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on Education |
| By: | Aygun, Aysun Hiziroglu; Tirgil, Abdullah |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the causal relationship between education and mental health in Turkey. We rely on the quasi-experimental setting created by the 1997 compulsory education reform that raised the compulsory years of schooling from five to eight years. Using regression discontinuity design, we use the birth year to indicate reform exposure and identify the causal effects of longer years of schooling on mental health. Our results demonstrate a sizable negative impact of education on the mental health scale. We present evidence that the reform had a more adverse effect on men's mental health. There is also heterogeneity by the place of residence, as the longer school years led people who live in urban areas to experience worse mental health outcomes. By investigating possible mechanisms, we show that those with at least a middle school education did not invest more in their health than those without a middle school diploma. We explain the evidence for the adverse effects of education on mental health, especially experienced by those who face higher competition in the labor market, by the lack of an increase in household income despite the longer years in school. |
| Keywords: | mental health, MHI-5, regression discontinuity design, compulsory schooling law, education policy, Turkey |
| JEL: | I12 I26 I28 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:280901&r=edu |
| By: | Masuda, Kazuya; Shigeoka, Hitoshi |
| Abstract: | We examine the mortality effects of a 1947 school reform in Japan, which extended compulsory schooling from primary to secondary school by as much as 3 years. The abolition of secondary school fees also indicates that those affected by the reform likely came from disadvantaged families who could have benefited the most from schooling. Even in this relatively favorable setting, we fail to find that the reform improved later-life mortality up to the age of 87 years, although it significantly increased years of schooling. This finding suggests limited health returns to schooling at the lower level of educational attainment. |
| Keywords: | Education, Later-life mortality, Japan, Regression discontinuity design |
| Date: | 2023–07–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ajt:wcinch:78763&r=edu |
| By: | Mariana Laverde (Boston College); Elton Mykerezi (University of Minnesota); Aaron Sojourner (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research); Aradhya Sood (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | Although the literature on assignment mechanisms emphasizes the importance of efficiency based on agents’ preferences, policymakers may want to achieve different goals. For instance, school districts may want to affect student learning outcomes but must take teacher welfare into account when assigning teachers to students in classrooms and schools. This paper studies both the potential efficiency and equity test-score gains from within-district reassignment of teachers to classrooms using novel data that allows us to observe decisions of both teachers and principals in the teacher internal transfer process, and test-scores of students from the observed assignments. We jointly model student achievement and teacher and school principal decisions to account for potential selection on test score gains and to predict teacher effectiveness in unobserved matches. Teachers, but not principals, are averse to assignment based on the teachers’ comparative advantage. Estimates from counterfactual assignments of teachers to classrooms imply that, under a constraint not to reduce any retained teacher’s welfare, average student test scores could rise by 7% of a standard deviation. Although both high and low achievers would experience average gains under this counterfactual, gains would be larger for high-achieving students. |
| Keywords: | Two-sided market, mechanism design, labor market matching, K12 teachers |
| JEL: | D47 D82 J20 I21 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:23-392&r=edu |
| By: | Federica Braccioli; Paolo Ghinetti; Simone Moriconi; Costanza Naguib; Michele Pellizzari |
| Abstract: | We study the choice of acquiring STEM and non-STEM college education using variation induced by the proximity to universities offering different types of programs. We adopt a novel methodology allowing the identification of the distribution of response types and treatment effects in a multiple unordered discrete choice setting (Heckman and Pinto, 2018). The empirical analysis is based on confidential survey data for Italy, combined with administrative information about the founding dates of all Italian universities and faculties. We find that most compliers are women at the margin of choosing STEM education versus not going to college. We simulate the effects of expanding the supply of STEM education and discover that, in addition to substantial effects on employment, the gender disparity in STEM education could potentially decrease by up to 20%. |
| Keywords: | monotonicity, returns to education, STEM, instrumental variables |
| JEL: | I23 I26 I28 J31 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10842&r=edu |
| By: | Sofoklis Goulas (Brookings Institution, Washington DC, United States); Rigissa Megalokonomou (Monash University, Monash Business School, Department of Economics, Australia, University of Queensland, IZA, and CESifo); Yi Zhang (University of Queensland, School of Economics, Australia) |
| Abstract: | Recent research has shown that females make classrooms more conducive to effective learning. We identify the effect of a higher share of female classmates on students’ disruptive behavior, engagement, test scores, and major choices in disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged schools. We exploit the random assignment of students to classrooms in early high school in Greece. We combine rich administrative data with hand-collected student-level data from a representative sample of schools that feature two novel contributions. Unlike other gender peer effects studies, a) we use a rich sample of schools and students that contains a large and diverse set of school qualities, and household incomes, and b) we measure disruption and engagement using misconduct-related (unexcused) teacher-reported and parent-approved (excused) student class absences instead of self-reported measures. We find four main results. First, a higher share of female classmates improves students’ current and subsequent test scores in STEM subjects and increases STEM college participation, especially for girls. Second, a higher share of female classmates is associated with reduced disruptive behavior for boys and improved engagement for girls, which indicates an increase in overall classroom learning productivity. Third, disadvantaged students—those who attend low-quality schools or reside in low-income neighborhoods—drive the baseline results; they experience the highest improvements in their classroom learning productivity and their STEM outcomes from a higher share of female classmates. Fourth, disadvantaged females randomly assigned to more female classmates in early high school choose college degrees linked to more lucrative or prestigious occupations 2 years later. Our results suggest that classroom interventions that reduce disruption and improve engagement are more effective in disadvantaged or underserved environments. |
| Keywords: | gender peer effects, natural e, classroom learning productivit, quasi-random variation, disadvantaged students |
| JEL: | J16 J24 I24 I26 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2024-01&r=edu |
| By: | Adam Lavecchia; Philip Oreopoulos; Noah Spencer |
| Abstract: | This study finds substantial reductions to criminal activity from the introduction of a comprehensive high school support program for disadvantaged youth living in the largest public housing project in Toronto. The program, called Pathways to Education, bundles supports such as regular coaching, tutoring, group activities, free public transportation tickets and bursaries for postsecondary education. In this paper, we use a difference-in-differences approach that compares students living in public housing communities where the program was offered to those living in communities where the program was not offered over time. We find that eligibility for Pathways reduces the likelihood of being charged with a crime by 32 percent at its Regent Park location. This effect is driven by a reduction in charges for breaking and entering, theft, mischief and other traffic offenses and Youth Criminal Justice Act offenses. |
| Keywords: | At-risk youth; education and crime; youth programs |
| JEL: | I24 I26 I28 L31 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcm:deptwp:2024-01&r=edu |
| By: | Michele Battisti; Antonio Francesco Gravina; Andrea Mario Lavezzi; Giuseppe Maggio; Giorgio Tortorici |
| Abstract: | What is the role of a society's wealth in influencing educational choices? Although the theoretical literature provides several possible answers, from an empirical viewpoint answering question is not straightforward. Indeed, nowadays such an issue cannot be typically inspected before starting the college, due to the compulsory public education laws in force at lower education levels in nearly all countries. We investigate this problem by employing a unique dataset covering Sicilian wealth shares and primary school enrollment in the year 1858 at municipal level. This represents an ideal setting to study our research question as, at that time, schools at the lowest grade levels were available in almost each Sicilian municipality, but their attendance was not compulsory. Our identification strategy relies on the historical heritage of seismic events in shaping mid-19th century land and property distribution, which allowed for the emergence of a class of "wealthy" households. Results of the analysis show that, even in an almost entirely agrarian society, household wealth played a decisive role in educational choices: an increase of 10 |
| Keywords: | Wealth; Education; Long-run Development; Institutions; Human Capital |
| JEL: | I24 O15 N93 |
| Date: | 2024–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pie:dsedps:2024/302&r=edu |
| By: | Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago); Pinto, Rodrigo (University of California, Los Angeles); Shaikh, Azeem M. (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the problem of making inferences about the effects of a program on multiple outcomes when the assignment of treatment status is imperfectly randomized. By imperfect randomization we mean that treatment status is reassigned after an initial randomization on the basis of characteristics that may be observed or unobserved by the analyst. We develop a partial identification approach to this problem that makes use of information limiting the extent to which randomization is imperfect to show that it is still possible to make nontrivial inferences about the effects of the program in such settings. We consider a family of null hypotheses in which each null hypothesis species that the program has no effect on one of many outcomes of interest. Under weak assumptions, we construct a procedure for testing this family of null hypotheses in a way that controls the familywise error rate – the probability of even one false rejection – in finite samples. We develop our methodology in the context of a reanalysis of the HighScope Perry Preschool program. We find statistically signicant effects of the program on a number of different outcomes of interest, including outcomes related to criminal activity for males and females, even after accounting for imperfections in the randomization and the multiplicity of null hypotheses. |
| Keywords: | exact inference, experiments, familywise error rate, imperfect randomization, multiple testing, multiple outcomes, permutation tests, Perry Preschool Program, program evaluation |
| JEL: | C31 I21 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16675&r=edu |
| By: | Borra, Cristina (University of Seville); González, Libertad (Universitat Pompeu Fabra); Patiño, David (University of Seville) |
| Abstract: | We study the effects of school starting age on siblings' infant health. In Spain, children born in December start school a year earlier than those born the following January, despite being essentially the same age. We follow a regression discontinuity design to compare the health at birth of the children of women born in January versus the previous December, using administrative, population-level data. We find small and insignificant effects on average weight at birth, but, compared to the children of December-born mothers, the children of January-born mothers are more likely to have very low birthweight. We then show that January-born women have the same educational attainment and the same partnership dynamics as December-born women. However, they finish school later and are (several months) older when they have their first child. Our results suggest that maternal age is a plausible mechanism behind our estimated impacts of school starting age on infant health. |
| Keywords: | school starting age, infant health, maternal age, school cohort |
| JEL: | I12 J12 J13 |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16676&r=edu |