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on Education |
| By: | Delaney, Judith M. (University of Bath); Devereux, Paul J. (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | While gender differences in the decision of what to study at undergraduate level are much studied, there is relatively little attention paid to subsequent study decisions of graduates. Given the increased importance of graduate education in recent decades, these decisions can have major labour market implications. In this paper, we use administrative data from Ireland to study these choices. We find systematic and substantial differences by gender in choice of graduate field, even when taking account of the exact undergraduate programme attended and a large set of controls measuring academic interests and aptitudes. Female graduates are less likely to do further study in STEM fields and more likely to enter teaching and health programmes. When we explore the effect of these choices on early career gender gaps in earnings, we find that they tend to exacerbate earnings gaps. Even after accounting for the exact undergraduate programme and detailed school subject choices and grades, there is an 8% gender gap in earnings at age 33 for persons who pursued a graduate degree; the choice of graduate programme can explain about 15% of that gap. |
| Keywords: | gender gaps, graduate study, field of study, gender earnings gap, higher education |
| JEL: | J16 J24 I21 I23 I24 I26 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16918&r=edu |
| By: | Jack Mountjoy |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the causal impacts of public universities on the outcomes of their marginally admitted students. I use administrative admission records spanning all 35 public universities in Texas, which collectively enroll 10 percent of American public university students, to systematically identify and employ decentralized cutoffs in SAT/ACT scores that generate discontinuities in admission and enrollment. The typical marginally admitted student completes an additional year of education in the four-year sector, is 12 percentage points more likely to earn a bachelor's degree, and eventually earns 5-10 percent more than their marginally rejected but otherwise identical counterpart. Marginally admitted students pay no additional tuition costs thanks to offsetting grant aid; cost-benefit calculations show internal rates of return of 19-23 percent for the marginal students themselves, 10-12 percent for society (which must pay for the additional education), and 3-4 percent for the government budget. Finally, I develop a method to disentangle separate effects for students on the extensive margin of the four-year sector versus those who would fall back to another four-year school if rejected. Substantially larger extensive margin effects drive the results. |
| JEL: | H43 H75 I2 I20 I22 I23 I24 I26 I28 J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32296&r=edu |
| By: | Gustave Kenedi |
| Abstract: | High-achieving, low-income students enrol in and graduate from higher education at lower rates than their high-income peers. While much work has focused on understanding their enrolment decision (extensive margin), less is known about what influences their persistence (intensive margin). This paper investigates whether credit constraints play a dominant role for the latter. Using exhaustive administrative data for France and a regression discontinuity design, I estimate the impact of automatically granting generous additional aid to enrolled high-achieving, low-income students. Eligibility is communicated too late to affect initial enrolment, allowing me to recover the pure effect on the intensive margin. I find this aid had precisely estimated null effects on persistence, graduation, and enrolment in graduate school, and did not induce switches to higher quality degrees. This suggests non-financial factors explain much of these students' observed attrition over time. |
| Keywords: | financial aid, higher education, high-achieving low-income students |
| Date: | 2024–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1987&r=edu |
| By: | Henning Finseraas; Ole Henning Nyhus; Kari Vea Salvanes; Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør |
| Abstract: | Recent research suggests that using additional teachers to provide small-group instruction or tutoring substantially improves student learning. However, treatment effects on test scores can fade over time, and less is known about the lasting effects of such interventions. We leverage data from a Norwegian large-scale field experiment to examine the effects of small-group instruction in mathematics for students aged 7-9. This intervention shares many features with other high-impact tutoring programs, with some notable exceptions: instruction time was kept fixed, it had a lower dosage, and it targeted students of all ability levels. The latter allows us to assess fadeout across the ability distribution. Previous research on this intervention finds positive short-run effects. This paper shows that about 60% of the effect persists 3.5 years later. The effect size and degree of fadeout are surprisingly similar across the ability distribution. The study demonstrates that small-group instruction in mathematics successfully targets student performance and that effects can be sustained over time. |
| Keywords: | small-group instruction, tutoring, sustained effects, RCT, teacher density |
| JEL: | C93 H52 I21 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11021&r=edu |
| By: | Michaela Paffenholz |
| Abstract: | I provide evidence on the causal effects of a student’s relative socioeconomic status during high school on their mental health and human capital development. Leveraging data from representative US high schools, I utilize between-cohort differences in the distributions of socioeconomic status within schools in a linear fixed effects model to identify a causal rank effect. I find that a higher rank during high school improves a student’s depression scores, cognitive ability, self-esteem and popularity. The rank effects are persistent with long-lasting consequences for adult depression and college attainment. Additional analyses emphasize the role of inequality in exacerbating these rank effects. |
| Keywords: | mental health, rank, higher educaon |
| JEL: | I14 I23 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_526&r=edu |
| By: | Valentine Fays (UMONS (Soci&ter) and ULB (CEBRIG, DULBEA)); Benoît Mahy (UMONS (Soci&ter) and ULB (CEBRIG, DULBEA)); François Ryckx (ULB (CEBRIG, DULBEA),) |
| Abstract: | This article is the first to examine how 1st-generation migrants affect the employment of workers born in the host country according to their origin, distinguishing between natives and 2nd-generation migrants. To do so, we take advantage of access to a unique linked employer-employee dataset for the Belgian economy enabling us to test these relationships at a quite precise level of the labour market, i.e. the firm level. Fixed effect estimates, including a large number of covariates, suggest complementarity between the employment of 1st-generation migrants and workers born in Belgium (both natives and 2nd-generation migrants, respectively). Several sensitivity tests, considering different levels of aggregation, workers’ levels of education, migrants’ region of origin, workers’ occupations, and sectors corroborate this conclusion. |
| Keywords: | 1st and 2nd generation migrants, Substainability, Complementarity, Moderating factors |
| JEL: | J15 J24 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–04–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2024004&r=edu |