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on Education |
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Issue of 2017‒04‒16
nineteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Belzil, Christian (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris); Hansen, Jörgen (Concordia University); Liu, Xingfei (University of Alberta) |
| Abstract: | Using a dynamic skill accumulation model of schooling and labor supply with learning-by-doing, we decompose early life-cycle wage growth of U.S. white males into four main sources: education, hours worked, cognitive skills (AFQT scores) and unobserved heterogeneity, and evaluate the effect of compulsory high school graduation and a reduction in the cost of college. About 60 percent of the differences in slopes of early life-cycle wage profiles are explained by heterogeneity while individual differences in hours worked and education explain the remaining part almost equally. We show how our model is a particularly useful tool to comprehend the distinctions between compulsory schooling and a reduction in the cost of higher education. Finally, because policy changes induce simultaneous movements in observed choices and average per-year effects, linear IV estimates generated by those policy changes are uninformative about the returns to education for those affected. This is especially true for compulsory schooling estimates as they exceed IV estimates generated by the reduction in the cost of higher education even if the latter policy affects individuals with much higher returns than than those affected by compulsory schooling. |
| Keywords: | dynamic skill accumulation, education policies, returns to schooling, learning-by-doing, life-cycle labor-supply, IV estimation |
| JEL: | I2 J1 J3 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10613&r=edu |
| By: | Nicola Branson (Southern Africa Labour Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town); David Lam (Population Studies Center and Director of the Institute of Social Research, University of Michigan) |
| Abstract: | Post-apartheid education funding is designed to redress past inequalities in funding and, in doing so, work towards providing all learners with high quality education (Schools Act, 1996). In August 2006, new National Norms and Standards for Funding were established and the rollout of a no-fee program initiated. The program abolishes compulsory school fees in schools in the least socioeconomically advantaged sections of society. From 2007, the Minister of Education began declaring certain public ordinary schools to be no-fee schools, with additional schools added each year, such that by 2011 over 80% of all public schools were declared no-fee schools. The rollout coincides with the first three waves of the National Income Dynamics Study. We geo-link each respondent's location in 2007 to administrative school data and combine differences in distance to a no-fee high school in 2007 with differences across cohorts that result from the timing of the program rollout. We find no discernable impact of the program on enrolment at 16, 17, 18 or 19 or on educational attainment and completion of secondary school by age 20. |
| Keywords: | no-fee school policy, Post-apartheid education, National Income Dynamics Study, South Africa |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ldr:wpaper:197&r=edu |
| By: | Contini, Dalit; Salza, Guido; Scagni, Andrea (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | In this contribution, we address the following research questions: (i) Do parental education, parental occupation and economic conditions influence the students’ university dropout probability, given students’ previous educational attainment and performance? What is the relative role of these alternative indicators of family background? (ii) Do we observe any changes when comparing different cohorts of entrants – before and after the beginning of the economic crisis – in degree attainment and dropout hazard rates? Can we ascribe these changes to different behavior or to the different composition of the university student body? Is there any evidence that the observed behavioral changes can be ascribed to the economic crisis? To this aim, we use administrative data of the University of Torino – recently integrated with information on parental background – containing detailed information on the academic careers of the cohorts of first enrolled in years 2004-2014. These data include information on transfers to other degree programs within the University of Torino and to other universities, allowing to distinguish between withdrawal from the university system and changes of institution. On research question (i), we find that economic constraints negatively affect the dropout risk, while parental education and occupation seem to exert little further influence. Our findings on research question (ii) indicate that substantial improvements in both dropout probabilities and time to degree have occurred, and that these improvements are partly due to changes in the composition of the student body and partly due to changes in individual behavior. |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201716&r=edu |
| By: | Gershenson, Seth (American University); Hart, Cassandra M. D. (University of California, Davis); Lindsay, Constance A. (American University); Papageorge, Nicholas W. (Johns Hopkins University) |
| Abstract: | Black primary-school students matched to a same-race teacher perform better on standardized tests and face more favorable teacher perceptions, yet little is known about the long-run, sustained impacts of student-teacher demographic match. We show that assigning a black male to a black teacher in the third, fourth, or fifth grades significantly reduces the probability that he drops out of high school, particularly among the most economically disadvantaged black males. Exposure to at least one black teacher in grades 3-5 also increases the likelihood that persistently low-income students of both sexes aspire to attend a four-year college. These findings are robust across administrative data from two states and multiple identification strategies, including an instrumental variables strategy that exploits within-school, intertemporal variation in the proportion of black teachers, family fixed-effects models that compare siblings who attended the same school, and the random assignment of students and teachers to classrooms created by the Project STAR class-size reduction experiment. |
| Keywords: | teachers, long-run effects, educational attainment, racial gaps |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10630&r=edu |
| By: | Brotherhood, Luiz Mário; Ferreira, Pedro Cavalcanti; Santos, Cézar Augusto Ramos |
| Abstract: | We provide a new education quality index for states within a developing country using 2010 Brazilian data. This measure is constructed based on the notion that the financial returns obtained from an additional year of schooling can be seen as being derived from the value that market forces assign to this education. We use migrant data to estimate returns to schooling of individuals who studied in different states but who work in the same labor market. We find very heterogeneous educational qualities across states: the poorest Brazilian region presents education quality levels that are approximately equal to one-third of the average of all other regions, a gap three times larger than the one suggested by standardized test scores. We compare our index with standardized test scores, educational outcome variables, and public expenditure per schooling stage at the state level, producing new evidence related to education in a large developing country. We conduct an education quality-adjusted development accounting exercise for Brazilian states and find that human capital accounts for 26%-31% of output per worker differences. Adjusting for quality increases human capital’s explanatory power by 60%. |
| Date: | 2017–02–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:epgewp:782&r=edu |
| By: | Daniel Gray (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield); Alberto Montagnoli (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield); Mirko Moro (Division of Economics, University of Stirling) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses two compulsory schooling reforms in Britain (1947 and 1972) to study the relationship between education and financial behaviours. Employing a regression discontinuity design to analyse nationally representative data from the UK, we find limited evidence that one extra year of schooling led to systematically different financial behaviours. One exception is the promotion of more positive saving behaviours amongst females affected by the 1947 reform. We argue that, despite clear positive spill-overs of educational reforms, desirable financial behaviours require specfic and targeted education policies and we point to the growing research in this field to support this conclusion. |
| Keywords: | Compulsory Schooling Laws; Education; Financial Literacy; Financial Outcomes; Regression Discontinuity |
| JEL: | D14 I20 G11 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2017010&r=edu |
| By: | Esteban Aucejo (Department of Economics, Arizona State University); Jonathan James (Department of Economics, California Polytechnic State University) |
| Abstract: | Black females are 17 percentage points more likely to attend college than black males, making the gender gap among black youth larger than the black-white racial gap in college enrollment (14.7 pp). We estimate a sequential model of schooling and arrests to assess the major contributing factors to the gender imbalance in educational attainment within racial groups. First, we find that di erences between males and females in measures of early behavior account for the majority of the gender gap for each racial group. Second, despite the fact that 50% of black males were arrested at least once before age 25, we find little evidence that arrest outcomes in uence educational attainment, and that the negative correlation of educational attainment and arrests is entirely attributable to the same behavioral factors that explain the gender gap in education. Finally, we find that black males have the largest response to improvements in family background characteristics, such that equalizing the distribution of family background characteristics for black and white youths reduces the gender gap in college enrollment among black youth by 50% and completely eliminates the black-white racial gap in college enrollment. |
| Keywords: | Gender Gap, Educational Attainment, Behavior, Factors, Race |
| JEL: | I2 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpl:wpaper:1701&r=edu |
| By: | Jeenu John; Varmala T. Bhamwari |
| Abstract: | Evaluation is widely acknowledged as a powerful means of improving the quality of education. It is the means by which development of an individual, course can be monitored to see it what it claims to be and if it achieves the desired outcomes. In order to take the evaluation in a desirable manner, the purpose of the teaching learning activities and their desired outcomes must be specified. The present examination system in India is predominately focusing only on the intellectual skills, the psycho motor and affective domains of holistic learning have not received their due importance. But the aim of education is developing the ‘whole child’. Holistic education demands development of all aspects of individual’s personality including cognitive, affective and psycho motor domains. In the present scenario it is very stressful for the parents, teachers and students only to be working on cognitive aspects without understanding the processes of learning. In order to bring about the improvement in the quality of the education and the holistic development of the child who is tomorrow’s global citizen, evaluation process should focus adequately on both scholastics and non-scholastic areas of development. In this paper, the focus is essentially on evaluation of students’ performance and to some extend of the system at large. Evaluation, a way of enabling everyone involved in it to develop and need to be conceived holistically, as a whole framework, building on the interdependence of its parts in order to generate complementarities, avoid duplication, and prevent inconsistency of objectives. Key Words: Evaluation, 21st century classroom, holistic approach Policy |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2017-03-06&r=edu |
| By: | Kazuya Masuda (Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University); Chikako Yamauchi (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan) |
| Abstract: | Early pregnancy poses serious medical risk and economic burden to mother and neonatal children. While Economics literature generally explains negative relationship between female schooling and early fertility, it remains unclear whether this reflects a causal relationship. To fill in such a gap in literature, this paper examines the impact of female education on adolescent fertility, health investment behavior and the health status of their children in Uganda, focusing on the fully treated cohorts whose fees were abolished by Universal Primary Education policy (UPE) just before they entered schools. Education is instrumented by the interaction between across-cohorts differences in exposure to UPE and the differences in its effective benefits across districts with varying pre-program rates of completing primary education. We show that attending an additional year of schooling reduces the probability of marriage and that of giving birth before age 18 by 7.0-7.2 percentage points. Among those who become mothers, educated women use maternal care and infant immunization more often, and had lower probability that their child dies before 12 months after the birth. These results indicate that promoting the access to primary education among girls is an effective program to reduce adolescent pregnancy. It also shows the important role of maternal education in breaking the cycle of intergenerational transmission of the poor health in least developing countries by reducing child mortality. This in turn underscores the importance of considering the widespread benefits of female education in shaping the policy and institution influencing educational attainment. |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:17-01&r=edu |
| By: | Pedro S. Martins |
| Abstract: | Non-cognitive skills programs may be an important policy option to improve the academic outcomes of adolescents. In this paper, we evaluate experimentally the EPIS program, which is based on relatively short bi-weekly individual or small-group non-cognitive mediation meetings with students selected based on their low school achievement. Our RCT estimates, covering nearly 3,000 7th- and 8th-grade students across over 50 schools and two years, indicate that the program increases the probability of progression by 11\% to 22\%. The effects are stronger amongst older students, girls, and in language subjects, and when the program mediator is of the same gender as the student. |
| Keywords: | Exports of services, unemployment, labour reforms |
| JEL: | I20 I24 J08 |
| Date: | 2017–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:81&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Schools are not only places where students acquire academic skills; they are also social environments where children can develop the social and emotional competencies that they need to thrive. Yet despite the global interest in students’ well-being, there is no consensus on which policies or curriculum changes are needed to improve adolescents’ quality of life at school. The data from PISA 2015 show that students differ greatly, both between and within countries, in how satisfied they are with their life, in their motivation to achieve, in how anxious they feel about their schoolwork, in their participation in physical activities, in their expectations for the future, in their experiences of being bullied by their peers, and in their perceptions of being treated unfairly by their teachers. Many of these differences are related to students’ feelings about the disciplinary climate in the classroom and about the support their teachers give them. PISA 2015 data show that schoolwork-related anxiety is common among adolescents. Often, this anxiety is students’ reaction to, and interpretation of, the mistakes they make – or are afraid to make. Students whose motivation to do well at school mostly originates from fear of disappointing others or the desire to do better than their peers are more likely to report anxiety at school. It is important that schools identify those students who suffer from severe anxiety and teach these students methods to learn from mistakes and manage their stress. |
| Date: | 2017–04–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduddd:71-en&r=edu |
| By: | Giannelli, Gianna Claudia (University of Florence); Rapallini, Chiara (University of Florence) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we provide evidence that parents' beliefs about the value of math, in terms of successful employment, have a positive impact on children's math scores. This result is robust to the reverse causality issue that characterizes the relationship between parental attitude and children's performance. We adopt an identification strategy that relies on two pillars. First, using PISA 2012, we estimate this relationship on a sample of immigrants that includes second-generation students and first-generation students who migrated before starting primary education. Second, we instrument the parental attitude with the country of origin math performance, under the assumption that country of origin math performance affects children's performance only through parents. We find that one additional score point in the origin country performance in math increases student performance by 21 percent of one standard deviation of the student math score. For an indirect transmission mechanism through parents math culture, this can be considered a quite substantial effect. Disentangling the effect of one of the factors that shape the family background, we contribute to the empirical literature on the explanations of individual educational achievements. |
| Keywords: | parental beliefs, math performance, immigrant students |
| JEL: | I21 J13 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10622&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Teacher professional development is deemed to be high quality when it includes opportunities for active learning methods, an extended time period, a group of colleagues, and collective learning activities or research with other teachers. The higher the exposure of teachers to high-quality professional development, the more likely they are to use a wide variety of teaching practices in the classroom. Professional development activities that focus on curriculum knowledge (rather than subject knowledge or pedagogy) and that involve collaborating with other teachers seem particularly well suited to enhancing teachers’ classroom practices. However, these types of professional development are not those that are most widely used around the world. Not all teachers have equal access to high-quality professional development. In some countries and economies, different participation rates in high-quality professional development are observed between male and female teachers, as well as between teachers who have and have not completed initial teacher education. |
| Date: | 2017–04–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaah:16-en&r=edu |
| By: | Barham, Tania; Macours, Karen; Maluccio, John |
| Abstract: | Interventions aimed at improving the nutrition, health, and education of young children are often motivated by their potential to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty. A prominent example, conditional cash transfers (CCTs), has become the anti-poverty program of choice in many developing countries. Evidence is inconclusive as to whether the demonstrated short-term gains translate into the longer-term educational and labor market benefits needed to fully justify them. This paper uses the randomized phase-in of a 3-year CCT program in Nicaragua to estimate long-term effects. We estimate these effects using experimental variation, complemented by two alternative non-experimental identification strategies. We focus on boys aged 9-12 years at the start of the program who, due to the program's eligibility criteria and prior school dropout patterns, were more likely to have been exposed to the program in the early treatment than in the late treatment group. Previously demonstrated short-term increases in schooling are sustained after 10 years, and there are substantial gains in learning. These improvements in human capital coincide with positive labor market returns - the young men are more likely to engage in wage work, migrate temporarily for better paying jobs, and have higher earnings. In Nicaragua, schooling and learning gains hence translate into earning gains for these young men, implying important long-term returns to CCT programs. |
| Keywords: | CCT; education; labor markets; learning; long-term effects |
| JEL: | I25 I28 I38 O12 |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11937&r=edu |
| By: | K. Manitombi Devi |
| Abstract: | Higher Education provides people with an opportunity to reflect in the critical social, economic, cultural, moral and spiritual issues facing humanity. It contributes to national development through discrimination of specialized knowledge and skills. It is therefore a crucial factor for survival. Being at the apex of the educational pyramid, it has also a key role in producing teachers for the Education System. In the context of the unprecedented explosion of knowledge in the last few centuries, higher education has to become dynamic as never before, constantly entering uncharted areas. Key Words: Higher Education, RUSA, RMSA, NPE. Policy |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2017-03-07&r=edu |
| By: | R.S. Patel |
| Abstract: | Three of the 13 themes discussed in the MHRD document have a close bearing on issues with regard to reform in the sector of teacher education. These are concern about learning outcomes; reforming the school examination system and revamping teacher education. Low learning outcomes are evidently the single most important concern for policy makers. The paper elaborates on these issues alongwith sure recommendation for teacher education. Key words: Recommendation, Suggestion, Teacher Education, Education, Teacher Policy |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:vor:issues:2017-03-02&r=edu |
| By: | Gaentzsch, Anja |
| Abstract: | This paper empirically investigates the impacts of Peru's Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme JUNTOS upon educational outcomes of beneficiary children. The findings associate Juntos participation with higher overall enrolment rates and grades of schooling for children aged 12 to 18 years. This effect translates into a higher probability of finishing primary school and entering secondary school for the same age group. Evidence suggests that this is linked to a faster progression through grades rather than final years of schooling. We find no impact on enrolment or school progression for younger children aged 6 to 11 years. Further, Juntos participation does not have a positive impact upon scores of receptive vocabulary and mathematics tests. Rather, children aged 7-9 years seem to make less progress over time compared to children from non-beneficiary families, while there is no impact upon older children. Evidence on the underlying reasons for this is inconclusive and merits further analysis. |
| Keywords: | conditional cash transfer,human capital investment,social assistance,educational attainment |
| JEL: | I24 I25 I38 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20179&r=edu |
| By: | Marek Radvansky; Tomas Miklosovic |
| Abstract: | Main goal of the paper is application of augmented recursive-dynamic CGE model to provide long-term forecast of labour demand. Estimation of structural and educational changes in labour demand up to 2025 requires relatively complex approach. Applied CGE model is core part of described exercise. Available datasets for Slovakia allow providing currently most detail estimation of structural changes by 60 sectors. Additionally, employment structure is divided by 5 levels of formal education (instead of more problematic occupation segmentation). Main driver of changes in demand by education in applied model are wage and productivity development. Main inputs to recursive dynamic CGE models beside the SAM matrix are information on indicators of long term macroeconomic. These are derived from applied macroeconomic econometric error-correction model. One of the main challenges was to use combination of LFS and national accounts (ESA) data on structure of employment for better utilization of obtained results. Additional use of LFS information about age and education structure within sectors leads to estimation of expansion, replacement and total demand to every individual sector. Main results of (partially restricted) labour demand are essential part for identifying possible imbalances and shortages on labour market. To quantify the demand for labour of macroeconomic growth will be used computational general equilibrium (CGE) model (see above). Long run growth will be estimated via macroeconomic econometric error correction model. The expansion, replacement and total demand will be compute via cohort stock – flow model. Results and model application are result of long term development of CGE and macroeconomic models within Institute of Economic Research. First estimations indicates the growth of expansion labour demand at level slightly above 100 thousand workers between 2015 and 2025 in Slovakia (4,1 %). The results of expansion labour demand are based on positive expected growth of the Slovak economy. When we consider the replacement demand, the total labour demand is about 900 thousand workers between 2015 and 2025. Intensity of replacement demand will differ in relation to age structure of working population within sectors. Replacement demand represents size of more than one third of current Slovak labour market, which implies possibility of significant structural changes. Slovak economy is split to the 58 sectors where the most of them will increase in output or labour demand. But some of them will decrease in output and labour demand like agriculture. Obtained results indicates, that the highest demand will be for higly educated workers, thus shift toward more knowledge economy. On the other hand, there are significant shortages of skilled secondary workers, which may indicate problems with vocational education system. Results will be further discussed in the paper. |
| Keywords: | Slovakia. Results are applicable to the most CEE countries. , General equilibrium modeling, Labor market issues |
| Date: | 2016–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ekd:009007:9674&r=edu |
| By: | HIGUCHI Yuki; SASAKI Miyuki; NAKAMURO Makiko |
| Abstract: | We conducted a randomized experiment targeting 322 Japanese high school students to examine the impacts of a newly developed English learning program. The treated students were offered an opportunity to communicate for 25 minutes with English-speaking Filipino teachers via Skype several times a week over five months. The opportunities were offered as extracurricular activities and were not included in their grades. Results show that only 6% of the treated students completed the recommended number of lessons over the observation period. In addition, the Skype program made the treated students more interested in an international vocation and foreign affairs. However, probably due to the low completion rate, the students did not improve their English speaking and listening abilities as measured by a standardized test. Further investigation shows that the take-up rate was particularly low among students showing a tendency to procrastinate. These results suggest the importance of maintaining students' motivation to keep using such information and communications technology (ICT)-assisted learning programs if they are not already incorporated into the existing curriculum. Having procrastinators self-regulate may be especially crucial. However, significant positive changes in the students' attitude support the use of such programs even as extracurricular activities. |
| Date: | 2017–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:17030&r=edu |