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on Education |
| By: | Lant Pritchett and Yamini Aiyar |
| Abstract: | We combine newly created data on per student government expenditure on children in government elementary schools across India, data on per student expenditure by households on students attending private elementary schools, and the ASER measure of learning achievement of students in rural areas. The combination of these three sources allows us to compare both the “accounting cost” difference of public and private schools and also the “economic cost”—what it would take public schools, at their existing efficacy in producing learning, to achieve the learning results of the private sector. We estimate that the “accounting cost” per student in a government school in the median state in 2011/12 was Rs. 14,615 while the median child in private school cost Rs. 5,961. Hence in the typical Indian state, educating a student in government school costs more than twice as much than in private school, a gap of Rs. 7,906. Just these accounting cost gaps aggregated state by state suggests an annual excess of public over private cost of children enrolled in government schools of Rs. 50,000 crores (one crore=10 million) or .6 percent of GDP. But even that staggering estimate does not account for the observed learning differentials between public and private. We produce a measure of inefficiency that combines both the excess accounting cost and a money metric estimate of the cost of the inefficacy of lower learning achievement. This measure is the cost at which government schools would be predicted to reach the learning levels of the private sector. Combining the calculations of accounting cost differentials plus the cost of reaching the higher levels of learning observed in the private sector state by state (as both accounting cost differences and learning differences vary widely across states) implies that the excess cost of achieving the existing private learning levels at public sector costs is Rs. 232,000 crores (2.78% of GDP, or nearly US$50 billion). It might seem counterintuitive that the total loss to inefficiency is larger than the actual budget, but that is because the actual budget produces such low levels of learning at such high cost that when the loss from both higher expenditures and lower outputs are measured it exceeds expenditures. |
| Keywords: | education, primary schooling, India |
| JEL: | I21 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:391&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | The number and length of school holidays differs significantly across OECD countries, meaning the number of instructional days in primary and secondary education ranges from 162 days a year in France to more than 200 days in Israel and Japan. The higher the level of education, the greater the number of instructional hours per school day. Students in OECD countries are expected to receive on average 4.3 hours of instruction per day in primary school, rising to 5.2 hours in upper secondary school. On average across OECD countries, around half of primary schools’ compulsory curricular time is focused on reading, writing and literature; mathematics; and science, amounting to 2.2 hours per school day. In lower secondary education this falls to only 1.8 hours per day. There are wide variations across OECD countries in the organisation of the learning time within and outside the classroom but there has been a recent trend of increasing classroom instruction time dedicated to core subjects such as mathematics, and a reduction in the time spent doing homework outside the classroom. |
| Date: | 2016–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaf:38-en&r=edu |
| By: | Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of German-speaking immigrants on the path dependence of human capital accumulation in the State São Paulo, Brazil. Using a new dataset based on Almanacs from 1873 and 1888, we are able to test if (i) the cultural component, (ii) immigrants' on-the-job-skills, and (iii) their ethnic schools influenced the historical accumulation of human capital. No robust evidence was found for the first two explanations. On the other hand, for the 1910s, German schools had strong positive impacts on enrollment, not only for private, but also for state schools, a result which suggests the occurrence of spillover and contagion effects. Such impact tends, however, to dissipate over time and it does not survive for current educational performance. In addition, the paper shows that the pathdependence of education is conditional on the type of school: while there is a positive persistence in enrollment in private schools over the 20th century, enrollment in state schools depends negatively on its historical levels, reflecting convergence toward 100% enrollment rates in primary schooling. Furthermore, current stocks of human capital, measured by illiteracy and years of education, are shown to be strongly impacted by completion and enrollment in state schools back in the 1910s. |
| Date: | 2016–02–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:234&r=edu |
| By: | Gabrielle Wills (Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch) |
| Abstract: | A rising number of school leadership changes have been occurring in South African schools as a large proportion of incumbent principals near retirement age. While this presents opportunities to replace weaker school principals with better performing ones, these changes may also destabilise school environments and impede on learning. This paper explores how these principal change events affect school performance in the context of South Africa using a unique administrative dataset constructed by linking payroll data on the population of public school principals to national data on schools and matriculation examination outcomes. Exploiting the panel structure of the data, a school fixed effects strategy suggests that principal changes are indeed detrimental to school performance especially when leadership changes are due to principals exiting the public education system. These results are robust to using an alternative estimation strategy proposed by Heckman, Ichimura and Todd (1997) which combines propensity score matching with a difference-in-difference estimation strategy. The paper also considers two mechanisms through which school leadership changes may impact on school performance, namely through rising promotion rates and teacher turnover. |
| Keywords: | Principals, school leadership, principal turnover, teacher turnover, school performance |
| JEL: | J63 I29 J45 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers256&r=edu |
| By: | Canlas, Dante B. |
| Abstract: | What does the Philippines need to do to transform its economy into a high middle-income economy and ensure that the benefits from such a transformation are within reach of every Filipino? Investment in human capital, especially higher education, is one instrument that serves the twin goals of boosting economic growth with broad-based rewards, that is, inclusive growth. Currently, the Philippines is confronted by a low proportion of enrollees and graduates in higher and scientific education, and needs to raise its stock of labor with higher and scientific education amid rising demand for skilled workers and widening gaps in lifetime earnings between college and high school graduates. Several policies are indicated, but priority must be accorded to instituting loan programs for higher education, accelerating rationalization of the state university and college sector based on instituting regional university systems and centers of excellence, and devising grant programs for content standards for subjects and courses and formulating standardized tests for measuring and monitoring compliance with those standards applied to both public and private institutions of higher learning. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, higher education institutions (HEIs), higher education, inclusive growth, human capital, student loans |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2016-02&r=edu |
| By: | Fuchs-Schündeln, Nicola; Masella, Paolo |
| Abstract: | Political regimes influence contents of education and criteria used to select and evaluate students. We study the impact of a socialist education on the likelihood of obtaining a college degree and on several labor market outcomes by exploiting the reorganization of the school system in East Germany after reunification. Our identification strategy utilizes cut-off birth dates for school enrollment that lead to variation in the length of exposure to the socialist education system within the same birth cohort. An additional year of socialist education decreases the probability of obtaining a college degree and affects longer-term male labor market outcomes. |
| Keywords: | labor-market success; non-meritocratic access restrictions; socialist education |
| JEL: | I25 J24 P36 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11093&r=edu |
| By: | Jenny C. Aker and Christopher Ksoll |
| Abstract: | In rural areas of developing countries, education programs are often implemented through community teachers. While teachers are a crucial part of the education production function, observing their effort remains a challenge for the public sector. This paper tests whether a simple monitoring system, implemented via the mobile phone, can improve student learning as part of an adult education program. Using a randomized control trial in 160 villages in Niger, we randomly assigned villages to a mobile phone monitoring component, whereby teachers, students and the village chief were called on a weekly basis. There was no incentive component to the program. The monitoring intervention dramatically affected student performance: During the first year of the program, reading and math test scores were .15-.30 s.d. higher in monitoring villages than in nonmonitoring villages, with relatively stronger effects in the region where monitoring was weakest and for teachers for whom the outside option was lowest. We provide more speculative evidence on the mechanisms behind these effects, namely, teacher and student effort and motivation. |
| Keywords: | adult education, mobile phones, Niger |
| JEL: | D1 I2 O1 O3 |
| Date: | 2015–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:406&r=edu |
| By: | Brian Bell; Rui Costa; Stephen Machin |
| Abstract: | Do compulsory schooling laws reduce crime? Previous evidence for the U.S. from the 1960s and 1970s suggests they do, primarily working through their effect on educational attainment to generate a causal impact on crime. In this paper, we consider whether more recent experience replicates this. There are two key findings. First, there is a strong and consistent negative effect on crime from stricter compulsory schooling laws. Second, there is a weaker and sometimes non-existent link between such laws and educational attainment. As a result, credible causal estimates of the education-crime relationship cannot in general be identified for the more recent period, though they can for some groups with lower education levels (in particular, for blacks). |
| Keywords: | crime; education; compulsory schooling laws |
| JEL: | I2 K42 |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:64968&r=edu |
| By: | Borcan, Oana (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Lindahl, Mikael (University of Uppsala); Mitrut, Andreea (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the efficiency and distributional consequences of a corruptionfighting initiative in Romania targeting the endemic fraud in a high-stakes high school exit exam, which introduced CCTV monitoring of the exam and credible punishment threats. We find that punishment coupled with monitoring was effective in reducing corruption. Estimating the heterogeneous impact for students of different ability, poverty status, and gender, we show that fighting corruption led to efficiency gains (ability predicts exam outcomes better) but also to a worrisome score gap increase between poor and non-poor students. Consequently,the poor students have reduced chances to enter an elite university. |
| Keywords: | corruption; high-stakes exam; bribes; monitoring and punishment |
| JEL: | I21 I24 K42 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0612&r=edu |
| By: | Jaelani, Aan |
| Abstract: | The improvement of quality of life should be the main objective of higher education, including at IAIN Syeikh Nurjati Cirebon. The globalization of higher education is expected not too concerned with the economic needs through the commodification of the institution. Reforms that still have to create a balance between the ability to collect resources and produce products, which in the context of higher education graduates in the form of human resources, quality, useful, armed with expertise that qualified and helped build community toward a better life , This can be done through the development of academic entrepreneurship in shaping the entrepreneurial spirit of students, including through co-operation program of poverty alleviation between Bank Indonesia Cirebon with IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, poverty aleviation, higher education |
| JEL: | A13 A23 I23 I25 L31 L53 |
| Date: | 2012–06–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:69530&r=edu |
| By: | Peter A. Savelyev (Vanderbilt University, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Based on the 1922–1991 Terman data of children with high ability, I investigate the effects of childhood psychological skills and post-compulsory education on longevity. I identify causal effects and account for measurement error using factor-analytic methodology (Heckman et al., 2006). Latent class analysis supports the causal interpretation of results. For males, I find strong effects of psychological skills and education on longevity and an interaction between personality and education. Results are in line with the IV literature. For females, who are born around 1910 and live longer than men, I find no effects of education and personality on longevity. |
| Keywords: | longevity, survival function, life expectancy, value of longevity, post-compulsory education, IQ, personality skills, Big Five, average treatment effect, Terman Data of Children with High Ability, gender difference |
| JEL: | I1 C1 |
| Date: | 2014–08–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:van:wpaper:vuecon-14-00007&r=edu |
| By: | Brown, Jeffrey; Fang, Chichun; Gomes, Francisco J |
| Abstract: | We model education as an investment in human capital that, like other investments, is appropriately evaluated in a framework that accounts for risk as well as return. In contrast to dominant wage-premia approach to calculating the returns to education, but which implicitly ignores risk, we evaluate the returns by treating the value of human capital as the price of a non-tradable risky asset. We do so using a lifecycle framework that incorporates risk preferences and earnings risk, as well as a progressive income tax and social insurance system. Our baseline estimate is that a college degree provides a $440K dollar increase in annual certainty-equivalent consumption. Although significantly smaller than traditional estimates of the value of education, these returns are still large enough to offset both the direct and indirect cost of college education for a large range of plausible preference parameters. Importantly, however, we find that accounting for risk reverses the finding from the education wage-premia literature regarding the trends in the returns to education. In particular, we find that the risk-adjusted gains from college completion actually decreased rather than increased in the recent period. Overall, our results show the importance of earnings risks in assessing the value of education. |
| Keywords: | human capital; idiosyncratic earnings risk; life-cycle models |
| JEL: | G12 H52 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10416&r=edu |
| By: | McGuinness, Seamus (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Pouliakas, Konstantinos (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop)) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from the Cedefop European Skills and Jobs (ESJ) survey, a new international dataset of adult workers in 28 EU countries, to decompose the wage penalty of overeducated workers. The ESJ survey allows for integration of a rich, previously unavailable, set of factors in the estimation of the effect of overeducation on earnings. Oaxaca decomposition techniques are employed to uncover the extent to which the overeducation wage penalty can be attributed to either (i) human capital attributes, (ii) job characteristics, (iii) information asymmetries, (iv) compensating job attributes or (v) skill needs of jobs. Differences in human capital and job‐skill requirements are important factors in explaining the wage premium. It is found that asymmetry of information accounts for a significant part of the overeducation wage penalty for tertiary education graduates, whereas job characteristics and low skill content of jobs explain most of the wage gap for medium‐qualified employees. Little evidence is found in favour of equilibrium theories of skills matching and compensating wage differentials. The paper thus highlights the need for customised policy responses (e.g. career guidance; policies to raise job quality) to tackle overeducation. |
| Keywords: | overeducation, skills, mismatch, wages, decomposition |
| JEL: | J24 J31 J70 |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9698&r=edu |
| By: | Höckel, Lisa Sofie; Santos Silva, Manuel; Stöhr, Tobias |
| Abstract: | Educational outcomes of children are highly dependent on household and school-level inputs. In poor countries, remittances from migrants can provide additional funds for the education of the left behind. At the same time the absence of migrant parents can affect families' time allocation towards education. Previous work on education inputs often implicitly assumed that preferences for different kinds of education inputs remain unchanged when household members migrate. Using survey data from Moldova, one of the countries with the highest emigration rates in the world, and an instrumental variable approach we find that the strongest migration-related response in private education expenditure are substantially lower informal payments to public school teachers. This fact is at odds with a positive income effect due to migration. We argue that our results are likely to be driven by changing preferences towards educational inputs induced by migration. |
| Keywords: | migration,emigration,education spending,social remittances,corruption,children left behind |
| JEL: | F22 I22 D13 H52 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:2018&r=edu |
| By: | Enström Öst, Cecilia (Institute for Housing and Urban Research (IBF), Uppsala University and the Expert Group on Public Economics (ESO), Ministry of Finance); Wilhelmsson, Mats (Centre for Banking and Finance) |
| Abstract: | Earlier research has found that housing and childbearing are linked, difficulties accessing housing possibly delaying childbearing and negatively effecting education opportunities. To increase housing accessibility, some municipalities have earmarked apartments for young adults. These “youth dwellings” are criticized for being small and not necessarily facilitating family formation and fertility, better suiting students’ needs. We analyze the childbearing and education patterns of young adults entering youth housing in 1996. We follow them for 14 years to examine the causal effect of youth housing on childbearing and higher education using a propensity score matching technique. Results indicates that gaining access to small, low-rent inner-city rental apartments earmarked for young adults promote higher education but negatively affect childbearing, unless the rest of the housing market permits these renters to advance their housing careers. |
| Keywords: | Housing market; Youth housing; Childbearing; Higher education |
| JEL: | I24 J13 R21 |
| Date: | 2015–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:kthrec:2015_003&r=edu |
| By: | Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a chronology for the German-speaking immigration to São Paulo, Brazil (1840-1920) by identifying four main types: (i) spontaneous individual immigration; (ii) specialized laborers in public works, mainly road construction; (iii) indentured laborers in the plantations, mainly under the sharecropping system; (iv) settlers in official and private rural colonies. In the sequence, the immigration waves of the last two types are studied in detail, showing how they interconnected over time and how similar their processes of integration were. Such chronology aims to provide a framework for future studies about immigration waves to São Paulo, in general, and of German-speakers, in particular, complementing two strands in the literature. First, it provides a more dynamic perspective for the classical literature on the history of labor contracts, which is indirectly related to the immigration of German-speakers, but static in listing episodic events related to the latter. Second, it frames, under a more general perspective, specialized studies focused on specific impacts of the immigrants, such as current monographs about the history of education and German schools/institutions. |
| Keywords: | German-speaking immigrants, immigration, coffee plantations, sharecropping, official colonies |
| Date: | 2016–02–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:iaidps:233&r=edu |
| By: | Ann Person |
| Abstract: | Under a Round 2 TAACCCT grant, Sinclair Community College is leading a consortium with Austin Community College and Broward College to implement flexibly paced, competency-based education (CBE) programs in information technology. |
| Keywords: | TAACCCT, Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:6c9a3ceaf7a5491c9b548c9010504720&r=edu |
| By: | Basant, Rakesh; Sarah Cooper |
| Abstract: | Encouraging the establishment and growth of technology-based ventures continues to be the focus of attention from policy-makers globally, linked to enhanced levels of innovation, economic activity and wealth/employment creation. Higher education institutions (HEIs) are prominent among the public, private and not-for-profit organisations supporting the commercialisation of scientific outputs. Modes and vehicles adopted include spin-outs, science parks, intellectual property exploitation and different forms of incubation activity. Some HEIs in the United Kingdom have significant experience of commercialisation and technology transfer activities and have developed markedly different approaches. Meanwhile, HEIs in India are broadening their attention from their teaching-research focus to wider engagement in supporting venture creation. While approaches differ between HEIs all face issues of efficacy and sustainability. Set within the wider context of the HEI commercialisation agenda this paper focuses on incubation models, with particular attention to efficacy and sustainability dimensions. Using six case studies (three each from UK and India), we identify contrasting ways in which incubation was undertaken. Findings raise questions regarding whether and if so how HEIs should be involved in the business of incubation to enhance efficacy and provide a more broadly-based and robust platform for underpinning sustainability. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:14246&r=edu |
| By: | Maslova, Yana (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | The problem of the increase of higher education institution competitiveness is actualized. Various approaches to the determination of assessment components are classified. The term “algorithm of carrying out the estimation procedure” for the reflection of the essence of carrying out an assessment is offered and theoretically approved. The assessment of work of the faculty serves as a labor productivity regulator. |
| Keywords: | Personnel assessment, Personnel technology, Subject of an assessment, Criteria of an assessment, System of an assessment, Faculty, Competitiveness of higher education institutions |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:ppaper:mslrpc&r=edu |
| By: | Barnard, Helena; Cowan, Robin; Müller, Moritz |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the career effects of overseas and domestic PhD training for scientists working in an emerging economy, South Africa. Variations in scientific achievements of South African academics may arise be- cause those who attend "better" PhD programmes receive better training, but it may also be because good students select into good universities. We examine selection and training effects for four tiers of South African and two tiers of foreign universities. Those who received PhDs from universities in industrialized countries tend to be more productive than those whose PhDs were locally granted, but universities from industrialized countries do not necessarily provide better training than local universities. Pure selection effects contribute to career outcomes nearly as much as training effects. When looking at training in isolation, PhDs from top South African universities produce a similar quantity and quality research output to those from leading universities in the developed world. |
| Keywords: | Scientific mobility,Doctoral studies,University evaluation,Developing country,South Africa,Technological upgrading |
| JEL: | H52 I2 O15 O20 O30 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kitwps:82&r=edu |
| By: | Steffen Mueller; Regina T. Riphahn; Caroline Schwientek |
| Abstract: | Using long-running data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984-2012) we investigate the impact of paternal unemployment on child labor market and education outcomes. We first describe correlation patterns and then use sibling fixed effects and the Gottschalk (1996) method to identify the causal effects of paternal unemployment. We find different patterns for sons and daughters. Paternal unemployment does not seem to causally affect the outcomes of sons. In contrast, it increases both daughters' worklessness and educational attainment. We test the robustness of the results and explore potential explanations. |
| Keywords: | youth unemployment, educational attainment, intergenerational mobility, causal effect, Gottschalk method, sibling fixed effects |
| JEL: | J62 C21 C26 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bav:wpaper:157_muellerriphahnschwientek&r=edu |
| By: | Barnard, Helena (GIBS, University of Pretoria, South Africa); Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and BETA, Universite de Strasbourg, Institut Universitaire de France); Muller, Moritz (BETA, Universite de Strasbourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the career effects of overseas and domestic PhD training for scientists working in an emerging economy, South Africa. Variations in scientific achievements of South African academics may arise because those who attend "better" PhD programmes receive better training, but it may also be because good students select into good universities. We examine selection and training effects for four tiers of South African and two tiers of foreign universities. Those who received PhDs from universities in industrialized countries tend to be more productive than those whose PhDs were locally granted, but universities from industrialized countries do not necessarily provide better training than local universities. Pure selection effects contribute to career outcomes nearly as much as training effects. When looking at training in isolation, PhDs from top South African universities produce a similar quantity and quality research output to those from leading universities in the developed world. |
| Keywords: | Scientific mobility, Doctoral studies, University evaluation, Developing country, South Africa, Technological upgrading |
| JEL: | H52 I2 O15 O20 O30 |
| Date: | 2016–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2016006&r=edu |
| By: | Jake Anders; Richard Dorsett |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how young people’s early transitions into the labour market have changed between cohorts born in 1958, 1970, 1980, and 1990. We use sequence analysis to characterise transition patterns and identify three distinct pathways in all cohorts. An ‘Entering the Labour Market’ group has declined significantly in size (from 91% in the earliest cohort, to 37% in the most recent), an ‘Accumulating Human Capital’ group has grown in its place (from 4% to 51%), but also a ‘Potential Cause for Concern’ group has grown alongside this, reaching 12% in the most recent cohort. These trends appear to reflect behavioural rather than compositional changes. Females and those who are from a non-white ethnic background have gone from being more likely to be in the ‘Potential Cause for Concern’ group, to being less likely. Coming from a low socio-economic status background has remained a strong predictor of having a transition of this type across all four cohorts. These early transitions are important, not least since we show they are highly predictive of longer-term outcomes. |
| Date: | 2015–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:454&r=edu |