nep-edu New Economics Papers
on Education
Issue of 2021‒07‒26
ten papers chosen by
Nádia Simões
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

  1. Compulsory Class Attendance versus Autonomy By Goulas, Sofoklis; Griselda, Silvia; Megalokonomou, Rigissa
  2. Training Teachers for Diversity Awareness: Impact on School Attendance of Refugee Children By Tumen, Semih; Vlassopoulos, Michael; Wahba, Jackline
  3. Intergenerational Mobility After Expanding Educational Opportunities: A Quasi Experiment By Francisco Meneses
  4. The Effect of School Voucher Spending on Initial Earnings By Correa, Juan A.; Parro, Francisco; Sánchez, Rafael
  5. Does lowering the bar help? Results from a natural experiment in high-stakes testing in Dutch primary education By Jacobs, Madelon; van der Velden, Rolf; van Vugt, Lynn
  6. Teacher Licensing, Teacher Supply, and Student Achievement: Nationwide Implementation of edTPA By Bobby Chung; Jian Zou
  7. For Some, Luck Matters More: The Impact of the Great Recession on the Early Careers of Graduates from Different Socio-Economic Backgrounds By Del Bono, Emilia; Morando, Greta
  8. Does Government Education Expenditure Affect Educational Outcomes? New Evidence from Sub-Sahara African Countries By Adesoji O. Farayibi; Oludele Folarin
  9. Social Mobility in Germany By Majed Dodin; Sebastian Findeisen; Lukas Henkel; Dominik Sachs; Paul Schüle
  10. Can we commit future managers to honesty? By Nicolas Jacquemet; Stéphane Luchini; J Rosaz; J Shogren

  1. By: Goulas, Sofoklis (Stanford University); Griselda, Silvia (University of Melbourne); Megalokonomou, Rigissa (University of Queensland)
    Abstract: Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education requires a solid grasp of the impact of student autonomy on learning. In this paper, we estimate the effect of an increased autonomy policy for higher-performing students on short- and longer-term school outcomes. We exploit an institutional setting with high demand for autonomy in randomly formed classrooms. Identification comes from a natural experiment that allowed higher-achieving students to miss 30 percent more classes without penalty. Using a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach, we find that allowing higher-achieving students to skip class more often improves their performance in high-stakes subjects and increases their university admission outcomes. Higher-achieving students in more academically diverse classrooms exerted more autonomy when allowed to.
    Keywords: COVID-19, learning autonomy, school attendance, returns to education, natural experiment
    JEL: I26
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14559&r=
  2. By: Tumen, Semih (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey); Vlassopoulos, Michael (University of Southampton); Wahba, Jackline (University of Southampton)
    Abstract: Despite efforts to integrate refugee children into host country education systems, their low school attachment remains a major policy challenge. Teachers play a key role in keeping students attached to school, yet classroom diversity poses difficulties for teachers who are not always adequately prepared to address the needs of minority students. Using administrative data and a regression discontinuity approach, we evaluate whether a teacher training program—designed to raise awareness of primary and secondary school teachers in Turkey—is effective in reducing absenteeism of refugee students. We find that the program almost halves the absenteeism gap between native and refugee students and its effect persists into the next academic year, albeit fading out in size. We argue that the most likely channel through which the effects of the program operate is a school-wide mentorship role acquired by trained teachers, which has broad impact on raising diversity awareness within schools.
    Keywords: teacher training, refugees, absenteeism, diversity
    JEL: I21 I28 J15
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14557&r=
  3. By: Francisco Meneses (Duke University)
    Abstract: Intergenerational mobility has been linked to both the quality of neighborhoods and the quality of schools and schooling. Understanding the incremental value of investments in either domain is difficult because in many settings, including the U.S., school choices are coupled with neighborhood geography. I take advantage of student access to new subway lines built in Santiago, Chile, to measure the impact of education independent from neighborhood quality using a quasi-experimental design. In Santiago with an established open enrolments school system, the new subway lines substantially reduced transportation costs and increased access to educational opportunities among lower income students. With student level test score data linked with data on parent’s education and demographics, I use a Difference-In-Difference (DID) approach to shows that treated students increased their intergenerational income mobility, with students’ future income ranking increasing on average by 2 percental points above that of their parents, or a 5% of wage increase. Moreover, the paper finds that this is driven by changes in the field of higher education study, not improved test scores or graduation from higher education.
    Keywords: Intergenerational mobility, quasi experiment, education, school choice, policy impact
    JEL: I24 J6 D64
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2021-586&r=
  4. By: Correa, Juan A. (Universidad Andres Bello); Parro, Francisco (Universidad Adolfo Ibañez); Sánchez, Rafael (Universidad Diego Portales)
    Abstract: We quantify the effect of school voucher spending on initial earnings. We use administrative data on the monetary resources received by schools from a targeted voucher program implemented in Chile. We merge this dataset with education and labor market administrative records for the universe of students enrolled in the Chilean education system. We find that an increase of US$100 in the yearly expenditure of voucher resources per student raises initial earnings by 2.3%. However, we find that the positive effect of voucher spending only holds for private voucher schools that operate in local education markets with low enrollment concentration.
    Keywords: school vouchers, education spending, earnings
    JEL: H52 I22 I26 I28
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14552&r=
  5. By: Jacobs, Madelon (ROA / Education and transition to work, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research); van der Velden, Rolf (RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work, ROA / Education and transition to work); van Vugt, Lynn (RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work, ROA / Education and transition to work)
    Abstract: In many countries, high-stakes tests play an important role in the allocation of pupils to prestigious tracks or schools in secondary education or students to prestigious programs or colleges in tertiary education. It is not clear what would happen if the standards for these tests were systematically raised or lowered. Would that affect the subsequent educational career? This paper exploits a unique natural experiment in the Netherlands using the market entrance of two new suppliers of high-stakes tests in primary education. In the first year of introduction, these new tests were not yet properly calibrated: For one test the standards were too low, while for the other test they were too high, compared to the standards of the traditional test that continued to be the main supplier. We use high-quality register data and a within-schools-across-cohorts design to model the short- and long-term outcomes (i.e., change in teacher advice and actual track three years later) for the students that were affected by the new tests. We find evidence for short-term effects, but no evidence for long-term effects. This implies that the Dutch educational system is sufficiently flexible to allocate pupils to the appropriate track, even if a high-stakes test advice does not recommend the right track. At the same time, it also implies that lowering the bar is not a simple way to increase the share of students going to prestigious tracks.
    JEL: J24
    Date: 2021–06–21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2021011&r=
  6. By: Bobby Chung (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Jian Zou (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
    Abstract: The educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) - a performance-based examination for prospective PreK-12 teachers to guarantee teaching readiness - has gained popularity in recent years. This research offers the first causal evidence about the effects of this nationwide initiative on teacher supply and student outcomes of new teachers. We leverage the quasi-experimental setting of different adoption timing by states and analyze multiple data sources containing a national sample of prospective teachers and students of new teachers in the US. We find that the new license requirement reduced the number of graduates from teacher preparation programs by 14%. The negative effect is stronger for non-white prospective teachers at less-selective universities. Contrary to the policy intention, we find evidence that edTPA has adverse effects on student learning.
    Keywords: occupational licensing, education policy
    JEL: I28 J20 J44 K31 L51
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-039&r=
  7. By: Del Bono, Emilia (ISER, University of Essex); Morando, Greta (University of Essex)
    Abstract: This paper uses variation in unemployment caused by the 2008 recession to analyse socio- economic gaps in graduate outcomes. Our data comes from a survey which collects information on several cohorts of students from all English universities and reports their destinations at 6 months after graduation. The results show that when students from less advantaged family backgrounds graduate during a recession they are more likely to become unemployed, to work part-time, and to earn less than students from more advantaged families. There is evidence that professional networks established while at university are important in explaining some of these socio-economic gaps in outcomes.
    Keywords: graduate employment, socio-economic gap, recession
    JEL: E32 I23 I24 I26 J62
    Date: 2021–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14540&r=
  8. By: Adesoji O. Farayibi (University of Ibadan, Nigeria); Oludele Folarin (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)
    Abstract: The human capital crisis, reflected in the weak global competitiveness of African education, has questioned the effectiveness of public spending in increasing educational outcomes in the continent. Thus, this article examines the impact of government education expenditure on educational outcomes in 31 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 2000-2019 based on a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The study sheds light on the priorities of government education spending in the continent. Findings showed that the effect of government education spending on educational outcomes in SSA was driven by the measure of educational outcome used. Government spending in Africa had focused mainly on primary and secondary education to the detriment of tertiary education because it is convenient and generates political gains. Due to institutional rigidities which emanate from the governance structure, the inequitable allocation of government funding had made higher education in Africa less responsive to the changes in global knowledge and labour market demands. Therefore, the following policy agenda becomes imperative in the SSA: (i) government education spending should equitably target all education levels to improve the aggregate human capital development indicators in the region. (ii) There is a need to enhance government institutions' capacity to increase their level of effectiveness and performance.
    Keywords: Government Education Expenditure; Educational Outcomes Higher Education; System GMM; sub-Saharan Africa
    JEL: E24 E52 E62 J17 J21 J24
    Date: 2021–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:exs:wpaper:21/048&r=
  9. By: Majed Dodin (University of Mannheim); Sebastian Findeisen (University of Konstanz); Lukas Henkel (European Central Bank); Dominik Sachs (LMU Munich); Paul Schüle (ifo Munich and LMU Munich)
    Abstract: We characterize intergenerational social mobility in Germany using census data on the educational attainment of 526,000 children and their parents’ earnings. Our measure of educational attainment is the A-Level degree, a requirement for access to university and the most important qualification in the German education sys-tem. On average, a 10 percentile increase in the parental income rank is associated with a 5.2 percentage point increase in the probability to obtain an A-Level. This parental income gradient has not changed for the birth cohorts from 1980 to 1996, despite a large-scale policy of expanding upper secondary education in Germany. At the regional level, there exists substantial variation in mobility estimates. Place effects, rather than sorting of households into different regions, seem to account for most of these geographical differences. Mobile regions are, among other as-pects, characterized by high school quality and enhanced possibilities to obtain an A-Level degree on vocational schools.
    Keywords: Intergenerational Mobility, Educational Attainment, Local Labor Markets
    JEL: I24 J62 R23
    Date: 2021–07–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:knz:dpteco:2101&r=
  10. By: Nicolas Jacquemet (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Stéphane Luchini; J Rosaz; J Shogren
    Abstract: In a competitive business environment, dishonesty can pay. Self-interested executives and managers can have incentive to shade the truth for personal gain. In response, the business community has considered how to commit these executives and managers to a higher ethical standard. The MBA Oath and the Dutch Bankers Oath are examples of such a commitment device. The question we test herein is whether the oath can be used as an effective form of ethics management for future executives/managers-who for our experiment we recruited from a leading French business school-by actually improving their honesty. Using a classic Sender-Receiver strategic game experiment, we reinforce professional identity by pre-selecting the group to which Receivers belong. This allows us to determine whether taking the oath deters lying among future managers. Our results suggest "yes and no." We observe that these future executives/managers who took a solemn honesty oath as a Sender were (a) significantly more likely to tell the truth when the lie was detrimental to the Receiver, but (b) were not more likely to tell the truth when the lie was mutually beneficial to both the Sender and Receiver. A joint product of our design is our ability to measure in-group bias in lying behavior in our population of subjects (comparing behavior of subjects in the same and different business schools). The experiment provides clear evidence of a lack of such bias.
    Keywords: Commitment,Lying,In-group bias
    Date: 2021
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-03277342&r=

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