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on Education |
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Issue of 2018‒01‒15
twenty papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Baert, Stijn (Ghent University); Neyt, Brecht (Ghent University); Omey, Eddy (Ghent University); Verhaest, Dieter (KU Leuven) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the direct and indirect impact (via educational achievement) of student work during secondary education on later employment outcomes. To this end, we jointly model student work and later schooling and employment outcomes as a chain of discrete choices. To tackle their endogeneity, we correct for these outcomes' unobserved determinants. Using unique longitudinal Belgian data, we find that pupils who work during the summer holidays of secondary education are 15.3% more likely to have a job three months after leaving school. This premium to student work experience is higher when pupils also work during the academic year and diminishes for later employment outcomes. When decomposing this total effect, it turns out that the direct returns to student work overcompensate its non-positive indirect effect via tertiary education enrolment. |
| Keywords: | education, transitions in youth, student employment, labour, dynamic treatment |
| JEL: | I21 J24 C35 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11127&r=edu |
| By: | William N. Evans; Melissa S. Kearney; Brendan C. Perry; James X. Sullivan |
| Abstract: | Community colleges are an important part of the higher education landscape in the United States, but completion rates are extremely low, especially among low-income students. Much of the existing policy and research attention to this issue has focused on addressing academic and financial challenges. However, there is ample reason to think that non-academic obstacles might be key drivers of dropout rates for students living with the burden of poverty. This study examines the impact of a comprehensive case management intervention that is designed specifically to help low-income students overcome the multitude of barriers to college completion. We evaluate the impact of this intervention through a randomized controlled trial evaluation (RCT) conducted between 2013 and 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Eligible students were randomly assigned to a treatment group that was offered comprehensive case management, including emergency financial assistance (EFA), a separate treatment group offered only EFA, or a control group. Data from school administrative records indicate that the comprehensive case management program significantly increases persistence and degree completion, especially for women. Estimates for the full sample are imprecise, but the estimates for women imply that the case management intervention tripled associate degree receipt (31 percentage point increase).We find no difference in outcomes between the EFA-only treatment arm and the control group. A back-of-the-envelope calculation using average earnings gains associated with community college completion implies that program benefits exceed program costs ($5,640 per student for three year program) after only 4.25 years in the workforce post schooling. |
| JEL: | I23 I3 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24150&r=edu |
| By: | Teodora Boneva; Christopher Rauh |
| Abstract: | To understand the socio-economic enrollment gap in university attendance, we elicit students’ beliefs about the benefits of university education in a sample of 2,540 secondary school students. Our choice model estimates reveal that perceived non-pecuniary benefits explain a large share of the variation in intentions to enroll. Expected job satisfaction, parental approval, and perceptions about social life during the 3-4 years after finishing secondary school are most important. Students with low socio-economic status perceive pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to be lower. Beliefs explain 48% of the socio-economic gap in intentions to enroll, while perceived non-pecuniary returns alone account for 37%. |
| Keywords: | higher education, beliefs, socio-economic inequality, intergenerational mobility |
| JEL: | I24 J13 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6756&r=edu |
| By: | HONDA Yuki |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to show the differences in university education by academic disciplines in humanities and social sciences, and to examine the effect of educational contents and methods on the job skills of university graduates in Japan, using both a cross-sectional questionnaire survey data on university graduates and a panel survey data on university students. Main findings are: first, the characteristics of educational contents and methods are quite different by academic disciplines. While disciplines in social sciences such as economics and law are characterized by the relative scarcity of interactional education, educational contents of disciplines in humanities such as philosophy and history relatively lack vocational relevance. Pedagogy is characterized by the high level of vocational relevance. Sociology and psychology are intermediate and balanced according to both contents and methods. These differences by academic disciplines are partly influenced by the difference of the student-teacher (S-T) ratio between national universities and private universities. Second, these differences of educational contents and methods have some effect on acquired skills before and after graduation. According to the result of an analysis of university graduates at around the age of 30, both the frequency of interactive education and the relevance of contents are positively correlated to decision skill and negotiation skill. The interactive education is also positively correlated to information skill. An analysis of panel data from the third year of university to two years after graduation implies that both the interaction and relevance of education have an effect on decision skill and negotiation skill, mediated by flexible skill in the last year of university. |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:rdpsjp:17071&r=edu |
| By: | Bertoni, Marco (University of Padova); Gibbons, Stephen (London School of Economics); Silva, Olmo (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Education policy worldwide has sought to incentivize school improvement and facilitate pupil-school matching by introducing reforms that promote autonomy and choice. Understanding the way in which families choose schools during these periods of reform is crucial for evaluating the impact of such policies. We study the effects of a recent shock to the English school system – the academy programme – which gave existing state schools greater autonomy, but provided limited information on possible expected benefits. We use administrative data on school applications for three cohorts of students to estimate whether academy conversion changes schools' popularity. We find that families – particularly non-poor, White British ones – rank converted schools higher on average. We investigate the likely mechanisms that could give rise to our findings. The patterns we document suggest that families combine academy conversion with home-school distance and prior information on quality and popularity as a heuristic to inform school choice. |
| Keywords: | school reform, choice and autonomy, preference formation |
| JEL: | I21 H75 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11162&r=edu |
| By: | Herresthal, C.; ; ; |
| Abstract: | I study students' inferences about school quality from performance-based rankings in a dynamic setting. Schools differ in location and unobserved quality, students differ in location and ability. Short-lived students observe a school ranking as a signal about schools' relative quality, but this signal also depends on the ability of schools' past intakes. Students apply to schools, trading off expected quality against proximity. Oversubscribed schools select applicants based on an admission rule. In steady-state equilibrium, I find that rankings are more informative if oversubscribed schools select more able applicants or if students care less about distance to school. |
| Keywords: | performance-based rankings, information acquisition, endogenous signal, consumer choice |
| JEL: | D83 I21 H75 |
| Date: | 2017–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1754&r=edu |
| By: | Joensen, Juanna Schrøter (University of Chicago); Nielsen, Helena Skyt (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how skills are shaped by social interactions in families. We show that older siblings causally affect younger sibling's education choices and early career earnings. We focus on critical course choices in high school and overcome the identification challenges of estimating spillover effects in education by exploiting exogenous variation in choice sets stemming from a pilot program. The pilot induced an essentially random subset of older siblings to choose advanced math-science at a lower cost, while not directly affecting the course choices of younger siblings. We find that younger siblings are 2-3 percentage points more likely to choose math-science if their older sibling unexpectedly could choose math-science at a lower cost. We argue that the main influence of the pilot program on the younger siblings may be attributed to the social influence of the older sibling. Spillovers are strongest among closely spaced siblings, in particular brothers, and they have a lasting impact on the career out-comes of younger brothers. We argue that competition is likely one of the driving forces behind younger siblings conforming to their older siblings' choices. |
| Keywords: | high school curriculum, siblings, social interaction, skill formation |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11141&r=edu |
| By: | Groen, Jeffrey A. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) |
| Abstract: | Many U.S. high schools start classes before 8:00 A.M., yet research on circadian rhythms suggests that students' biological clocks shift to later in the day as they enter adolescence. Some school districts have moved to later start times for high schools based on the prospect that this would increase students' sleep and academic achievement. This paper examines the effect of high school start times on student learning. We use longitudinal data from the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID-CDS) to conduct the first study of this relationship using a nationally-representative sample of students. We also use the CDS time diaries to explore the effects of high school start times on students' time allocation. Results indicate that female students who attend schools with later start times get more sleep and score higher on reading tests. Male students do not get more sleep when their schools start later and their test scores do not change. |
| Keywords: | academic achievement, school start times, sleep, time allocation |
| JEL: | I12 I20 J22 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11166&r=edu |
| By: | Stephan E. Maurer |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effect of oil wealth on the provision of education in the early 20th century United States. Using information on the location and discovery of major oil fields, I find that oil wealth increased local revenue and education spending. The quality of white teachers increased, and oil-rich counties were more likely to participate in the Rosenwald school building program for blacks. In addition, student-teacher ratios for black school children declined substantially. However, I do not find increased school enrolment rates for either race. |
| Keywords: | oil, education, race, rosenwald, local public finances, resource booms, teachers |
| JEL: | I2 N3 Q3 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1526&r=edu |
| By: | Pedro Albarran Pérez (Dpto. Fundamentos del Análisis Económico); Marisa Hidalgo Hidalgo (Universidad de Alicante); Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe Kortajarene (Universidad de Alicante) |
| Abstract: | We provide new evidence on the causal effect of schooling on self-reported health and focus on its possible heterogeneous impact. We use data from the 2005 and 2011 cross sections of EU-SILC, exploiting quasi-experimental evidence from schooling reforms in 16 European countries that extend the period of compulsory schooling. Our estimation strategy uses the number of years of compulsory education as an instrument for education levels. We find that reforms affect positively the schooling level only for those individuals from low-educated families. The education level is a strong determinant of adult self-perceived health: one additional year of schooling raises the probability of reporting good health by about seven percentage points. However, this effect is not homogeneous. On the contrary, the effect concentrates on individuals who were raised in relatively well-off families. Our interpretation is that we identify the effect of an exogenous variation in education that occurs in the adolescent years, when it may be too late to have a significant impact on individuals with a poor family background. |
| Keywords: | Schooling reforms, compulsory education, health outcomes, EU-SILC |
| JEL: | I1 I2 I3 J6 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2017-09&r=edu |
| By: | Samuel Muehlemann (LMU Munich, IZA Bonn); Gerard Pfann (Maastricht University, IZA Bonn); Harald Pfeifer (BIBB, ROA Maastricht); Hans Dietrich (IAB Nuremberg) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of the G8 high school reform in Germany. The reform reduced minimum duration to obtain a high school degree (Abitur) from 9 to 8 years. First, we present a simple model based on a CES technology with heterogeneous inputs to conjecture possible effects of a supply shock of high education apprenticeships. Implementation of the reform across states (Laender) has been realized in different years. A difference-in-differences estimation strategy is used to identify the effects of one-time supply shock in market for high-educated apprentices. Training firms almost fully and immediately absorbed the additional supply of high school graduates in the apprenticeship market. No evidence is found for substitution effects between low and high education apprenticeships. The model explains that these effects may be due to sticky and too low collectively bargained wages for high education apprenticeships relative to their productivity. This renders the market for apprenticeships inefficient. |
| Keywords: | Apprenticeship market, labor supply shock, G8 reform |
| JEL: | I21 J20 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0143&r=edu |
| By: | Battistin, Erich; Neri, Lorenzo |
| Abstract: | Abstract We show that grading standards for primary school exams in England have triggered an inflation of quality indicators in the national performance tables for almost two decades. The cumulative effects have resulted in significant differences in the quality signaled to parents for otherwise identical schools. These differences are as good as random, with score inflation resulting from discretion in the grading of randomly assigned external markers. We find large housing price gains from the school quality improvements artificially signaled by inflation as well as lower deprivation and more businesses catering to families in local neighborhoods. The design ensures improved external validity for the valuation of school quality with respect to boundary discontinuities and has the potential for replication outside of our specific case study. |
| Keywords: | House Prices; School quality; Score inflation |
| JEL: | C26 C31 I2 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12445&r=edu |
| By: | ARENAS Andreu (Université catholique de Louvain, CORE, Belgium); HINDRIKS Jean (Université catholique de Louvain, CORE, Belgium) |
| Abstract: | We study the role of school inequality and social segregation for human capital accu-mulation, inequality and intergenerational mobility. We augment the Becker-Tomes-Solon model of intergenerational mobility, introducing a regime switch model of social segregation at school. Depending on the social background of their parents, children have di erent probability of access to di erent school quality. Abstracting from genetic transmission of ability, we focus on the e ect of social segregation and school inequality on parental in-vestments, education and income levels and inequality, and on intergenerational mobility. We obtain that segregation and school inequality have ambiguous e ects on parental in-vestment. However, we also find that segregation and school inequality raise the average level of educational attainment and income. This is due to the complementarity between parental investment and school quality. Lastly, we show that the e ect of segregation and school inequality on the intergenerational mobility is ambiguous and depends on the distribution of parental income. |
| Keywords: | Intergenerational mobility; education, school system; equality of opportu-nity; segregation |
| JEL: | I22 J62 |
| Date: | 2017–06–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cor:louvco:2017019&r=edu |
| By: | Judith M. Delaney; Paul J. Devereux |
| Abstract: | Much evidence suggests that having more education leads to higher earnings in the labor market. However, there is little evidence about whether having more education causes employees to experience lower earnings volatility or shelters them from the adverse effects of recessions. We use a large British administrative panel data set to study the impact of the 1972 increase in compulsory schooling on earnings volatility over the life cycle. Our estimates suggest that men exposed to the law change subsequently had lower earnings variability and less pro-cyclical earnings. However, there is little evidence that education affects earnings volatility of older men. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education; Earnings volatility |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201723&r=edu |
| By: | Ruiz-Castillo Ucelay, Javier; Carrasco Perea, Raquel |
| Abstract: | Since the late 1970s and, above all, since 1990, a sizable contingent of Spanish economists coming back home after attending graduate school abroad, mostly in the U.S. and the UK, managed to introduce drastic changes in governance in a number of economics departments and research centers, including meritocratic hiring and promotion practices. These initiatives were also favored by the availability of resources to finance certain research needs, including the organization of international Ph.D. programs. Using a dataset of 3,540 economists working in 2007 in 125 academic centers in 22 countries, this paper presents some evidence on the role of this institutional revolution on the patterns of brain gain, brain drain, and net gain in Spain and other countries. Conditional on some personal, department, and country characteristics, the net marginal effect of a given country is defined as the difference between the marginal effect of working in 2007 in that country on the probability of brain gain and the marginal effect of being born in that country on the probability of brain drain. The main result is that the net marginal effect of Spain is greater than the net marginal effect of comparable large, continental European countries, i.e. Germany, France, and Italy, where economists have similar opportunities of publishing their research in English, the lingua franca of science, or in their own languages. On the other hand, the average estimated probability of net gain in Spain is only below that of the U.S., but it is greater than the average probability of net gain in Germany, France or Italy. |
| Keywords: | brain gain; brain circulation; brain drain; economics institutions; governance |
| JEL: | J61 |
| Date: | 2017–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:werepe:26093&r=edu |
| By: | Bhatt, Rachana (Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia); Hinrichs, Peter (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland) |
| Abstract: | A number of US states have enacted bans on tobacco use by students, staff, and visitors anywhere on the grounds of public elementary and secondary schools statewide. These laws are intended to reduce tobacco use, reduce exposure to secondhand smoke, reinforce anti-tobacco curricula taught in schools, and prevent children from viewing their teachers and fellow students using tobacco products. We examine the impact that the laws have on the smoking behavior of students, teachers, and other school staff by estimating difference-in-differences models that exploit the time variation in adoption of the laws across states. We generally find that these laws do not impact smoking behavior, although we do find some evidence suggesting a possible effect on nonteaching school staff. |
| Keywords: | smoking; tobacco; smoke-free laws; |
| JEL: | I10 I20 |
| Date: | 2017–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwp:1724&r=edu |
| By: | Marine De Talance (LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - Université Paris-Dauphine) |
| Keywords: | I25,I21,School choice,Qualityof education,Private schooling,Perceptions,Pakistan,Demand for schooling,I28 |
| Date: | 2017–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01663029&r=edu |
| By: | Gimpelson, Vladimir (CLMS, Higher School of Economics, Moscow); Kapeliushnikov, Rostislav (CLMS, Higher School of Economics, Moscow) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with age and educational dimensions of the labour supply in Russia and explores two time periods: from 2000 to 2015 (retrospective), and the next 15 years (prospective). For our analysis we exploit the micro-census (2015) data and all LFS waves covering the retrospective period. Combining demographic projections with expected employment rates and data on educational achievement we forecast the employment composition up to 2030. If recent past changes in both age and education have contributed to economic growth, their effect is likely to be negative in the next 15 years. These two dimensions are directly associated with such challenges as ageing and over-education of the labour force. Russia is not unique here, but it is more exposed to both dimensions than are many other countries due to its demographic and educational developments. The paper concludes with several tentative policies that could ease, although not cure, the problem. |
| Keywords: | over-education, employment, education, age, aging, Russia |
| JEL: | J11 J21 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11126&r=edu |
| By: | Liu, Haoming (National University of Singapore); Salvo, Alberto (National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | Little is known about how children of high-income expatriate families, often from rich nations, adapt to temporary residence in a severely polluted city of the developing world. We use a six-year panel of 6,500 students at three international schools in a major city in north China to estimate how fluctuation in ambient PM2.5 over the preceding fortnight impacts daily absences. Our preferred estimates are based on the exclusion restriction that absences respond to atmospheric ventilation such as thermal inversions only through ventilation's effect on particle levels. A large and rare 100 to 200 μg/m3 shift in average PM2.5 in the prior week raises the incidence of absences by 1 percentage point, about one-quarter of the sample mean. We find stronger responses for US/Canada nationals than among Chinese nationals, and among students who generally miss school the most. Overall responses are mod-est compared to the effect on absences from more moderate in-sample variation in pollution estimated for the US using aggregate data. Using school absence patterns as a window into short-run health and behavior, our study suggests that high-income families find ways to adapt, likely by moving life indoors, even if temporary residence in north China comes at the expense of long-term health. |
| Keywords: | environmental valuation, environmental damage, environmental health, atmospheric ventilation, thermal inversions, heterogeneous effects, longitudinal study, acute exposure, PM2.5, particulate matter, air pollution, school absences, avoidance behavior, distributed lags, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | I18 J24 Q51 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11134&r=edu |
| By: | Tracey West; Katherine Hunt; Dianna Johnson; Anna Webb |
| Keywords: | Financial planning, career outcomes, skills, employment, mentoring |
| JEL: | G20 M51 I23 |
| Date: | 2017–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gri:fpaper:finance:201702&r=edu |