the program in their child's school, and participation in school activities related to the program as well as beyond it. Not all dissemination approaches yielded impacts, and different modes of dissemination conveyed different types of information best, resulting in different impacts on behavior. Specifically, the low-intensity approaches that were tried?sending a letter from the principal home with the child, or sending a colorful pamphlet home with the child?had no impact on knowledge or participation. On the other hand, holding a facilitated meeting with a range of school stakeholders or sending targeted text messages to parents did increase knowledge and participation. Facilitated meetings mostly increased overall knowledge and fostered a feeling of transparency on the part of parents, which resulted in greater participation in formal channels for providing feedback to the school. The text messages increased knowledge about specific aspects of the program, such as the grant amount, and tended to increase participation through informal channels. |
| Keywords: | Primary Education,Education For All,Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems,Tertiary Education,Effective Schools and Teachers |
| Date: | 2015–04–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7233&r=edu |
| By: | Anita K Zonebia (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Arief Anshory Yusuf (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Heriyaldi (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | Level of economic development has been found to be among the strongest determinants of corruption level in cross-country studies. Those studies use income per capita as a measure of level of development and found that higher level of corruption is associated with lower level of income. We argue that, at any given income level, education is also a very important determinant of the level of corruption and failing to include education may bias or over-estimate the importance of income. We estimated an empirical model of individual’s attitude toward anti-corruption using a large sample of 9,020 individuals that represent Indonesian population and find that the effect of income (proxied by expenditure) is either weakened or eliminated when we control for the level of education. The effect of education is also found to exhibit a non-linear pattern which implies that investing in education will have increasing returns in the form of anti-corruption attitude. This finding supports the view that increasing access to education is an effective measure of reducing corruption norms particularly in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | Corruption, Anti-corruption, development, Indonesia |
| JEL: | D73 |
| Date: | 2015–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201502&r=edu |
| By: | Del Bello, Carlo L. (Paris School of Economics); Patacchini, Eleonora (Cornell University); Zenou, Yves (Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Using unique geo-coded information on the residential address of a representative sample of American adolescents and their friends, we revisit the importance of geographical proximity in shaping education outcomes. Our findings reveal no evidence of residential neighborhood effects. Social proximity, as measured by similarity in religion, race and family income as well as in unobserved characteristics, appears to play a major role in facilitating peer influence. Our empirical strategy is able to control for the endogeneity of both social network and location choices. |
| Keywords: | neighborhood effects, social networks, link formation, education |
| JEL: | C21 Z13 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8956&r=edu |
| By: | Holford, Angus |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an approach to identifying the education production function with endogenous inputs, and applies it in the context of part-time employment decisions by UK teenagers in compulsory education. We identify simultaneously the effect of part-time employment and latent endogenous inputs including study effort, at different points in time, and compare the reduced-form effect of having a job while at school with the production function parameter. Part-time employment is shown to reduce academic performance among girls but not boys. We present evidence that this is due to employment crowding out a wider range of productive activities among girls than boys. |
| Date: | 2015–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2015-06&r=edu |
| By: | Paul Gregg (Department of Social and Policy Sciences and Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy, University of Bath); Lindsey Macmillan (Department of Quantitative Social Science, Institute of Education, University College London); Claudia Vittori (Department of Social and Policy Sciences and Centre for the Analysis of Social Policy, University of Bath) |
| Abstract: | Previous studies of intergenerational income mobility have typically focused at on estimating persistence across generations at the mean of the distribution of sons’ earnings. Here, we use the relatively new unconditional quantile regression (UQR) technique to consider how the association between parental income in childhood and sons’ adult earnings vary across the distribution of sons’ earnings. We find a J-shaped relationship between parental income and sons’ earnings, with parental income a particularly strong predictor of labour market success for those at the bottom, and to a greater extent, the top of the earnings distribution. We explore the potential role of early skills, education and early labour market attachment in this process. Worryingly, we find that education is not as meritocratic as we might hope, with the role of parental income dominating that of education at the top of the distribution of earnings. Early unemployment experience has long-lasting impacts on sorting those at the bottom, alongside parental income. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility, education, nonlinear |
| JEL: | I20 J62 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1503&r=edu |
| By: | Jensen, Bente (Aarhus University); Jensen, Peter (Aarhus University); Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | From 2011 to 2013 a randomized controlled trial has been run in Danish preschools to obtain evidence on improvements of early childhood education by providing training to the preschool teachers. The purpose of the intervention is to improve child socio-emotional outcomes (measured by SDQ), especially for socially disadvantaged children. The intervention preschools received extra training of the preschool teachers, whereas control preschools did not receive any training. The results show improvements in several subscales of the SDQ scale. However, the intervention proves less beneficial for socially disadvantaged children, in particular as a consequence of unfavorable preschool characteristics. |
| Keywords: | preschools, childcare, child development, RCT, professional development, intervention |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8957&r=edu |
| By: | Anastasia V. Yastrebtseva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper offers an analysis of the public education project proposed by Nicolas de Condorcet (1743-1794) which appeared to be too modern for the late XVIII century but extremely vital for the last three decades of XIX century. His ideas were taken and made foundation for the reforms proposed by Jules Ferry and Ferdinand Buisson, whose names are traditionally linked with the formation of the “republican school” in France. |
| Keywords: | enlightenment, public education, republicanism, school, equality, social progress |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:94hum2015&r=edu |
| By: | Mtiraoui, abderraouf |
| Abstract: | Several econometrical recent studies carried on international comparison data puts into question the opinion according to which education as a human capital indicator would encourage growth. This result comes in a context of opening to the outside. The evaluations are made on data of dynamic panel with the generalized moment's method GMM, with a tertiary schooling rate as indicator reflecting the human capital. This human capital coefficient varies stochastically from a country to the other according to national features. Several among them permit to explain these differences of quality: educational infrastructures, capacity to provide education in an equal way, initial endowment in human capital in case of opening. We introduce several variables related to the structural, institutional features and to the development of the human capital to test their effects on growth in the M.E.N.A zone during the period 1994-2006. Most of the found results show the existence of a relation between the policies of opening, structural, institutional, human capital factors and the growth in these countries. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Growth, Opening to the outside, GMM, MENA |
| JEL: | F1 F10 |
| Date: | 2015–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61530&r=edu |
| By: | Jain, Rekha; Singh, Manjari |
| Abstract: | The National Knowledge Network (NKN) was set up to enhance collaboration amongst higher education (HE) and research institutes. The government of India implemented the NKN to provide connectivity to nearly 5000 institutions, including publicly funded higher education and research institutes. The objective of this paper is to provide an integrated framework for increasing the effectiveness of knowledge networks. We do this by identifying the organizational mechanisms, key processes and competencies required to support HE and research institutes in India that would enable them to exploit the public high speed National Knowledge Network. We examine this from the perspective of Knowledge Network Provider and User Institutes. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:13336&r=edu |