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on Education |
| By: | Mike Smet |
| Abstract: | Mainstream secondary education in Flanders (i.e. the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) is divided into four major education forms : general education, technical education, vocational education and arts education. The focus of this paper is on pupils graduation from technical and vocational education. Although technical education is more oriented towards higher education and vocational education is more labor market oriented, both degrees allow access to higher education and should also prepare students to start working. Despite the distinction between technical and vocational education, a number of similar study fields coexist both in the technical and the vocational form. A first aim of this paper is to investigate whether students from similar study fields in technical and vocational education do have different transition probabilities from secondary to higher education. In addition we will quantify the impact of individual, school and local (labor market) characteristics on the probability of continuing their educational career after having obtained a degree in secondary education. International literature has been examining the impact of determinants of the transition from secondary to higher education. Four main categories of determinants have been distinguished. First, individual characteristics e.g. gender, age, ability and nationality are found to significantly influence the choice of field of study (Ayalon and Yogev, 2005, Benito and Alegre, 2012). Second, the transition choice is found to be highly influenced by family background characteristics such as type of family, number of siblings, education of the parents and family income (Van de Werfhorst et al., 2001, Van de Werfhorst et al., 2003, Ayalon and Yogev, 2005, Nguyen and Taylor, 2003). Third, Nguyen and Taylor (2003) and Benito and Alegre (2012) found the impact of certain secondary school characteristics (e.g. percentage of students from families with a low educational level and school type) to have a significant impact on the transition choices after secondary education. Finally, regional characteristics such as geographic location have been found to play a part in educational achievement and the transition from secondary to tertiary education. For example, higher unemployment levels in the region you live can make you choose for programmes that lead to higher job security (Ayalon and Yogev, 2005, Nguyen and Taylor, 2003, Kauppinen, 2008). Methodologically, the most frequently used techniques to investigate the impact of student, family and school characteristics on transition probabilities are the estimation of (multinomial) probit or logit models (Breen and Jonsson 2000; Lucas 2001; Ayalon and Yogev 2005; Benito and Alegre 2012). Since pupils are nested in schools, the multilevel structure of the data should be accounted for. Therefore a multilevel logistic regression will be used in the empirical part of this paper. The results of various multilevel logistic regressions clearly indicate differences in transition probabilities between students graduating from vocational secondary education versus students graduating from technical secondary education. In addition, a number of individual characteristics (e.g. grade retention an problematic non-attendances) also have a significant impact on transition probabilities. Evidence of the impact of school characteristics and regional characteristics (e.g. local unemployment rate or an index of urbanization) is mixed. |
| Keywords: | Belgium, Labor market issues, Labor market issues |
| Date: | 2016–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ekd:009007:9256&r=edu |
| By: | ISHIKAWA Yoshiki; ITO Hirotake; UEMURA Aya; TABATA Shin; TOYAMA Risako; NAKAMURO Makiko; BUNJI Kyosuke; HOSHINO Takahiro; MATSUOKA Ryoji; YAMAGUCHI Kazuhiro |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we review the "achievement tests" conducted in Japan and abroad over the past decades and then introduce the newly developed achievement test started by the local government in Saitama prefecture in 2015, which contains rich information to allow researchers to examine the optimal resource allocation in public education. Some prominent prospects of this achievement test include: (i) the academic ability of a group of students are estimated by using the Item Response Theory (IRT), making the students comparable even in different grades and years when the test was taken; (ii) the test was designed as panel data, which have tracked all student from G4 through G12; (iii) the questionnaires alongside the test include information on non-cognitive skills, parental socio-economic status, school/classroom resources, teacher quality, etc. This paper introduces the findings drawn from this achievement test and discusses the additional information needed for further improvement. |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rpdpjp:17010&r=edu |
| By: | Avendano, M.; de Coulon, A.; Nafilyan, V.; |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we test whether education has a causal effect on mental health by exploiting a compulsory schooling reform in 1972, which raised the minimum school leaving age from 15 to 16 years old in Great Britain. Using a regression discontinuity design, we provide robust evidence that although the reform increased educational attainment, it also increased the prevalence of depression and other mental health conditions in adulthood. Our results do not imply that more schooling per se leads to poorer mental health, but rather suggest that forcing low achieving teenagers to remain in an academic environment may have long-term unintended consequences on their mental health. |
| Keywords: | Mental health; education; compulsory schooling; UK; |
| JEL: | I12 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:hectdg:17/10&r=edu |
| By: | Marta De Philippis (Bank of Italy) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on students at the very top of the ability distribution and explores whether strengthening high school science curricula affects their choice of enrolling in and completing a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) degree at university. The paper solves the standard endogeneity problems by exploiting the different timing in the implementation of a reform that encouraged secondary schools in the UK to offer more science to high ability 14- year-olds. Taking five more hours per week of science in secondary school increases the probability of enrolling in a STEM degree by 1.2 percentage points and the probability of graduating in these degrees by 3 percentage points. The results mask substantial gender heterogeneity: while girls are as willing as boys to take advanced science in secondary school - when offered -, the results on pure STEM degrees at university are entirely driven by boys. Girls are encouraged to choose more challenging subjects, but still opt for the most female-dominated ones. |
| Keywords: | STEM, high school curriculum, field of study, gender bias |
| JEL: | I23 J24 H52 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1107_17&r=edu |
| By: | Lisa Grazzini (Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to provide a selective overview on the role played by the quality of education versus the quantity of education. After a presentation of some possible effects of the quality of education on both individual earnings and growth, the paper analyses some important school inputs and institutional characteristics of the education system which have been examined in the economic literature and could affect education achievements |
| Keywords: | Human capital, Educational achievement, Earning returns, Economic growth. |
| JEL: | I21 I25 I26 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2016_15.rdf&r=edu |
| By: | Philippe De Donder; Francisco Martinez-Mora |
| Abstract: | We build a political economy model in order to shed light on the empirically observed simultaneous increase in university size and participation gap. Parents differ in income and in the ability of their unique child. They vote over the minimum ability level required to attend public universities, which are tuition-free and financed by proportional income taxation. Parents can invest in private tutoring to help their child pass the admission test. A university participation gap emerges endogenously with richer parents investing more in tutoring. A unique majority voting equilibrium exists, which can be either classical or “ends-against-the-middle” (in which case parents of both low- and high-ability children favor a smaller university). Four factors increase the university size (larger skill premium enjoyed by university graduates, smaller tutoring costs, smaller university cost per student, larger minimum ability of students), but only the former two also increase the participation gap. A more unequal parental income distribution also increases the participation gap, but barely affects the university size. |
| Keywords: | majority voting, ends-against-the-middle equilibrium, non single-peaked |
| JEL: | D72 I22 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:17/11&r=edu |
| By: | Geeta Gandhi Kingdon (UCL Institute of Education) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the size, growth, salaries, per-pupil-costs, pupil achievement levels and cost-effectiveness of private schools, and compares these with the government school sector. Official data show a steep growth of private schooling and a corresponding rapid shrinkage in the size of the government school sector in India, suggesting parental abandonment of government schools. Data show that a very large majority of private schools in most states are 'low-fee' when judged in relation to: state per capita income, per-pupil expenditure in the government schools, and the officially-stipulated rural minimum wage rate for daily-wage-labour. This suggests that affordability is an important factor behind the migration towards and growth of private schools. The main reason for the very low fee levels in private schools is their lower teacher salaries, which the data show to be a small fraction of the salaries paid in government schools; this is possible because private schools pay the market-clearing wage, which is depressed by a large supply of unemployed graduates in the country, whereas government schools pay bureaucratically determined minimum-wages. Private schools' substantially lower per-student-cost combined with their students' modestly higher learning achievement levels, means that they are significantly more cost-effective than government schools. The paper shows how education policies relating to private schools are harmful when formulated without seeking the evidence. |
| Keywords: | Private schooling; learning achievement; value for money; India |
| Date: | 2017–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:1706&r=edu |
| By: | Sarena Goodman; Alice M. Henriques; Alvaro A. Mezza |
| Abstract: | Using a novel dataset that links an individual’s background, education, and federal financial aid participation to her future credit records, we document that, even though it is not, and cannot be, used by credit agencies in assigning risk, family background is a strong predictor of early-career credit health (that is, an individual’s credit score when she is around 30 years old). This relationship persists even after controlling for achievement, a range of postsecondary schooling variables (e.g., educational attainment, institutional quality, undergraduate borrowing), and key elements of early credit histories (e.g., default on educational loans). Interestingly, undergraduate borrowing, which is not underwritten, correlates with background and appears to explain some of the difference in scores. In light of the many important contexts in which credit scores are relied upon to evaluate consumers (e.g., lending, insurance, employment), our study offers a new dimension in understanding the transmission of socioeconomic status across generations. |
| Keywords: | Credit Health ; Credit Scores ; Intergenerational Mobility ; Socioeconomic Status ; Student Loans |
| JEL: | D12 D14 I22 I32 J10 J62 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2017-32&r=edu |
| By: | Rosangela Bando; Francisco Gallego; Paul Gertler; Dario Romero Fonseca |
| Abstract: | Information and communication technologies, such as laptops, can be used for educational purposes as they provide users with computational tools, information storage and communication opportunities, but these devices may also pose as distractors that tamper with the learning process. This paper presents results from a randomized controlled trial in which laptops replaced traditional textbook provision in elementary schools in high poverty communities in Honduras in 2013 through the program Educatracho. We show that at the end of one school year, the substitution of laptops for textbooks did not make a significant difference in student learning. We additionally conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis, which demonstrated that given the low marginal costs of digital textbook provision, the substitution of three additional textbooks in the program (for a total of five) would guarantee computers to be more cost-effective than textbooks. Therefore, textbook substitution by laptops may be a cost-effective manner to provide classroom learning content. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:474&r=edu |
| By: | Messacar, Derek |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the extent to which education affects how Canadians save and accumulate wealth for retirement. The paper makes three contributions. First, a descriptive analysis is presented of differences in savings and home values across individuals based on their levels of educational attainment. To this end, new datasets that link survey respondents from the 1991 and 2006 censuses of Canada to their administrative tax records are used. These data provide a unique opportunity to jointly observe education, savings, home values, and a plethora of other factors of relevance. Second, the causal effect of high school completion on savings rates in tax-preferred accounts is estimated, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms in the identification. Third, building on a recent study by Messacar (2015), education is also found to affect how individuals re-optimize their savings rates in response to an automatic change in pension wealth accumulation. The implications of this study?s findings for the ?nudge paradigm? in behavioural economics are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Income, pensions, spending and wealth, Outcomes of education, Pension plans and funds and other retirement income programs |
| Date: | 2017–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3e:2017391e&r=edu |
| By: | Määttänen, Niku; Vihriälä, Vesa |
| Abstract: | Funding for research and education needs to be increased relative to the existing plans. This is difficult, given the state of the public finances. We propose three measures to solve the problem. 1. Industrial subsidies that do not support innovation activity should be reduced and the savings should be channelled to Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation. 2. The government should sell shares in state-owned companies or transfer such shares to universities in order to rapidly strengthen universities’ capacity to improve research activity and education. 3. The universities and other higher education establishments should be allowed to charge moderate tuition fees to increase their resources on a permanent basis. The decisions on Tekes funding and transfer of resources to the universities should be taken by the government in its mid-term policy review in April. On the introduction of tuition fees the government should start preparatory work to allow a well-thought-through decision to be taken later. |
| Date: | 2017–03–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:briefs:58&r=edu |
| By: | Edwin Leuven; Sturla A. Løkken (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | How does class size in compulsory school affect peoples’ long run education and earnings? We use maximum class size rules and Norwegian administrative registries allowing us to observe outcomes up to age 48. We do not find any indication of beneficial effects of class size reduction in compulsory school. For a 1 person reduction in class size we can rule out effects on income as small as 0.087 percent in primary school and 0.12 percent in middle school. Population differences in parental background, school size or competitive pressure do not appear to reconcile our findings with previous studies. |
| Keywords: | Class size; Schooling; Earnings; Regression Discontinuity |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 C30 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:858&r=edu |
| By: | Bosupeng, Mpho |
| Abstract: | Education expenditure is vital to most economies. Many countries aim to allocate the largest share of their national budget to education with the hope of obtaining high returns. Lately, unemployment among the youth with degrees has been soaring in developing economies such as Botswana. In addition, many successful young entrepreneurs have made a living using their own talents without college training. This raise eyebrows and makes one think- how relevant are academic degrees in the workplace? This paper evaluates how contributive a college degree is in the workplace and if it is still necessary to invest in education. This paper is structured as follows. Firstly, an examination of the importance of a university degree in the workplace is discussed. This will be followed by reasons why a college degree is not critical in the work environment. Lastly, a conclusion of the research follows with implications and recommendations. |
| Keywords: | Education relevance; education expenditure; payoffs of education |
| JEL: | I26 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77914&r=edu |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia; Francisco Martinez-Mora; Antonio Miralles |
| Abstract: | We show that the widely used Boston Mechanism (BM) fosters ability and socioeconomic segregation across otherwise identical public schools, even when schools do not have priorities over local students. Our model includes an endogenous component of school quality - determined by the peer group - and an exogenous one. If there is an exogenously worse public school, BM generates sorting of types between a priori equally good public schools: an elitist public school emerges. A richer model with some preference for closer schools and flexible residential choice does not eliminate this effect. It rather worsens the peer quality of the nonelitist school. The existence of private schools makes the best public school more elitist, while reducing the peer quality of the worst school. The main alternative assignment mechanism, Deferred Acceptance, is resilient to such sorting effects. |
| Keywords: | School choice, mechanism design, peer effects, local public goods |
| JEL: | I21 H4 D78 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:17/10&r=edu |
| By: | Turan, Güngör |
| Abstract: | In this empirical paper, the long-run relations between higher education and economic growth in Turkey has been investigated. ARDL bound test which is a long-term co-integration test has been used based on Turkish real gross domestic product and the number of higher education graduates time series in 1961-2012. The results of bound test concluded that there is no evidence of a long-run relationship between higher education and economic growth in Turkey. This empirical study supports the availability of "non-qualified" growth notion which has been debated in Turkey. |
| Keywords: | Higher education, economic growth,co-integration, bounds test, Turkey |
| JEL: | C0 C01 J0 J01 |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:77778&r=edu |
| By: | Lukovics, Miklós; Zuti, Bence |
| Abstract: | Nowadays the digitalization of all aspects of our lives is becoming more and more general. This pattern is also true in case of modern institutions of higher education. In case of the operation of universities, we can identify a shift towards a growingly increasing approach, which is proactive strategic thinking done by university management. Many successful examples throughout the globe prove that universities may positively affect the level of economic development in given regions. This can happen with the collective presence of three key activities carried out by these institutions. Excellent education, successful research and embedment in the local economy are all necessary activities. It is recognized that without a proper knowledge management system, universities are less competitive. They need to possess outstanding IT-infrastructures, large databases and host professional forums that can enhance knowledge transfer. Thus, knowledge management and a vision for digitalization in the everyday lives of universities should be considered as an integral and inevitable part of university strategies. The study has two goals: It attempts to identify, how digitalization can contribute to the excellence of the first mission of universities and also examines the role of modern universities in activities that can enhance knowledge-transfer. |
| Keywords: | knowledge management,third mission,modern universities,digitalization |
| JEL: | I20 I25 O30 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esconf:156703&r=edu |
| By: | Claude Diebolt; Gabriele Franzmann; Ralph Hippe; Jürgen Sensch |
| Abstract: | Numerous primary investigators collected and processed long termed time series on German educational statistics in the context of their studies. As a result there are a multitude of quantitative empirical studies. On the one hand there is the project group on German Educational Statistics. Its projects were targeted at describing and analysing the long-term structural changes of the German educational system on a broad empirical and statistical basis. On the other hand there are comprehensive data compilations of individual research projects, focusing on a wide variety of special educational research topics. The online database ‘histat’ provides central digital access to these datasets on German educational history. Currently, it offers more than 120,000 long-term time series on the German educational system for a period of 200 years. The striking size of the database shows its key importance for researchers in the field of education. Thus, this paper aims to provide useful insights into the background of the database, the special characteristics of the data compilations and their analytical potential. Additionally, examples are given of how the data have already been used by researchers. |
| Keywords: | Big Data, Cliometrics, Demography, Education, Germany. |
| JEL: | C81 C82 C83 I2 J11 N33 N34 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2017-10&r=edu |
| By: | Estelle Bellity; Fabrice Gilles; Yannick L'Horty |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp17-02&r=edu |
| By: | Nishimura, Mikiko |
| Abstract: | In the international sphere, gender equality is primarily discussed in relation to the gender parity index (GPI), a female to male ratio of enrollment. This paper attempts to adopt a wider scope of gender equality that includes continuous learning and achievement. By using the data from 306 primary schools in rural Senegal, collected by the Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI), this paper examined school factors that affect the gender gaps in internal efficiency and learning achievement by considering policy input and the environment at the school level. The results show that the existence of a school management committee (“CGE”), is associated with lower dropout rates for both boys and girls and that the amount of financial contribution made by a CGE is correlated with fewer gender gaps in the number of dropouts and the repetition rate. We also found that providing parents with a periodic report on students’ attendance and learning achieveme nts as well as offering remedial lessons is negatively correlated with gender gaps in the repetition rate. Although we need to further investigate the mechanism that brought about this result, learning support initiatives may affect students differently according to gender depending on how one plans and implements them. School-level interventions should mainstream gender considerations so as to ensure gender equality in learning processes and achievements. |
| Keywords: | gender,primary education,SABER,school governance,Senegal,rural schools |
| Date: | 2017–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:141&r=edu |
| By: | Paola Mengoli; Margherita Russo |
| Abstract: | Since the 1970s, in many European industrialized areas, cities have undergone radical transformations to cope with de-industrialization but also with the new needs of the post Fordistic organization of the factories and their ecosystems: logistics and transport requirements were demanding new functional areas, business services - from individual units up to big service companies - needed different configurations of working spaces, urban sprawling increased to satisfy residential needs. A huge amount of manufacturing buildings has become no longer appropriate for many production processes and the future of the old industrial premises has punctuated the public debate of the past forty years: from their restoring (to keep traces of local socio-technical identity), to their demolition (to provide new appropriate production or living spaces), to their re-use (for hosting new activities). In the somewhat drastic passage from the past industrial era to the future digital economy, medium size cities in industrialized areas present some specific challenges when they have to support the new manufacturing age: not only with new spaces, but also with new skills. In recent years, many public (and also private) initiatives have proposed and implemented the transformation of old manufacturing building in new settings to foster creativity-andinnovation, a condition considered essential, among others, to create new opportunities for growth. Are the re-uses of buildings effective for that goal? Is contamination in hybrid spaces the crucial ingredient for their success in supporting creativity? These questions appear even more critical when we are confronted with the creation of new skills for re-industrialization in areas that are still pillars of manufacturing activities but that are progressively lost the social fabric that reproduced skills. Although their general character is to enable information and communication flows, cities in industrialized areas have lost some important pieces of knowledge on material processes. In this contribution we address some of those issues by nvestigating the action-research called "Officina Emilia" that was initiated in Italy exactly with the goal of regenerating competence networks in a manufacturing area. Officina Emilia developed some distinctive features: the creation of an original space, Museolaboratorio, designed as a hybrid space; the action-research program to introduce changes through the context-based technology education; the intent to build on a large and qualified network, supporting the innovation in the education system at regional level. These features will be discussed below. The rationale for this analysis is to single out which are the agents, the processes and some conditions that may hamper similar initiatives. In this chapter we first introduce, in section 2, the interdependencies between economic system and education system. We discuss a new approach to technology education in context, and the specific characters of what is needed to improve such context-based education. In section 3 we present the education activities produced by Officina Emilia. In section 4 we comment on the lessons learned from the action-research that created a hybrid space. Our focus is on the relevant agents, artefacts and interaction processes that can support social innovation in education to enhance significant learning, to meet the changes of the world of production and to address the complexity of concrete situations. Section 5 concludes with some remarks on the lost and missing links hampering the actionresearch to become a driver of change. |
| Keywords: | : technology education in context; SMEs; mechanical industry; industrial districts; innovation in education; innovation loci; innovative agents; local development policies, Officina Emilia |
| JEL: | L6 R58 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:cappmo:0150&r=edu |
| By: | Verónica Mies; Matías Tapia; Ignacio Loeser |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the empirical literature on the impact of human capital on technology adoption and the production structure of the economy by using census micro data aggregated at the state level data for US cohorts born between 1915 and 1939. We test the impact of secondary and tertiary schooling in the US at the state-cohort level on R&D and TFP growth across industries in 1970. While we follow the literature in using the variation in the timing of compulsory schooling laws across states to instrument secondary schooling, we propose a novel instrument for tertiary enrollment. In particular, we exploit, as in Acemoglu, Autor and Lyle (2004), the differences across states and cohorts in World War II mobilization rates. While Acemoglu, Autor, and Lyle (2004) used this variation as an exogenous shift in female labor supply, we exploit the fact that WWII veterans were benefited by the GI Bill Act (1944), which granted them free college education once they were discharged from service. This provides a clean source of variation in the costs of attending college, which allows us to exploit differences in college enrollment across states and cohorts. Our results suggest that, consistent with the initial discussion, different types of human capital are associated to different effects on the productive structure of the economy. Two-stage least squared regressions find no effect of the share of population with secondary schooling over outcomes such as R&D per worker or TFP growth. On the other hand, the share of population with tertiary education has a significant effect on both R&D per worker or TFP growth. In particular, a 1% increase in the share of workers with tertiary education increases R&D per worker by 1.8 percentage points, and annual TFP growth by 1% for 17 years. Creation-Date: 2015 |
| JEL: | J14 O12 L26 M53 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ioe:doctra:466&r=edu |
| By: | E. Hooper; S. Peters; P. Pintus |
| Abstract: | By reviewing US state-level panel data on infrastructure spending and on per capita income inequality from 1950 to 2010, this paper sets out to test whether there is an empirical link between infrastructure and inequality. Our main result, obtained from panel regressions with both state and time fixed effects, shows that highways and higher education spending growth in a given decade correlates negatively with Gini indices at the end of the decade. Such a finding suggests a causal effect from growth in infrastructure spending to a reduction in inequality, through better access to job and education opportunities. More significantly, this relationship is stronger with inequality at the bottom 40 per cent of the income distribution. In addition, infrastructure expenditures on highways are shown to be more effective at reducing inequality. A counterfactual experiment reveals which US states ended up with a significantly higher bottom Gini coefficient in 2010 that is attributed to underinvestment in infrastructure over the first decade of the 21st century. From a policy making perspective, this paper aims to present innovations in finance for infrastructure investments, for the US, other industrially advanced countries and also for developing economies. |
| Keywords: | Public Infrastructure, Education, Highways, Income Inequality, US State Panel Data, Fixed Effects Models. |
| JEL: | C23 D31 H72 I24 O51 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bfr:banfra:624&r=edu |
| By: | Domenico Lembo (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering Antonio Ruberti (DIAG), University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy); Mario Vacca (Ministero dell’Istruzione,dell’Università e della Ricerca) |
| Abstract: | The National Evaluation System (SNV - Sistema Nazionale di Valutazione), as well as having the objective of evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of the system of education and training, makes available to schools the tools - the Self-Evaluation Report (RAV) and the Improvement Plan (PdM) - which serve to schools themselves to evaluate themselves in order to improve its services. Models have been proposed for the PdM and software designed to produce more easily the PdM, although "For the PdM, unlike the RAV, there are no models or format established centrally as intentionally the law wanted to leave schools schools to follow paths and approaches relevant to their own situation and their own context." In this paper we consider the problem of the dynamics of the Improvement Plan and the involvement of the school community in the Improvement Process, proposing a solution, the Agile Improvement Plan (PDM-Agile) based on agile methods and in particular on the methodology called Programming extreme (XP). |
| Keywords: | Agile methodologies ; Extreme Programming ; School Evaluation ; Improvement Process |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:report:2017-02&r=edu |
| By: | Russell Viner; UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti |
| Abstract: | Enabling and protective systems for adolescents are the family, peers and the education and legal systems. In addition to research that focuses on individual adolescents, it is also important for researchers to consider measuring social determinants when conducting research on adolescent well-being. This brief reviews the key concepts of social and structural determinants of health and the methodological issues related to their measurement in adolescence.The brief is one of seven on research methodologies designed to expand and improve the conduct and interpretation of research on adolescent health and well-being in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Building on the recent Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing, these briefs provide an overview of the methodological quality of research on adolescents. They cover topics including: indicators and data sources; research ethics; research with disadvantaged, vulnerable and/or marginalized populations; participatory research; measuring enabling and protective systems for adolescent health; and economic strengthening interventions for improving adolescent well-being. |
| Keywords: | adolescent health; adolescents; protection of children; |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucf:inores:inores880&r=edu |
| By: | Messacar, Derek |
| Abstract: | La presente etude evalue la mesure dans laquelle l?education influence la facon dont les Canadiens economisent et se constituent un patrimoine pour leur retraite. A cet egard, elle apporte trois contributions. Premierement, une analyse descriptive des differences sur les plans de l?epargne et de la valeur des logements pour l?ensemble des particuliers, selon le niveau de scolarite qu?ils ont atteint, est presentee. Cette analyse s?appuie sur de nouveaux ensembles de donnees qui permettent de coupler des repondants des recensements de 1991 et de 2006 a des dossiers fiscaux administratifs. Ces donnees fournissent une occasion unique d?observer conjointement la scolarite, l?epargne, la valeur des logements ainsi qu?une multitude d?autres facteurs pertinents. Deuxiemement, le lien de cause a effet qu?a l?achevement des etudes secondaires sur le taux d?epargne dans des comptes d?epargne comportant des avantages fiscaux est estime a l?aide des reformes de la scolarite obligatoire qui ont servi a cerner ce lien de cause a effet. Troisiemement, selon une recente etude de Messacar (2015), il s?avere egalement que la scolarite influence la facon dont les particuliers modifient leur taux d?epargne en vue de l?optimiser, a la suite d?un changement automatique dans la constitution du patrimoine retraite. Les repercussions des resultats de l?etude a l?egard du en economie comportementale sont egalement abordees. |
| Keywords: | Education, training and learning, Income, pensions, spending and wealth, Outcomes of education, Pension plans and funds and other retirement income programs |
| Date: | 2017–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp3f:2017391f&r=edu |
| By: | Jasmina Byrne; Daniel Kardefelt-Winther; Sonia Livingstone; Mariya Stoilova |
| Abstract: | The Global Kids Online research toolkit has been developed with country partners, experts, and international advisors. The Getting started guide introduces the research principles and resources. |
| JEL: | L91 L96 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:71299&r=edu |
| By: | Uwe Hasebrink |
| Abstract: | This Method Guide discusses the opportunities and challenges linked with international comparisons. Comparative research can help widen the horizon of options for (political) action, enhance the knowledge base, define political priorities, explain differences between countries and understand transnational phenomena. In order to achieve these benefits, research has to be carefully designed with regard to the unit of comparison, the cases to be compared, the definition of functionally equivalent samples, and the practical issues of organizing research in different countries. Data analysis has to distinguish between at least two levels of analysis: the level of the individual child with the child’s personal characteristics, and the country level with indicators that have been assessed for the whole country. As an important objective of comparative research is to classify countries with respect to the context they provide for children’s online experiences, different approaches to country classifications are discussed, and a conceptual framework proposed to identify relevant country contexts. As an example of good practice, the EU Kids Online approach of comparing existing empirical evidence from different countries is described. Finally, key resources are listed with regard to all relevant dimensions of country contexts. |
| JEL: | L91 L96 |
| Date: | 2016–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:71262&r=edu |
| By: | Prabir BHATTACHARYA (Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan, and School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK); Takahiro SATO (Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the effects of socio-economic factors on the real wage rates for male workers in India over the period 1983 to 2010. In particular, we examine the role of human capital by estimating the Mincerian wage equation. We construct a regional level pseudo panel data set for our analysis. Our findings show that while the return to primary education is remarkably high, the returns to other, higher, levels of education are equally remarkably low for all of India taken together, becoming progressively so as the level of education increases. These findings are in contradistinction to those of the other studies on returns to education in India, all of which, however, have relied on cross-sectional data for their analyses. We also find relatively little effects of caste, tribe and religion on real wage rates in India, suggesting that that these factors may not be as important as is sometimes believed. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education, India, Regions, Pseudo-panel data |
| JEL: | I24 I25 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kob:dpaper:dp2017-09&r=edu |