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on Education |
| By: | Catherine Haeck (Department of Economics, University of Quebec in Montreal); Pierre Lefebvre (Department of Economics, University of Quebec in Montreal) |
| Abstract: | Schools have been closed across the country and will remain so until September. The decision to reopen should take into account current inequalities in education across the country and the impact of school interruptions on the accumulation of cognitive skills. In this article, we document the evolution of the cognitive skills gap across Canada using PISA data. We use PISA tests scores over 7 cycles, from 2000 to 2018, to provide an exhaustive portrait of the evolution of the tests scores distribution over time and by parental socioeconomic status. We find that the achievement gap between top performing students (p90) and students facing challenges (p10) is large. It represents about 4 years of schooling. We also show that socioeconomic differences in PISA scores, in reading, maths and science, are large but unwavering. In other words inequality by SES is stable, and decreasing in some years. There are variations in the size of the SES score gaps by provinces, a proxy for the extent of inequality of opportunities. Using estimates from the literature on the impact of school closures, we find that the SES skills gap could increase by 30 percent. |
| Keywords: | socioeconomic inequalities, PISA, literacy and numeracy skills, proficiency scales, provincial education policy, education attainment gradient, Canadian provinces |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grc:wpaper:20-03&r=all |
| By: | Graetz, Georg (Uppsala University); Öckert, Björn (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Nordström Skans, Oskar (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Using discontinuities within the Swedish SAT system, we show that additional admission opportunities causally affect college choices. Students with high-educated parents change timing, colleges, and fields in ways that appear rational and informed. In contrast, very talented students with low-educated parents react to higher scores by increasing overall enrolment and graduation rates. Remarkably, most of this effect arises from increased participation in college programs and institutions that they could have attended even with a lower score. This suggests that students with low-educated parents face behavioral barriers even in a setting where colleges are tuition-free, student grants are universal and application systems are simple. |
| Keywords: | Educational choice; intergenerational transmission of education; regression dis-continuity design |
| JEL: | I21 I23 J62 |
| Date: | 2020–05–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2020_008&r=all |
| By: | Catherine Haeck (Department of Economics, University of Quebec in Montreal); Pierre Lefebvre (Department of Economics, University of Quebec in Montreal) |
| Abstract: | In this article, we document the evolution of the cognitive skills gap across Canada. We use PISA tests scores over 7 cycles, from 2000 to 2018, to provide an exhaustive portrait of the evolution of the tests scores distribution over time and by parental socioeconomic status. We find that the achievement gap between top performing students (p90) and students facing challenges (p10) is large. It represents about 4 years of schooling. We also show that socioeconomic differences in PISA scores, in reading, maths and science, are large but unwavering. In other words inequality by SES is stable, and decreasing in some years. There are wide-ranging variations in the size of the SES score gaps by provinces, a proxy for the extent of inequality of opportunities. |
| Keywords: | socioeconomic inequalities, PISA, literacy and numeracy skills, proficiency scales, provincial education policy, education attainment gradient, Canadian provinces |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:grc:wpaper:20-04&r=all |
| By: | Naven, Matthew |
| Abstract: | Low-socioeconomic status (SES), minority, and male students perform worse than their high-SES, non-minority, and female peers on standardized tests. This paper investigates how within-school differences in school quality contribute to these educational achievement gaps by SES, ethnicity, and sex. Using individual-level data on the universe of public-school students in California, I estimate school quality using a value added methodology that accounts for the fact that students sort to schools on observable characteristics. I run three separate analyses, in which I allow each school to provide a distinct value added to their low-/high-SES, minority/non-minority, and male/female students. I find that there is within-school heterogeneity in value added by SES, ethnicity, and sex, as on average schools provide less value added to their low-SES, minority, and male students. Thus within-school heterogeneity in quality is one factor that contributes to differential outcomes for disadvantaged students. |
| Keywords: | School Quality; Achievement Gaps; Inequality; Human Capital; Postsecondary Education; Value Added |
| JEL: | H75 I21 I23 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–05–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100123&r=all |
| By: | Kaiser, Tim (DIW Berlin); Lusardi, Annamaria (Dartmouth College); Menkhoff, Lukas (Leibniz University of Hannover); Urban, Carly (Montana State University) |
| Abstract: | We study the rapidly growing literature on the causal effects of financial education programs in a meta-analysis of 76 randomized experiments with a total sample size of over 160,000 individuals. The evidence shows that financial education programs have, on average, positive causal treatment effects on financial knowledge and downstream financial behaviors. Treatment effects are economically meaningful in size, similar to those realized by educational interventions in other domains and are at least three times as large as the average effect documented in earlier work. These results are robust to the method used, restricting the sample to papers published in top economics journals, including only studies with adequate power, and accounting for publication selection bias in the literature. We conclude with a discussion of the cost-effectiveness of financial education interventions. |
| Keywords: | financial literacy, financial education, financial behavior, RCT, metaanalysis |
| JEL: | D14 I21 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13178&r=all |
| By: | Ferman, Bruno; Fontes, Luiz Felipe |
| Abstract: | Recent evidence has established that non-cognitive skills are key determinants of education and labor outcomes, and are malleable throughout adolescence. However, little is known about the mechanisms producing these results. This paper tests a channel that could explain part of the association between non-cognitive skills and important outcomes: teacher grading discrimination toward student behaviors. Evidence is drawn from a unique data pertaining to students from middle and high-school in Brazilian private schools. Our empirical strategy is based on the contrasting of school-level tests graded by teachers and school-level tests that cover the same content but are graded blindly. Using detailed data on student classroom behaviors and holding constant performance in exams graded blindly, evidence indicates that teachers inflate the grades of better-behaved students while deducting points from worse-behaved ones. These biases are driven by grading discrimination in exams with open questions. Additionally, teachers’ behavior does not appear to be consistent with statistical discrimination. |
| Keywords: | Grade discrimination; non-cognitive skills |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2020–05–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100400&r=all |
| By: | Hiroki Tanaka (Doshisha University); Masaya Yasuoka (Kwansei Gakuin University) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents consideration of a case in which household education investment, which determines the human capital of children, is made using education of two types: public and private. Furthermore, these analyses based on prefectural panel data obtained for Japan are done using a theoretical model by which income inequality affects household education choice and illustrates empirically whether or not the choice of public and private education in junior and senior high school in Japan is affected by household income inequality and by the subsidy provided by central and local governments for high school tuition fees. The analyses yield the following three results. First, in prefectures with high household income inequality, the preference for public education is slight. Second, a policy of no tuition fees for public high schools and a decrease in tuition fees for private high schools that started from 2010 do not affect public and private education choice for high school. Nevertheless, this policy strongly affects enrollment in private junior high schools. Third, an increase in subsidies for tuition fees of private high school started in 2014 raises preferences for private junior high schools and high schools. In addition, in the prefecture in which subsidies for tuition fees that are higher than the level decided by cental government and the subsidies own benefit for enrollment fees, enrollment in private high school is observed to be stimulated. |
| Keywords: | ; Education choice, Income inequality, Public and private education |
| JEL: | I24 H52 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kgu:wpaper:216&r=all |
| By: | Giuseppe Coco (Università degli Studi di Firenze); Raffaele Lagravinese (Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro"); Giuliano Resce (Italian National Research Council (CNR)) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes the use of a new technique, the Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis (SMAA), to evaluate education quality at school level out of the PISA multidimensional database. SMAA produces rankings with Monte Carlo Generation of weights to estimate the probability that each school is in a certain position of the aggregate ranking, thus avoiding any arbitrary intervention of researchers. We use the rankings in 4 waves of PISA assessment to compare SMAA outcomes with Benefit of Doubt (BoD), showing that differentiation of weights matters. Considering the whole set of feasible weights by means of SMAA, we then estimate multidimensional inequality in education, and we disentangle inequality into a ‘within’ and a ‘between’ country component, in addition to a component due to overlapping, using the multidimensional ANOGI. We find that, over time, inequality within countries has increased substantially. Overlapping among countries, particularly in the upper part of the distribution has also increased quite substantially suggesting excellence is spreading among countries. |
| Keywords: | Education inequality, PISA, SMAA, ANOGI, anywhere and somewhere |
| JEL: | I14 C44 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bai:series:series_wp_06-2020&r=all |
| By: | Demange, Perline A. (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Malanchini, Margherita (Queen Mary, University of London); Mallard, Travis T. (University of Texas at Austin); Biroli, Pietro (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | Educational attainment (EA) is influenced by characteristics other than cognitive ability, but little is known about the genetic architecture of these "non-cognitive" contributions to EA. Here, we use Genomic Structural Equation Modelling and prior genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of EA (N = 1,131,881) and cognitive test performance (N = 257,841) to estimate SNP associations with EA variation that is independent of cognitive ability. We identified 157 genome-wide significant loci and a polygenic architecture accounting for 57% of genetic variance in EA. Non-cognitive genetics were as strongly related to socioeconomic success and longevity as genetic variants associated with cognitive performance. Noncognitive genetics were further related to openness to experience and other personality traits, less risky behavior, and increased risk for psychiatric disorders. Non-cognitive genetics were enriched in the same brain tissues and cell types as cognitive performance, but showed different associations with gray-matter brain volumes. By conducting a GWAS of a phenotype that was not directly measured, we offer a first view of genetic architecture of non-cognitive skills influencing educational success. |
| Keywords: | genetics, noncognitive skills, education |
| JEL: | J24 I24 E24 I14 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13206&r=all |
| By: | Islam, Asadul (Monash University); Kwon, Sungoh (University of Connecticut); Masood, Eema (World Bank); Prakash, Nishith (University of Connecticut); Sabarwal, Shwetlena (World Bank); Saraswat, Deepak (University of Connecticut) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we use at scale randomized control trial among 18,000 secondary students in 181 schools in Tanzania (Zanzibar) to examine the effects of personal best goal-settings on students' academic performance. We also offer non-financial rewards to students to meet the goals they set. We find that goal-setting has a significant positive impact on student time use, study effort, and self-discipline. However, we do not find any significant impact of goalsetting on test scores. We find that, this could be partially because about 2/3rd of students do not set realistic goals. Third, we find weaker results on time use, study effort, and discipline when we combine goal-setting with non-financial rewards, suggesting that typing goal-setting to extrinsic incentives could weaken its impact. We also find that female students improved on outcomes much more than male students and that students coming from relatively weaker socio-economic backgrounds improved more than their counterparts. |
| Keywords: | goal-setting, recognition rewards, student performance, Zanzibar |
| JEL: | D9 I20 I25 O15 O55 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13188&r=all |
| By: | Powdthavee, Nattavudh (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | There is a widespread belief that a lack of education is the primary cause of public apathy to climate change. Yet, despite the global campaign to promote education as a tool to combat global warming, empirical evidence on the causal effect of education on climate literacy and pro-environmental behaviours remains worryingly scarce. Using the raising of the minimum school leaving age law in England from 15 to 16 years of age in September 1972 as a natural experiment, I showed that remaining in school as a result of the reform causally increased the level of comprehension about the causes of climate change. However, I found little causal evidence that more education also improved the pro-environmental behaviours of those who were affected by the reform. This raises an important question of whether policies aimed at improving climate change awareness through education can effectively produce long-lasting changes in pro-environmental behaviours. |
| Keywords: | climate change, education, pro-environmental behaviours, regression discontinuity, UK |
| JEL: | I26 Q54 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13210&r=all |
| By: | Fraumeni, Barbara M. (Central University of Finance and Economics); Christian, Michael S. (Education Analytics, Madison); Samuels, Jon D. (U.S. Department of Commerce) |
| Abstract: | Over the 1948–2013 period, many factors significantly impacted on human capital, which in turn affected economic growth in the United States. This chapter analyzes these factors within a complete national income accounting system which integrates Jorgenson-Fraumeni human capital into the accounts. By including human capital, a fresh perspective on economic growth across time and within specific subperiods is revealed, notably regarding the 1995–2000 and 2007–2009 periods. During the 1995–2000 period, the reduction in human capital investment significantly reduced apparent economic growth. In the 2007–2009 period, the increase in human capital investment tempered the negative impact of the Great Recession. Over the longer time period, first the post-World War baby boom and then the substantial increase in education led to higher economic growth than otherwise expected. As the pace of increase in education slowed and the workforce aged toward the end of the period, human capital induced growth was reduced. |
| Keywords: | human capital, integrated economic accounts, U.S. post-war sources of growth, education, labor force participation |
| JEL: | E01 E24 J24 I21 J21 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13239&r=all |