nep-edu New Economics Papers
on Education
Issue of 2021‒05‒10
six papers chosen by
Nádia Simões
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

  1. Does Higher Education Make You More Entrepreneurial? Causal Evidence from China By Huang, Bin; Tani, Massimiliano; Zhu, Yu
  2. Biased Teachers and Gender Gap in Learning Outcomes: Evidence from India By Rakshit, Sonali; Sahoo, Soham
  3. The Effect of Constitutional Provisions on Education Policy and Outcomes By Scott Dallman; Anusha Nath; Filip Premik
  4. The Impact of the Female Advantage in Education on the Marriage Market By Rodríguez-González, Ana
  5. Experimental evidence on gender bias in an occupational choice: the role of parents By Smyk Magdalena
  6. The mental health and wellbeing of teachers in England By John Jerrim; Sam Sims; Rebecca Allen

  1. By: Huang, Bin (Nanjing University of Finance and Economics); Tani, Massimiliano (University of New South Wales); Zhu, Yu (University of Dundee)
    Abstract: Using the 2017 China Household Finance Survey (CHFS), we estimate the effect of higher education on entrepreneurship for prime-aged males. We distinguish between own-account workers and employers of small and large businesses, respectively, and use the higher education expansion in China starting in 1999 and instruments of pre-school hukou status to help identify causal effects. While our Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment estimates show that people with more education are less likely to enter entrepreneurship in general, obtaining any qualification beyond the baseline of compulsory schooling significant increases large business ownership later in life, with the maximum effect corresponding to a 3-fold increase found for university graduates. We attribute this effect to graduates taking full advantage of the opportunities presented by access to education earlier on in their lives.
    Keywords: higher education, entrepreneurship, higher education expansion, China, Inverse Probability Weighted Regression Adjustment (IPWRA)
    JEL: I25 J24 L26
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14310&r=
  2. By: Rakshit, Sonali (Arizona State University); Sahoo, Soham (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore)
    Abstract: We investigate the effect of stereotypical beliefs of teachers on the learning outcomes of secondary school students in India. We measure teacher’s bias through an index capturing teacher’s subjective beliefs about the role of gender and other characteristics in academic performance. We tackle the potential endogeneity of teacher’s subjective beliefs by controlling for teacher fixed effects in a value-added model that includes lagged test scores of students. We find that a standard deviation increase in the biased attitude of the math teacher increases the female disadvantage in math performance by 0.07 standard deviation over an academic year. The effect is stronger among medium-performing students and in classes where the majority of students are boys. The negative effect of biased teachers is statistically insignificant for female teachers who also reduce gender gap among medium-performing students. Mediation analysis shows that biased teachers negatively affect girls’ attitude towards math as compared to boys.
    Keywords: learning outcomes, value-added model, gender, teachers, stereotypes, India
    JEL: I24 J16 J24
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14305&r=
  3. By: Scott Dallman; Anusha Nath; Filip Premik
    Abstract: Education services in the United States are determined predominantly by non-market institutions, the rules of which are defined by state constitutions. This paper empirically examines the effect of changes in constitutional provisions on education outcomes in the United States. To show causal effects, we exploit discontinuities in the procedure for adopting constitutional amendments to compare outcomes when an amendment passed with those when an amendment failed. Our results show that adoption of an amendment results in higher per-pupil expenditure, higher teacher salaries, smaller class size, and improvements in reading and math test scores. We examine the underlying mechanism driving these results by studying the actions of the legislature and the courts after an amendment is passed. We find that, on average, the legislature responds with a one-year lag in enacting education policies satisfying the minimum standards imposed by the amendment, and there is no increase in the number of education cases reaching appellate courts. Using school finance reforms, we also show that in situations where the legislature fails to enact education policies, courts intervene to enforce constitutional standards to improve outcomes. This enforcement mechanism is more impactful in states that have higher constitutional minimum standards. Taken together, the causal effects on education outcomes and the patterns in legislative bill enactments and court cases provide a novel test of the hypothesis that a strong constitutional provision improves the bargaining position of citizens vis-à-vis that of elected leaders. If citizens do not receive education services as mandated in the constitution, they can seek remedy in court.
    Keywords: Educational outcomes; Litigation; Legislative bills; Effects of constitutions; Education; Amendments
    JEL: I24 D02 P48 H75
    Date: 2021–04–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedmsr:91153&r=
  4. By: Rodríguez-González, Ana (Department of Economics, Lund University)
    Abstract: In recent years, the traditional gender gap in educational attainment in favor of men has been reversed in many countries. This development may have far-reaching consequences for the family, challenging traditional patterns of union formation and potentially affecting marriage and fertility outcomes. I study the implications of the female advantage in education on family formation through changes in the marriage market. My empirical strategy exploits the gradual implementation of a large school reform in Finland that increased women’s relative level of education. I analyze the reduced-form relationship between marriage market exposure to the reform and marriage and fertility outcomes. The results show that in marriage markets with a larger female advantage in education men had fewer children and were less likely to be in a couple by age 40. I provide suggestive evidence that these results are mostly driven by the mismatch between the distributions of educational attainment of men and women, and that they might have negative consequences for low-educated men's health behaviors and mental health.
    Keywords: Gender gap; Education; Marriage; Fertility; Marriage market; Health
    JEL: I10 J12 J13 J16
    Date: 2021–04–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2021_005&r=
  5. By: Smyk Magdalena (Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE))
    Abstract: Gender occupational segregation, as one of the main sources of gender pay gap, is still strongly present. The stagnation of gender inequality in the labor market raises questions. One of them is how this situation is affected by sticky gender norms and inter-generational transmission of these norms. We conducted a vignette experiment in which subjects were advising fictional character in a job choice. Characters, as subjects were informed, already receive some advice from a parent or Internet occupational advisor. We find that subjects are in general more likely to follow some advice, but less likely to advise male-typed offer if the advisor is a parent. Also subjects with more traditional gender norms are less likely to advice risky, competitive, and inflexibly but better paid offers.
    Keywords: gender norms, choice of occupation, family, gender occupational segregation
    JEL: J16 J13 J24
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fme:wpaper:51&r=
  6. By: John Jerrim (UCL Social Research Institute); Sam Sims (UCL CEPEO); Rebecca Allen (Teacher Tapp)
    Date: 2021–04–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2101r&r=

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