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on Education |
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Issue of 2017‒10‒15
nineteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Richard Murphy; Judith Scott-Clayton; Gillian Wyness |
| Abstract: | Despite increasing financial pressures on higher education systems throughout the world, many governments remain resolutely opposed to the introduction of tuition fees, and some countries and states where tuition fees have been long established are now reconsidering free higher education. This paper examines the consequences of charging tuition fees on university quality, enrolments, and equity. To do so, we study the English higher education system which has, in just two decades, moved from a free college system to one in which tuition fees are among the highest in the world. Our findings suggest that England’s shift has resulted in increased funding per head, rising enrolments, and a narrowing of the participation gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. In contrast to other systems with high tuition fees, the English system is distinct in that its income-contingent loan system keeps university free at the point of entry, and provides students with comparatively generous assistance for living expenses. We conclude that tuition fees, at least in the English case supported their goals of increasing quality, quantity, and equity in higher education. |
| JEL: | I22 I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23888&r=edu |
| By: | Felipe Barrera-Osorio; David S. Blakeslee; Matthew Hoover; Leigh Linden; Dhushyanth Raju; Stephen P. Ryan |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the school-competition literature by evaluating a program that randomly assigned private schools to underserved villages in Pakistan. Program schools were provided a per-student subsidy to provide tuition-free primary education, with half of the treated villages receiving a higher subsidy for female students. The program increased enrollment by 30 percentage points, and test scores by 0.63 standard deviations. The effects were similar across genders, and across the two subsidy treatments. Program schools were of higher quality than nearby government schools, and a structural model for the supply and demand of school inputs indicates that program schools selected inputs similar to those of a social planner who internalizes all the educational benefits to society. |
| JEL: | I25 O12 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23870&r=edu |
| By: | Nordin , Martin (Department of Economics, Lund University); Heckley , Gawain (Health Economics Unit, Lund University); Gerdtham , Ulf-G (Department of Economics, Lund University) |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the impact of achieving tertiary eligibility in upper-secondary education on tertiary education and earnings in Sweden. Using a regression discontinuity design, we estimate the impact of tertiary eligibility and show that it has a substantial impact on the probability of enrolling in tertiary education. For students who achieve tertiary eligibility, the probability of enrolling in tertiary education increases by around 15 and 7 percentage points for an academic and vocational track, respectively. This implies (before age 30) around 8 percent higher earnings (at the intensive margin) for men on an academic track, while for women on an academic track it increases the probability of having positive incomes (the extensive margin) by around 3 percent. Thus, we conclude that (academic) students at the margin of eligibility for enrolling in tertiary education receive a substantial tertiary education payoff. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary education; upper-secondary education; earnings; eligibility; regression discontinuity design |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2017–09–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2017_012&r=edu |
| By: | Fredrick M. Wamalwa; Justine Burns |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the effect of two important family characteristics-gender and birth order-on intra-household investments in, and educational outcomes of, children in Kenya. We measure intra-household education investments in children by household's decision to enrol children in private schools and educational outcomes by two variables, completed years of education and relative grade attainment. We use a large household survey data set that allows us to apply family fixed effects models that address the potential endogeneity of children's gender, birth order and family size as well as factors that are unobservable at the household level. Although we do not find an intra-household gender preference in terms of investments in children's education, there is a female advantage in terms of the two measured education outcomes. Our results show significantnegative birth order effects on private enrolment, completed years of education and relative grade attainment. Family wealth plays a significant role in propagating the gender and birth order effects we observe. |
| Keywords: | household fixed effects, gender, Kenya |
| JEL: | C21 J16 I21 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:708&r=edu |
| By: | Hisanobu Kakizawa (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the student-teacher gender matching effect on students f academic performance and questioning behavior. The results indicate as follows: 1. Positive effects of same gender teachers on students f performance are observed, especially for girls. 2. The gender-matching effect appears to be most significant in the study of English, followed by math and science. 3. Gender matching has an effect on students f questioning behavior. 4. Changes in questioning behavior may partly explain the improvement in performance. 5. Even when the effects of questioning behavior are controlled for, female teachers still have a positive effect on girls f performance. |
| Keywords: | Academic performance; Gender-matching effect; Questioning behavior |
| JEL: | I20 I21 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:1729&r=edu |
| By: | Keith Meyers; Melissa A. Thomasson |
| Abstract: | We leverage the 1916 polio pandemic in the United States as a natural experiment to test whether short-term school closures result in reduced educational attainment as an adult. With over 23,000 cases of polio diagnosed in 1916, officials implemented quarantines and closed schools. Since the pandemic occurred during the start of the 1916 school year, children of working age may have elected not to return to school. Using state-level polio morbidity as a proxy for schooling disruptions, we find that children ages 14-17 during the pandemic had less educational attainment in 1940 compared to their slightly older peers. |
| JEL: | I18 N22 N3 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23890&r=edu |
| By: | Phuc Luong (University of California Davis); Lester Lusher (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Vasil Yasenov (Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California Berkeley) |
| Abstract: | Recent correlational studies and media reports have suggested that sleep regularity - the variation in the amount of sleep one gets across days - is a stronger determinant of student success than sleep duration - the total amount of sleep one receives. We identify the causal impacts of sleep regularity and sleep duration on student success by leveraging over 165,000 student-classroom observations from a large university in Vietnam where incoming freshmen were randomly assigned into course schedules. These schedules varied significantly: some had the same daily start time across the week, while others experienced extreme shifts. Across a multitude of specifications and samples, we precisely estimate no discernible differences in achievement between students with highly varying start times versus students with consistent schedules. Moreover, we find much smaller gains to delayed school start times compared to previous studies. |
| Keywords: | School Start Time, Sleep Regularity, Education Policy |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201704&r=edu |
| By: | Cowan, Robin (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University); Rossello, Giulia (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University) |
| Abstract: | This paper is about the South African job market for PhDs. PhD to first job mobility involves the preferences of both the hiring institution and the candidate. Both want to make the best choice and here institutional prestige plays a crucial role. A university’s prestige is an emergent property of the hiring interactions, so we use a network perspective to measure it. Using this emergent ordering, we compare the subsequent scientific performance of scholars with different changes in the prestige hierarchy. We ask how movements between universities of different prestige from PhD to first job correlates with academic performance. We use data of South African scholars from 1970 to 2004 and we find that those who make large movements in terms of prestige have lower research ratings than those wo do not. Further, those with higher prestige PhD or first job have high research ratings throughout their careers. |
| Keywords: | Academia, South Africa, faculty hiring network, institutional prestige, institutional stratification, scholars research performance, university system, matched pair analysis |
| JEL: | D7 I2 J15 O31 O32 O33 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–10–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2017046&r=edu |
| By: | Anna Piil Damm (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark); Britt Østergaard Larsen (The Danish Centre for Applied Social Science); Helena Skyt Nielsen (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark); Marianne Simonsen (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University, Denmark) |
| Abstract: | This paper exploits a Danish policy reform combined with population-wide administrative registers to investigate whether being above the minimum age of criminal responsibility deters juveniles from crime. We study young individuals’ tendency to commit crime as well as their likelihood of recidivism by exploiting police records on offenses committed by the population of children and youth, including those below the minimum age of criminal responsibility. The reform lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 14 years. We find that the reform did not deter 14-year-olds from committing crime. Moreover, conditional on committing crime in the first place, youths affected by the lower minimum age of criminal responsibility were more likely to recidivate and less likely to be enrolled in the 9th grade, just as they have lower grades at the 9th grade exit exam, conditional on participating. The latter results are consistent with labeling effects of processing in the criminal justice system. |
| Keywords: | Juvenile delinquency, sanctions, general deterrence, individual deterrence, labeling effects |
| JEL: | K14 K42 I21 |
| Date: | 2017–10–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2017-10&r=edu |
| By: | Vinish Shrestha (Department of Economics, Towson University); Rashesh Shrestha (Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)) |
| Abstract: | We examine a potential intergenerational transfer of human capital by investigating the effect of maternal education on children's educational and labor outcomes in the context of a developing country Nepal. To account for endogeneity of mother's education, we use education reform in the 1970s that had differential impact on women due to their year and district of birth. We also account for birth order effects by implementing a triple-difference strategy. The education reform increased schooling of females that were most affected by the reform. Furthermore, an increase in mother's highest level of schooling increased the child's probability of finishing 5th grade only among mothers from a higher caste households. We find modest effects of mother’s education on child labor outcomes, with the IV estimate indicating that a year increase in mother's education reduces a child's weekly work by approximately an hour. A lack of intergenerational impact among relatively lower caste households suggests that exclusionary social structure should be considered when promoting maternal education as a medium to improve children's well-being. |
| Keywords: | : Intergenerational effect, maternal education, children human capital, schooling. |
| JEL: | I10 I15 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tow:wpaper:2017-05&r=edu |
| By: | Bannier, Christina E.; Schwarz, Milena |
| Abstract: | We find strong gender- and education-related differences in the distribution of actual and perceived financial sophistication: Whereas financial literacy rises in formal education, confidence increases in education for men but decreases for women. We show that the financial decisions of highly-educated men benefit strongly from this excess confidence, while the underconfidence of highly-educated women, in contrast, impairs their long-term financial planning. |
| JEL: | D91 G11 D83 J26 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc17:168188&r=edu |
| By: | Nicholas Bloom; Renata Lemos; Raffaella Sadun; John Van Reenen |
| Abstract: | We investigate the link between hospital performance and managerial education by collecting a large database of management practices and skills in hospitals across nine countries. We find that hospitals that are closer to universities offering both medical education and business education have higher management quality, more MBA trained managers and lower mortality rates. This is true compared to the distance to universities that offer only business or medical education (or neither). We argue that supplying joint MBA-healthcare courses may be a channel through which universities increase medical business skills and raise clinical performance. |
| JEL: | I18 L32 M20 M5 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23880&r=edu |
| By: | Jean-Luc J.-L. Demeulemeester Demeulemeester; Denis Rochat |
| Abstract: | In this note, we present new econometric estimates of the (private) rate of return to education in Belgium. Our estimates of the return to education lie around 6.5% to 6.8% following model specifications. Our estimations of classical Mincerian earning functions also highlight the potential existence of a screening/signalling process in the Belgian labour market, as the rate of return in the private sector is lower than in the public sector, and as the self-employed workers do not seem to benefit from their prior schooling. The results confirm previous estimates on the Belgian labour maket by Nonneman and Cortens (1995). |
| Keywords: | Returns; Education; Wages; Screening; Signalling |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2017–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/258638&r=edu |
| By: | Ian Coelho de Souza Almeida (Cedeplar-UFMG); Rafael Galvão de Almeida (Cedeplar-UFMG); Lucas Resende de Carvalho (Cedeplar-UFMG) |
| Abstract: | The paper approaches the theme of the relatively higher level of pluralism in Brazilian economics, when compared to the other countries, from a different approach used in the literature. Considering the Qualis as an instrument of great impact in the research of the Brazilian graduate education centers, mainly because of its impact in the CAPES evaluation of the centers, we analyze the abrupt change in the journal ranking that occurred in 2016. Before presenting this data, we first focused in understanding the metrics that are part of the Qualis, and how relevant the biases from other indexes than the Impact Factor are. Afterwards, we present a review of the national literature concerning the academic production in economics, showing how some problems due to incentives and structure still persist. We, then, present our results: we found out that the increase of journals in the higher strata of the Qualis without a research agenda bias, and with a great inclusion of specialized sub-fields of the discipline. Besides, the impact that this change will cause in the 2017 CAPES’ evaluation cannot be seen as favoring centers by their division in mainstream and non-mainstream. Having this in mind, we argue that the modifications keep incentives to pluralism, besides correcting many problems in the ranking. |
| Keywords: | Qualis, academic production, pluralism, bibliometrics, mainstream economics, heterodox economics |
| JEL: | A23 A14 B00 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td569&r=edu |
| By: | Agasisti, Tommaso; Gralka, Sabine |
| Abstract: | Despite measures on the European level to increase the compatibility between the HE sectors of the member states, the recent literature exposes variations in their efficiencies. To gain insights into these differences we split the efficiency term according to the two management levels each university is confronted with. Utilizing a recent advancement in the method to measure efficiency, we separate short-term (transient) and long-term (persistent) efficiency, while controlling for unobserved institution specific heterogeneity. While the first term reflects the efficiency of the individual universities working within the country, the second term echoes the influence of the country specific overall HE structure. The cross-country comparison displays if the overall efficiency difference between countries is related to individual performance of their universities or their HE structure. This allows more purposeful policy recommendation and expands the literature regarding the efficiency of universities in a fundamental way. Choosing Italy and Germany as two important illustrative examples we can take advantage of a novel dataset including characteristics of institutions in both countries for an exceptional long period of time from 2001 to 2011. We show that the Italian universities exhibit a higher overall efficiency value than their German counterparts. With the individual universities working at the upper bound of efficiency in both countries, the overall inefficiency as well as the gap between the countries is caused by persistent, structural inefficiency. To expedite a true European Area of Higher Education future measures should hence aim at the country specific structure, not solely at affecting the activities of single universities. |
| Keywords: | Stochastic Frontier Analysis,Persistent Inefficiency,Higher Education,Costfunction,Italy,Germany |
| JEL: | C14 C23 D61 I22 I23 H52 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tudcep:1417&r=edu |
| By: | Diego Daruich (New York University) |
| Abstract: | Standard macroeconomic analysis of inequality focuses on the optimal choice of progressive taxation. However, early childhood environment has been shown to significantly impact adult outcomes. Using children's time diaries, we show that parental quality time with children is strongly associated with children's skills—which is later associated with their education. To compare the quantitative role of standard policies to ones that target early childhood, we extend the standard general-equilibrium heterogeneous-agent life-cycle model with earnings risk and credit constraints to allow for endogenous education, parental time and money investments towards children's skill development, and family transfers. The model includes two types of college majors: STEM and non-STEM. We evaluate three policies: progressive taxation, college tuition subsidies, and parenting education. Progressive taxation is the most effective at reducing disposable income inequality, but it does not promote the development of skills necessary to increase college graduation or social mobility. College subsidies promote only non-STEM graduation, since STEM is a better alternative only for high-skilled individuals. Parenting education is the most effective at increasing intergenerational mobility and the only one able to promote STEM graduation. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:770&r=edu |
| By: | Larsson, Johan P (Jönköping International Business School); Wennberg, Karl (The Ratio Institute); Wiklund, Johan (Whitman School of Management); Wright, Mike (Imperial College London South Kensington Campus) |
| Abstract: | We review complementary theoretical perspectives on location choices of university graduate entrepreneurs derived from the individual-opportunity nexus and local embeddedness perspectives on entrepreneurship. Analysis of the full population of 215,388 graduates from Swedish institutions of higher education between 2002 and 2006 provides support for both location choice perspectives. Overall, 63 % of graduate entrepreneurs start businesses locally in their region of graduation while 37 % start businesses elsewhere. The likelihood of starting locally is substantially higher in metropolitan regions, if the graduate was born locally or has university peer entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial family members in the region of graduation. Implications for theory and public policy are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship; Location choice; Universities |
| JEL: | J61 M13 O18 |
| Date: | 2017–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0290&r=edu |
| By: | Mouganie, Pierre; Wang, Yaojing |
| Abstract: | Women have historically been underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs. There are concerns that the persistence of this gap over time is in part due to path dependence and the historical lack of high-performing women in these fields. This paper uses administrative data from China to examine the extent to which the presence of high-performing peers in mathematics affects the likelihood that women choose a science track during high school. Results indicate that exposure to a higher proportion of high-performing females increases girls' likelihood of majoring in STEM, while exposure to more high-performing males reduces it. There is little evidence that boys' major decisions are affected by their peers. Our results indicate that high-achieving girls in quantitative fields may have a role model or affirmation effect that encourages their female classmates to pursue a path in science. |
| Keywords: | STEM, Peer Quality, Gender Effects, China |
| JEL: | I20 J01 J70 |
| Date: | 2017–10–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:81860&r=edu |
| By: | Yin-Chi Wang (Chinese University of Hong Kong); Ping Wang (Washington University in St. Louis); Chong Yip (Chinese University of Hong Kong); Pei-Ju Liao (Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica) |
| Abstract: | Observing China's rapid skill-enhanced development and urbanization process accompanied by continual reforms of the household registration system, we explore the underlying drivers, highlighting the channel of rural to urban migration. In addition to conventional work-based migration, we incorporate education-based migration by constructing a dynamic spatial equilibrium model of migration decisions with educational choice. We then calibrate our model to fit the data from China over the 1980--2007 period. We find that the effects of education-based migration on total per capita output cannot be ignored. There also exist rich interactions between the two migration channels. Furthermore, our results suggest that the increase in the college admission selectivity for rural students seriously depresses China's development. Policy experiments on migration and labour-market regulations are also conducted to assess their quantitative significance. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:738&r=edu |