nep-edu New Economics Papers
on Education
Issue of 2023‒06‒12
six papers chosen by
Nádia Simões
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

  1. Revisiting the Returns to Higher Education: Heterogeneity by Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Abilities By Oliver Cassagneau-Francis
  2. The Value of Early-Career Skills By Simon Wiederhold; Christina Langer
  3. International Applicability of Education and Migration Aspirations By Amrita Kulka; Till Nikolka; Panu Poutvaara; Silke Uebelmesser
  4. Language and student learning: Evidence from an ethnographic study in Mozambique By Feliciano Chimbutane; Ritva Reinikka
  5. Parental and Student Time Use around the Academic Year By Benjamin Cowan; Todd R. Jones; Jeffrey Swigert
  6. The Impacts of Industry Wage Premiums and Education Levels on Gender Inequality: Evidence from Five Developed Countries By Yao Yao; Zheng Li

  1. By: Oliver Cassagneau-Francis (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: Recent work has highlighted the significant variation in returns to higher education across individuals. We develop a novel methodology-exploiting recent advances in the identification of mixture models-which groups individuals according to their prior ability and estimates the wage returns to a university degree by group. We prove the non-parametric identification of our model. Applying our method to data from a UK cohort study, our findings reflect recent evidence that skills and ability are multidimensional. Our flexible model allows the returns to university to vary across the (multi-dimensional) ability distribution, a flexibility missing from commonly used additive models, but which we show is empirically important. The returns to higher education are 3-4 times larger than the returns to prior cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. Returns are generally increasing in ability for both men and women, but vary non-monotonically across the ability distribution.
    Keywords: Mixture models, Distributions, Treatment effects, Higher education, Wages, Human capital, Cognitive and non-cognitive abilities
    Date: 2022–05–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04067399&r=edu
  2. By: Simon Wiederhold; Christina Langer
    Abstract: We develop novel measures of early-career skills that are more detailed, comprehensive, and labor-market-relevant than existing skill proxies. We exploit that skill requirements of apprenticeships in Germany are codified in state-approved, nationally standardized apprenticeship plans. These plans provide more than 13, 000 different skills and the exact duration of learning each skill. Following workers over their careers in administrative data, we find that cognitive, social, and digital skills acquired during apprenticeship are highly – yet differently – rewarded. We also document rising returns to digital and social skills since the 1990s, with a more moderate increase in returns to cognitive skills.
    Keywords: returns to skills, apprenticeship plans, labor market, earnings, early-career skills
    JEL: I21 I26 J24
    Date: 2023–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cid:wpfacu:143a&r=edu
  3. By: Amrita Kulka; Till Nikolka; Panu Poutvaara; Silke Uebelmesser
    Abstract: We analyze perceptions of international applicability of one’s education and migration aspirations and intentions among university students in Czechia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain. Students in law perceive their education least internationally applicable. Perceived international applicability strongly predicts migration aspirations and intentions also after controlling for study fields, individual characteristics, and university fixed effects. Furthermore, among those not studying law, hours spent studying are increasing with perceived international applicability of one’s education. Our findings are consistent with predictions from a model in which students invest in their education before learning their mobility status. .
    Keywords: education, migration, migration aspirations
    JEL: F22 I21 J24
    Date: 2023
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10395&r=edu
  4. By: Feliciano Chimbutane; Ritva Reinikka
    Abstract: This ethnographic study explores the implementation of bilingual education in Mozambique: how it is understood, adapted, and resisted by school directors, teachers, and local officials. Bilingual education uses local languages in early grades before a gradual shift into Portuguese, which most Mozambican children do not speak when entering school. Our study confirms that students participate actively and understand content better in bilingual classes. Regardless of education policy, school directors decide whether or not to form bilingual classes.
    Keywords: Education, Education policy, Implementation, Ethnography, Mozambique
    Date: 2023
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2023-62&r=edu
  5. By: Benjamin Cowan; Todd R. Jones; Jeffrey Swigert
    Abstract: We demonstrate how mothers, fathers, and 15–17-year-old students alter their schedules around the K-12 academic year. Using regression discontinuity (RDD) methods, combined with dates on school year start and end dates by locality, we document several notable results. First, mothers are substantially more affected by the school year than are fathers. When school is in session, mothers sleep less, spend more time caring for family members and driving them around, and spend less time on eating, free time and exercise. Fathers see changes that are generally similar in sign but smaller in magnitude compared to mothers. 15–17-year-olds naturally reduce time spent in educational pursuits when school is out (a decrease of about 5.5 hours per day on weekdays), and most of that time is substituted toward free time (an additional 2+ hours per day) and sleep (1+ hours per day). Our results provide a holistic picture of how families build their days around the K-12 school calendar and have implications for policies targeted toward women’s and teenage children’s health and well-being.
    Keywords: parent time use, student time use, regression discontinuity
    JEL: I20
    Date: 2023
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10391&r=edu
  6. By: Yao Yao; Zheng Li
    Abstract: In contrast to most prior studies of gender inequality focusing on a specific country or a specific year, this paper uses cross-nationally comparable data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) to examine the impacts of wage premiums in male- and female-dominated industries and education levels on gender inequality in five developed countries- the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, and Belgium from 2004 to 2017. To the best of our knowledge, there are no attempts in the prior empirical literature studying the effects of wage premiums in male- and female-dominated industries on gender inequality. To guarantee continuity and stability, we run the regression year by year separately for 14 consecutive periods for each of five advanced countries. The timeline covers the before, during, and after the great recession to rule out the possible effects of historical contingency. Thus, this is the first empirical paper to investigate the causal relationship between male- and female-dominated industries and gender inequality across counties over a continuous period. We raise and answer three research questions: (1) Do the wage premiums among male- and female-dominated industries affect the gender wage gap? (2) Is there a cross-country variation in the relationship between education levels and the gender wage gap? (3) Is there an impact of education levels on the gender employment gap? As for empirical analysis, for the first two questions, we run the multivariate linear regression; for the third question, we estimate the probit model, marginal effects, and the delta method standard errors. We find that: 1) There is a significant correlation between the wage premiums in female- and male-dominated industries and gender wage gap; 2) There is a crosscountry variation in the relationship between education levels and the gender wage gap; 3) There is also a cross-country variation in the relationship between education levels and the gender employment gap.
    Date: 2022–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lis:liswps:832&r=edu

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