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on Education |
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Issue of 2015‒12‒12
eleven papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Sander Gerritsen; Sonny Kuijpers; Marc van der Steeg |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effects of higher teacher pay for secondary school teachers on their teacher retention decision and enrollment in additional schooling. We exploit variation in teacher pay induced by the introduction of a new remuneration policy. This policy provided schools in an urbanized region with extra funds to place a larger share of teachers in a higher salary scale. We exploit this policy in an IV-setup to estimate the effects of higher teacher pay on our outcomes. The main finding is that we find no effects of higher teacher pay on the probability to stay in the teaching profession. The policy however succeeded in keeping a slightly larger share of teachers in the targeted region. In addition, our findings suggest that the policy increased teachers’ enrollment in bachelor or master degree programs from 2.3% to 3.2%. This finding is consistent with the setup of the policy in which one of the criteria for placement in a higher salary scale is that teachers would obtain extra qualifications or gain extra expertise. |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:316&r=edu |
| By: | Diether Beuermann; C. Kirabo Jackson; Ricardo Sierra |
| Abstract: | Many nations allow private entities to manage publicly funded schools and grant them greater flexibility than traditional public schools. However, isolating the causal effect of attending these privately managed public schools relative to attending traditional public schools is difficult because students who attend privately managed schools may differ in unobservable ways from those who do not. This paper estimates the causal effect on academic outcomes in Trinidad and Tobago as a result of attending privately managed public secondary schools (assisted schools) relative to traditional public secondary schools. In Trinidad and Tobago, students are assigned to secondary schools based on an algorithm that created exogenous variation in school attendance, allowing us to remove self-selection bias. Despite large differences in teacher quality and peer quality across these school types, we find little evidence of any relative benefit in attending an assisted school between the ages of 10 and 15 in terms of dropout rates or examination performance at age 15. |
| Keywords: | Educational Assessment, Privately-Managed Public Secondary Schools, Academic achievement, Rule-Based Student Assignments |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:91836&r=edu |
| By: | Lavy, Victor (University of Warwick, Hebrew University and NBER); Sand, Edith (Bank of Israel) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we estimate the effect of primary school teachers’ gender biases on boys’ and girls’ academic achievements during middle and high school and on the choice of advanced level courses in math and sciences during high school. For identification, we rely on the random assignments of teachers and students to classes in primary schools. Our results suggest that teachers’ biases favoring boys have an asymmetric effect by gender-positive effect on boys’ achievements and negative effect on girls’. Such gender biases also impact students’ enrollment in advanced level math courses in high school—boys positively and girls negatively. These results suggest that teachers’ biased behavior at early stage of schooling have long run implications for occupational choices and earnings at adulthood, because enrollment in advanced courses in math and science in high school is a prerequisite for post-secondary schooling in engineering, computer science and so on. This impact is heterogeneous, being larger for children from families where the father is more educated than the mother and larger on girls from low socioeconomic background |
| Keywords: | JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:254&r=edu |
| By: | Garrouste, Clémentine; Godard, Mathilde |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether leaving school in a bad economy deteriorates health in the long-run. It focuses on individuals in England and Wales who left full-time education in their last year of compulsory schooling immediately after the 1973 oil crisis. Unemployment rates sharply increased in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, so that between 1974 and 1976, each school cohort faced worse economic conditions at labour-market entry than the previous one. Our identification strategy relies on the comparison of very similar pupils – born the same year and with a similar quantity of education (in months) – whose school-leaving behaviour in different economic conditions was exogeneouly implied by compulsory schooling laws. Unlike school-leavers who did postpone their entry on the labour market during the 1980s and 1990s recessions, we provide evidence that pupils’ decisions to leave school at compulsory age immediately after the 1973 oil crisis were not endogeneous to the contemporaneous economic conditions at labour market entry. We use a repeated cross section of individuals over 1983-2001 from the General Household Survey (GHS) and take a lifecourse perspective, from 7 to 26 years after school-leaving. Our results show that poor economic conditions at labour-market entry are particularly damaging to women’s health. Women who left school in a bad economy are more likely to report poorer health and to consult a general practitioner over the whole period under study (1983-2001). Additional evidence suggests that they are also more likely to suffer from a longstanding illness/disability over the whole period. As for men, the health impact of poor economic conditions at labour-market entry is more mixed, and not robust across all specifications. However, we never find that leaving school in a bad economy is beneficial to their health. Finally, our results show that leaving school in a bad economy does not have a lasting impact on labour-market outcomes from 7 to 26 years after school-leaving, neither for men, nor for women. |
| Keywords: | health, school-leaving, macroeconomic shocks |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:1509&r=edu |
| By: | SHAPIRO David; TENIKUE Michel |
| Abstract: | Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was the last major world region to experience the fertility decline that all industrialized countries have gone through and that much of the developing world has experienced in large part. It has uniquely high fertility: at present, the United Nations estimates the total fertility rate at 5.1 for SSA, compared to 2.2 for both Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. The ongoing fertility transition in the region has been comparatively slow and subject to stalling. At the same time, women?s educational attainment and infant and child mortality have been shown in the demography literature to be important determinants of fertility and fertility decline. Since the 1980s, fertility in sub-Saharan Africa has been falling in many countries while women?s school enrollment and educational attainment have been increasing and infant and child mortality for the most part has been declining. Previous research using aggregated data has shown the importance of growth in women?s schooling and reduction in infant and child mortality as major factors contributing to fertility decline in the region. This research uses individual-level micro data and a well-known decomposition technique for analyzing differences or changes to quantify the importance of increased women?s education and declining infant and child mortality in contributing to the observed declines in fertility in numerous countries. More specifically, this paper examines the quantitative impact of these two factors in sub-Saharan Africa in contributing to the ongoing decline in fertility that has been taking place in the region. Data come from 31 countries, and are from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). The methodology is to decompose observed changes in fertility to changes attributable to different factors, including the two key variables of interest ? women?s education and infant and child mortality ? and two control variables, urbanization and age. |
| Keywords: | Women's Education; Infant and Child Mortality; Fertility Decline; Sub-Saharan Africa; Decomposition Analysis |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:cepswp:2015-07&r=edu |
| By: | Idaira Rodríguez-Santana (Centre for Health Economics, University of York, UK.); Martin Chalkley |
| Abstract: | Objective. To analyse the distribution of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of medical trainees across different specialties in the UK. Design. Mixed logistic regression analysis of data from the National Training Survey 2013 to quantify evidence of systematic relationships between doctors’ characteristics and the specialty they are training in, controlling for the correlation between these characteristics. Setting. Data from the National Training Survey 2013, carried out by the General Medical Council. Participants. Postgraduate medical trainees. Main outcome measures. Odds ratios (calculated for both all trainees and a subsample of UK educated trainees) relating gender, age, ethnicity, place of studies, socioeconomic background and parental education to a trainee’s specialty. Results. There are systematic and substantial differences between specialties in respect of gender, ethnicity, age and socio-economic background. Being male, white British, from a better-off socioeconomic background, trained in a UK university or having parents who have tertiary education increases the chances of being in surgical specialties relative to general practice. Being male, nonwhite, mature, trained in an overseas university, from a better-off socio-economic background, or having parents who have tertiary education increases the chances of being in psychiatric specialties relative to general practice. Measured relative to general practice the gender gap is largest for surgical specialities, the ethnicity gap is greatest for acute care, emergency medicine and anaesthetics and the age-gap is large and positive for psychiatry and large and negative for acute care, emergency medicine and anaesthetics. Conclusions. Differences in the characteristics of trainees will feed into the composition of the practising profession. The persistent gender gap, the underrepresentation of those coming from the disadvantaged backgrounds and the inequity of educational background in some specialties will condition perceptions of the NHS and the medical profession. Our analysis contributes to a fuller understanding of the nature of these differences, which may be a matter for public concern and policy action. Remedial action if required will necessitate a better understanding of the processes of selection and self-selection into specialties that gives rise to these observed differences |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chy:respap:119cherp&r=edu |
| By: | Askenazy, Philippe; Chevalier, Martin; Erhel, Christine |
| Abstract: | Our aim in this note is to set Okun’s Law in a new perspective. We argue that highly educated labour should react differently to economic downturns and recoveries than lesser-educated labour. A simple model shows that when highly educated workers are engaged in long-run projects, the adjustments of their (un)employment to GDP changes become ambiguous. If the access to capital is not too affected by the cycle, these adjustements can be the opposite of the employment changes of the lesser- educated workforce. Estimations for the United States, the European Union and across Europe support the coexistence of different Okun’s laws according to educational attainment. This observation may help to explain recent puzzling macroeconomic facts. |
| Keywords: | Okun, low-middle educated, high-educated, business cycle |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpm:docweb:1514&r=edu |
| By: | Rui Dang |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first to estimate the causal effect of local human capital stock on individual adiposity and adds to the existing literature on estimating human capital externalities at the neighborhood level. We explore the possible causal pathways that college-educated neighbors exert on individual body weight, with the results revealing small yet significant human capital spillover effects. Among all adults, a percentage point increase in the neighborhood college graduates share results in a decrease of individual body mass index by 0.0026 log points, as well as a decrease of the individual likelihood of being overweight by 0.77 percentage points. Among high school graduates and college graduates, a percentage point increase in the neighborhood college graduates share results in a decrease of individual likelihood of being overweight by approximately 0.83 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Obesity, local human capital externalities, control function, non-random sorting |
| JEL: | I00 R23 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp805&r=edu |
| By: | Inga Ivanova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Oivind Strand (Aalesund University College); Duncan Kushnir (Chalmers University of Technology); Loet Leydesdorff (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | We apply the Method of Reflections developed by Hidalgo and Hausmann for measuring economic complexity to a Triple Helix system of innovations by defining the Patent Complexity Index in analogy and addition to the Economic Complexity Index and extending MR to three dimensions. PCI is operationalized in terms of patent groups instead of product groups. PCI and ECI are computed for three groups of countries. We find no correlation between economic complexity and technological complexity which means that the two measures capture different information. Adding the third dimension of governance to the Method of Reflections, one can incorporate knowledge dimension in Hidalgo and Hausmann defined ECI and use MR for evaluation the efficiency of Triple-Helix system of innovations. The Method of Reflections can thus be used for evaluating the efficiency of a TH system of innovations in terms of its contribution to the net national income |
| Keywords: | Triple-Helix innovation system, Method of Reflections, economic complexity, technological efficiency, patent complexity index PCI |
| JEL: | C63 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:54sti2015&r=edu |
| By: | Sneha Elango (The University of Chicago); Jorge Luis Garcia (The University of Chicago); James J. Heckman (The University of Chicago); Andres Hojman (The University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper organizes and synthesizes the literature on early childhood education and childcare. In it, we go beyond meta-analysis and reanalyze primary data sources in a common framework. We consider the evidence from means-tested demonstration programs, large-scale means-tested programs and universal programs without means testing. We discuss which programs are eective and whether, and for which populations, these programs should be subsidized by governments. The evidence from high-quality demonstration programs targeted toward disadvantaged children shows bene cial eects. Returns exceed costs, even accounting for the deadweight loss of collecting taxes. When proper policy counterfactuals are constructed, Head Start has bene cial eects on disadvantaged children compared to home alternatives. Universal programs bene t disadvantaged children. |
| Keywords: | early childhood education, childcare, evaluation of social programs |
| JEL: | J13 I28 C93 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2015-017&r=edu |
| By: | Michele Raitano (Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Rome); Francesco Vona (OFCE SciencesPo and SKEMA Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the influence of parental education on the returns to experience of Italian men using a new longitudinal dataset that contains detailed information on individual working histories. Our favourite panel estimates indicate that an additional year of parental education increases sons' weekly wages by 11.7% after twenty years of experience and that 71% of this effect emerges during the career. We show that this effect holds irrespective of individual abilities, and it appears the result of both a glass ceiling effect, due to the complementarity between parental education and son’s abilities, and a parachute effect, associated with family labour market connections. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational Inequality, Parental Education, Experience-Earnings profiles, Human Capital |
| JEL: | J62 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2015.74&r=edu |