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on Education |
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Issue of 2016‒12‒04
twenty papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Marine de Talancé (PSL, University Paris-Dauphine, LEDa, DIAL UMR 225) |
| Abstract: | A large body of research has well documented the growing contribution of private schools, including low-fee private providers, to education in underprivileged areas. Using a unique database from rural Pakistan, this paper determines the drivers of schooling behavior using a Heckman probit and a household fixed effects models that take into account non-random enrollment choice. The results suggest that gender and socioeconomic barriers still prevent certain parts of the population from accessing education and especially private schools. Both the lack of public schools and the perceived low quality of these schools explain why parents choose private schools even if free public schools are available. The household fixed effects model confirms the results and also shows that there is a significant intra-household gender gap in private school enrollment. |
| Keywords: | Demand for schooling, Pakistan, Perceptions, Private schooling, Quality of education, School choice |
| JEL: | I21 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201615&r=edu |
| By: | Karen Clay; Jeff Lingwall; Melvin Stephens, Jr. |
| Abstract: | This paper uses a new dataset on state compulsory attendance, continuation school, and child labor laws with the 1940 full count Census of Population to estimate the returns to schooling for native-born white men in the 1885-1912 birth cohorts. IV estimates of returns to schooling range from 0.064 to 0.079. Quantile IV estimates show that the returns to schooling were largest for the lowest quantiles, and were generally monotonically decreasing for higher quantiles. These findings suggest that early schooling laws may have contributed to the Great Compression by increasing education levels for white men at the bottom of the distribution. |
| JEL: | I26 J24 J31 N32 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22855&r=edu |
| By: | Nicholas Spaull (SARCHL chair in integrated studies of learning language, mathematics and science in primary school, University of Johannesburg) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to exploit an unusual occurrence whereby a large group of South African grade 3 students were tested twice, 1 month apart, on the same test in different languages. Using a simplified difference-in-difference methodology, it becomes possible to identify the causal impact of writing a test in English when English is not a student’s home language for 3402 students. The article aims to address the extent to which language factors (relative to non-language factors) can explain the high levels of underperformance in reading and mathematics in South Africa. I find that the language of assessment effect is between 0.3 and 0.7 standard deviations in literacy and 0 and 0.3 standard deviations in numeracy. This is approximately 1–2 years worth of learning in literacy and 0–1 year worth of learning in numeracy. By contrast, the size of the composite effect of home background and school quality is roughly 4 years worth of learning for both numeracy (1.2 standard deviations) and literacy (1.15 standard deviations). These results clearly show that the ‘language effect’ should be seen within the broader context of a generally dysfunctional schooling system. They further stress the importance of the quality of instruction, not only the language of learning and assessment. The fact that the literacy and numeracy achievement of South African children is so low in grade 3 (prior to any language switch to English in grade 4) should give pause to those who argue that language is the most important factor in determining achievement, or lack thereof, in South Africa. |
| Keywords: | Language in education, assessment, literacy, English Second Language |
| JEL: | I24 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers275&r=edu |
| By: | Battistin, Erich; De Nadai, Michele; Vuri, Daniela |
| Abstract: | We derive bounds on the distribution of math and language scores of elementary school students in Italy correcting for pervasive manipulation. A natural experiment that randomly assigns external monitors to schools is used to deal with endogeneity of manipulation as well as possible misclassification of the manipulation status. Bounds are obtained from properties of the statistical model used to detect classes with manipulated scores, and from restrictions on the relationship between manipulation and true scores. Our results show that score distributions are heavily affected by manipulating behavior, with regional rankings by academic performance being reversed once manipulation is taken into account. |
| Keywords: | Measurement error; Non-parametric bounds; Partial identification; Score manipulation |
| JEL: | C14 C31 C81 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11667&r=edu |
| By: | Raisa Akifyeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Alisa Alieva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the influence of ethnicity on stereotypes and expectations of teachers, as well as the relationship of teacher expectations and stereotypes in relation to ethnic minority students by including the stereotype content model in the analysis. 34 primary school teachers participated in the experiment in which they analyzed six personal profiles of students, two of which were experimental. Experimental profiles contained identical information (annual school grade, testimonial, sex), but differed in names of the students and their parents and additionally in migration background. Thus, we manipulated only information related to ethnicity and migration history of two students. This allowed us to create a typical image of one and a half generation migrant child, who moved to St. Petersburg from Central Asia. Teacher expectations about the performance of the minority student were always unfavorable compared with the expectations about the performance of the majority student but expectations about the abilities of minority and majority students, which include teacher beliefs about students’ educational skills, attitudes and motivation, capacity for work in school class, were mixed. We also discovered that the expectations of teachers positively related to the perceptions of competence and were not related to the perceptions of warmth. However, the minority student was evaluated by teachers as warm and competent as the majority. This study shows the relevance of the problem of correct expectations of teachers in relation to students with different ethnic backgrounds |
| Keywords: | teacher expectations, stereotypes, stereotype content model, warmth, competence, ethnic minority students. |
| JEL: | I29 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:65psy2016&r=edu |
| By: | Rachel Landy; Cathy Cameron; Anson Au; Debra Cameron; Kelly O'Brien; Katherine Robrigado; Larry Baxter; Lynn Cockburn; Shawna O'Hearn; Brent Olivier; Stpehanie Nixon |
| Abstract: | Reflexivity involves the ability to understand how one's social locations and experiences of advantage or disadvantage have shaped the way one understands the world. The capacity for reflexivity is crucial because it informs clinical decisions, which can lead to improvements in service delivery and patient outcomes. In this article, we present a scoping study that explored educational strategies designed to enhance reflexivity among clinicians and/or health profession students. We reviewed articles and grey literature that address the question: What is known about strategies for enhancing reflexivity among clinicians and students in health professional training programs? We searched multiple databases using keywords including: reflexivity, reflective, allied health professionals, pedagogy, learning, and education. The search strategy was iterative and involved three reviews. Each abstract was independently reviewed by two team members. Sixty-eight texts met the inclusion criteria. There was great diversity among the educational strategies and among health professions. Commonalities across strategies were identified related to reflective writing, experiential learning, classroom-based activities, continuing education, and online learning. We also summarize the 19 texts that evaluated educational strategies to enhance reflexivity. Further research and education is urgently needed for more equitable and socially-just health care. |
| Keywords: | reflexivity; health professional education; practicing health professionals; scoping study |
| JEL: | R14 J01 |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:68328&r=edu |
| By: | Roberto Alvarez; Damián Vergara |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically addresses the relationship between natural resource abundance and educational attainment. Using information for Chilean municipalities between 2000 and 2013, we exploit aggregate changes in natural resource exports and differences in local markets exposure to these changes to assess whether local specialization patterns may be related with educational outcomes. Our findings indicate that higher natural resource exports reduce educational attainment, in particular by discouraging young people from tertiary education. The effect is robust and quantitatively important. Our findings are consistent with the idea that natural resource abundance may have positive effects in the short-run, but may be detrimental for human capital accumulation. |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udc:wpaper:wp433&r=edu |
| By: | John Eric Humphries (University of Chicago, Department of Economics); Fabian Kosse (University of Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Across academic sub-fields such as labor, education, and behavioral economics, the measurement and interpretation of non-cognitive skills varies widely. As a result, it is difficult to compare results on the importance of non-cognitive skills across literatures. Drawing from these literatures, this paper systematically relates various prototypical non-cognitive measures within one data set. Specifically, we estimate and compare several different strategies for measuring non-cognitive skills. For each, we compare their relative effectiveness at predicting educational success and decompose what is being measured into underlying personality traits and economic preferences. We demonstrate that the construction of the non-cognitive factor greatly influences what is actually measured and what conclusions are reached about the role of non-cognitive skills in life outcomes such as educational attainment. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, while sometimes difficult to interpret, factors extracted from self-reported behaviors can have predictive power similar to well established taxonomies, such as the Big Five. |
| Keywords: | non-cognitive skills, personality, preferences, educational success |
| JEL: | J24 I20 D03 D90 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2016-025&r=edu |
| By: | Tony Beatton; Michael P. Kidd; Stephen Machin; Dipa Sarkar |
| Abstract: | This paper reports new evidence on the causal link between education and male youth crime using individual level state-wide administrative data for Queensland, Australia. Enactment of the Earning or Learning education reform of 2006, with a mandatory increase in minimum school leaving age, is used to identify a causal impact of schooling on male youth crime. The richness of the matched (across agency) individual level panel data enables the analysis to shed significant light on the extent to which the causal impact reflects incapacitation, or whether more schooling acts to reduce crime after youths have left compulsory schooling. The empirical analysis uncovers a significant incapacitation effect, as remaining in school for longer reduces crime whilst in school, but also a sizeable crime reducing impact of education for young men in their late teens and early twenties. We also carry out analysis by major crime type and differentiate between single and multiple offending behaviour. Crime reduction effects are concentrated in property crime and single crime incidence, rather than altering the behaviour of the recalcitrant persistent offender. |
| Keywords: | youth crime, schooling |
| JEL: | I2 K42 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1456&r=edu |
| By: | Miki Miyaki (Rikkyo University, College of Business); Masaki Kimura (Bank of Japan, Financial Markets Department) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the elderly fs preference on public educational expenditures by each stage of education, i.e., from preschool to higher education. Utilizing a dynamic panel estimation method with Japanese prefectural data in the 1975-2012 period (38 years), we found that before 1990s the elderly tended to support public spending on almost every educational stage, especially on higher stages such as high school and university education. After 2000s, however, their preference was not to support government spending on earlier stages such as kindergarten and primary education. As the share of the elderly in eligible voters is becoming higher with the progress of population aging, their preference on government expenditures is gaining more influence on political decision. These results provide a foundation to discuss the allocation of public expenditure among educational stages under the circumstances of serious budget constraints. |
| Keywords: | population aging, public expenditure on education, educational stages, dynamic panel |
| JEL: | H52 H75 I28 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1629&r=edu |
| By: | Eckhardt Bode; Stephan Brunow; Ingrid Ott; Alina Sorgner |
| Abstract: | We present empirical evidence suggesting that technological progress in the digital age will be biased not only with respect to skills acquired through education but also with respect to noncognitive skills (personality). We measure the direction of technological change by estimated future digitalization probabilities of occupations, and noncognitive skills by the Big Five personality traits from several German worker surveys. Even though we control extensively for education and experience, we find that workers characterized by strong openness and emotional stability tend to be less susceptible to digitalization. Traditional indicators of human capital thus measure workers’ skill endowments only imperfectly. |
| Keywords: | Worker personality, Noncognitive skills, Digital transformation, Direction of technical change, Germany |
| JEL: | C25 J24 O33 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp875&r=edu |
| By: | Marine de Talancé (PSL, University Paris-Dauphine, LEDa, DIAL UMR 225) |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the factors driving parental perceptions about school quality in rural Pakistan. Using a three-period longitudinal database on rural households in three districts, this study estimates different models to answer this question: ordered and generalised ordered logit specifications as well as linear probability models with household and school fixed effects. The results are preoccupying as we observe strong differences between privileged and disadvantaged households. Only the richest households take into account test scores when forming their perceptions. This finding suggests that access to information is unequal and could penalize the poorest children. Both rich and poor households tend to overestimate the quality of private schools which can explain the recent growth in private enrollment. Other school characteristics such as the size of the school, the medium of instruction (English teaching) or school infrastructure are also valued by parents. |
| Keywords: | Education, Inequalities, Pakistan, Perceptions, Private Schools, Schooling quality, Test scores |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dia:wpaper:dt201614&r=edu |
| By: | Steven, Bednar (Elon University); Gicheva, Dora (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Mentoring, and to a greater extent support from high-level administrators, has been shown to decrease worker turnover in general, but little is known about its differential impact on minority workers. Utilizing four waves of the Schools and Staffing Survey, we uncover a novel pattern of the effect of workplace support on turnover in the market for public school teachers. Support is most strongly associated with retention for minority teachers working in schools where minorities are under-represented. This effect is pronounced for teachers new to the profession and those in rural areas. This indicates that workplace support is essential in maintaining or growing minority representation in relatively less-diverse organizations. |
| Keywords: | teacher; turnover; workplace support; workplace diversity |
| JEL: | I21 J45 J62 M54 |
| Date: | 2016–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2016_005&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | The challenge of providing more and better education with tightening public budgets has made governments increasingly interested in the efficient allocation of education resources. Results from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show that, among countries with a comparatively high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the amount spent on education is less important than how those resources are used. |
| Date: | 2016–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaf:46-en&r=edu |
| By: | Bonan, Jacopo; LeMay-Boucher, Philippe; Tenikue, Michel |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effects of different marketing and distribution techniques on the purchase of Long-Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets (LL-ITN). Using a randomized controlled trial in urban Senegal, we look at the impacts of receiving information on malaria-related issues and of different sale treatments. We find that overall information has no significant effect on the demand for LL-ITNs, but has a significant effect on individuals who have never attended school and have poor knowledge of malaria. Receiving an offer to purchase an LL-ITN with a voucher valid for 7 days increases purchases by 23 percentage points, compared to an on-the-spot sale offer. |
| Keywords: | Malaria, Senegal, Randomized Experiment, Bednets, Distribution Campaign, Health Economics and Policy, C93, I12, I15, |
| Date: | 2016–11–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemmi:249787&r=edu |
| By: | Angrist, Joshua; Battistin, Erich; Vuri, Daniela |
| Abstract: | Instrumental variables (IV) estimates show strong class size effects in Southern Italy. But Italy's Mezzogiorno is distinguished by manipulation of standardized test scores as well as by economic disadvantage. IV estimates suggest small classes increase manipulation. We argue that score manipulation is a consequence of teacher shirking. IV estimates of a causal model for achievement as function of class size and score manipulation show that class size effects on measured achievement are driven entirely by the relationship between class size and manipulation. These results show how consequential score manipulation can arise even in assessment systems with few accountability concerns. |
| Keywords: | Education production; Regression Discontinuity; Test scores |
| JEL: | C26 C31 I21 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11666&r=edu |
| By: | Karen Macours; Renos Vakis |
| Abstract: | Numerous evaluations show that conditional cash transfer programs change households’ investments in their young children, but there are many open questions about how such changes can be sustained after transfers end. This paper analyzes the role of social interactions with local female leaders for sustaining program impacts. The social interactions are identified through the randomized assignment of leaders and other beneficiaries to different cash transfer packages. Random exposure to leaders that received the largest package was found to augment short-term program impacts on households’ investments in education and nutrition, and to affect households’ attitudes towards the future during the intervention. This paper shows that the strong social multiplier effects from leaders’ treatment persisted two years after the end of the program. Households randomly exposed to female leaders with the largest package sustained higher investments in their children and reported higher expectations and aspirations for the future of their children. These results suggest that program design features that enhance ownership of a program’s objectives by local leaders may shift other beneficiaries’ norms and sustain higher levels of human capital investments. |
| JEL: | I15 I25 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22871&r=edu |
| By: | Maté Fodor |
| Abstract: | This dissertation consists of three chapters, which focus jointly on the effects of education policy on the functioning of labor markets.De-industrialization and technological progress have changed job markets fundamentally. The most fundamental change is that the concept of a worker as a unit of production relatively insensitive to inherent characteristics has been overthrown. Service sectors that have taken over from manufacturing as the engines of economic activity rely primarily on human capital for autonomous production. This is especially true for internationally tradable services. Their stark development was rendered possible by the informationcommunication revolution. Skills and talent, as well as their allocation to suitable tasks matter for production, now more than ever. We argue in this dissertation that the ability of education policy to facilitate optimal task allocation plays a role in maximizing aggregate production and in influencing education earnings premia, as well as employment volumes in various sectors of activity. |
| Keywords: | education, screening, job market signaling, task allocation, talent misallocation, job creation, inequality, college premium |
| Date: | 2016–11–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/239691&r=edu |
| By: | Ilse Lindenlaub (Yale University) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a theory that relates two seemingly unrelated facts: First, while US educational attainment has drastically increased during most of the last century, in recent decades this trend has stagnated. Second, roughly at the same time when educational growth slowed down, there was a shift in the composition of earnings shocks with transitory shocks becoming relatively more important in overall earnings volatility compared to permanent shocks. We study a dynamic general equilibrium matching model, in which heterogeneous agents face idiosyncratic permanent and transitory income risk and make educational choices.... |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed016:1544&r=edu |
| By: | Adermon, Adrian (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Lindahl, Mikael (Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg; IFAU; IZA; UCLS; CESifo); Palme, Mårten (Department of economics, Stockholm University; IZA) |
| Abstract: | We study the importance of the extended family – or the dynasty – for the persistence in human capital inequality across generations. We use data including the entire Swedish population, linking four generations. This data structure enables us to – in addition to parents, grandparents and great grandparents – identify parents’ siblings and cousins, as well as their spouses, and the spouses’ siblings. We introduce and estimate a new parameter, which we call the intergenerational transmission of dynastic inequality. This parameter measures the between-dynasty variation in intergenerational transmission of human capital. We use three different measures of human capital: years of schooling, family income and an index of occupational status. Our results show that traditional parent-child estimates miss about half of the persistence across generations estimated by the extended model. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility; extended family; dynasty; human capital |
| JEL: | I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2016–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2016_019&r=edu |