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on Education |
| By: | Elisa Facchetti; Lorenzo Neri; Marco Ovidi |
| Abstract: | Understanding parental response to non-test score attributes is crucial to design effective school choice systems. We study an intervention providing hard-to-find information on the school environment at local institutions, while holding information on school performance constant. Outflow to private education is reduced by 17%, with larger responses among advantaged students. Parents respond by increasing take-up of offers from local schools, intensifying competition for seats. Social interactions increase the program’s impact by 40%. Consistent with our interpretation, the intervention does not affect parental demand for school performance. We conclude that simple, low-cost interventions can improve state schools’ finances and peer quality. |
| Keywords: | school choice, non-test score school attributes, information intervention |
| JEL: | I24 I28 H75 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10926&r=edu |
| By: | Shoko Yamane (Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University); Michiko Nakabayashi (Faculty of Economics, Kindai University) |
| Abstract: | We reveal the effect of education on academic performance and preferences by analyzing a special selection system for high school entrance examinations in Japan, the “school grouping policy.†Owing to the random assignment of students, the difference in performance between the schools in a group was due to their educational features. Education affected both academic performance and hometown loyalty, and the instruction on how to choose a college to apply to strongly influenced students’ choices. While there is significant selection bias in most empirical studies, our findings are free from such bias and are important when considering educational policies. |
| Keywords: | Natural experiment, Education, School choice, Hometown loyalty |
| JEL: | I26 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osk:wpaper:2402&r=edu |
| By: | Aimable Nsabimana; Muthoni Nganga; Christine Niyizamwiyitira |
| Abstract: | In this study, we explore the impact of a smart classroom (SCM) programme on student performance in science subjects in a high-stakes national exam for middle-high school students in Rwanda. To do this, we leverage plausibly exogenous variations in programme exposure induced by the staggered implementation of the programme across schools and students. Overall, the study finds a positive effect of the programme on student performance. |
| Keywords: | Education, Technology, Rwanda |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2024-7&r=edu |
| By: | Garcez, Lucas N. (University of Tennessee); Padilla-Romo, María (University of Tennessee); Peluffo, Cecilia (University of Florida); Pineda-Torres, Mayra (Georgia Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | We study the causal relationship between educational attainment and teenage birth rates by focusing on a large-scale, country-wide reform that made high school compulsory and removed previously existing school capacity constraints in Mexico. Relying on administrative data on schools and births, we implement a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits variation across time and municipality-level exposure to the reform to explore the effects of expanding educational opportunities on teenage fertility. We find that teenage birth rates decreased by 2.8 percent after the education reform in municipalities with high increases in high school availability relative to municipalities with low increases. This decline is not driven by a decline in the time teenagers had to engage in risky behaviors (incapacitation effect) but a potential change in expectations for the future. |
| Keywords: | education reform, teenage birth rate, human capital |
| JEL: | I12 I21 I28 J13 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16791&r=edu |
| By: | Hongbin Li; Lingsheng Meng; Kai Mu; Shaoda Wang |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the unintended effect of English language requirement on educational inequality by investigating how the staggered rollout of English listening tests in China’s high-stakes National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) affected the rural-urban gap in college access. Leveraging administrative data covering the universe of NCEE participants between 1999 and 2003, we find that the introduction of English listening tests significantly lowered rural students’ exam score percentile ranks relative to their urban counterparts, resulting in a 30% increase in the rural-urban gap in college access. Our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that, as a result of this policy change, more than 54, 000 rural students lost college seats to their urban peers between 1999 and 2003, and another 11, 000 rural students who elite colleges could have admitted ended up in non-elite colleges, causing them significant future income losses. |
| JEL: | F69 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32162&r=edu |