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on Education |
| By: | Randall Akee; Leah R. Clark |
| Abstract: | We use an admissions lottery to estimate the effect of a non-means tested preschool program on students’ long-run earnings, employment, family income, household formation, and geographic mobility. We observe long-run outcomes by linking both admitted and non-admitted individuals to confidential administrative data including tax records. Funding for this preschool program comes from an Indigenous organization, which grants Indigenous students admissions preference and free tuition. We find treated children have between 5 to 6 percent higher earnings as young adults. The results are quite large for young women, especially those from the lower half of the initial parental household income distribution. There is also some evidence that children, regardless of gender, from households with below median parental incomes realize the largest average increases in earnings in adulthood. Finally, we find that increased earnings start at ages 21 and older for the treated students. Likely mechanisms include high-quality teachers and curriculum. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I24 I26 J31 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32570&r= |
| By: | Campbell, Douglas; Brodeur, Abel; Johannesson, Magnus; Kopecky, Joseph; Lusher, Lester; Tsoy, Nikita |
| Abstract: | Pop-Eleches and Urquiola (2013) apply a regression discontinuity to the Romanian secondary school system, and notably find that (a) students who go to a better school get higher scores on an exam used for university admission, (b) parents of students who get into a better school help their kids less with homework, and (c) kids who go to a slightly better school report more negative interactions with peers. We first reproduce all regression tables in Pop-Eleches and Urquiola (2013), and then test for robustness by unstacking the data, multi-way clustering, altering the cutoffs, altering control variables, and conducting influential analysis. Overall, we find the results for finding (a), (b), and (c) are robust in 100%, 42%, and 60% of the robustness checks we ran, and the t/z scores were on average 93%, 69%, and 92% as large as the original study. |
| Keywords: | Education, Peer Effects, Economics of Education |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J13 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:i4rdps:133&r= |
| By: | Christopher Jepsen (University College Dublin, CES-Ifo, and IZA); Peter Mueser (University of Missouri and IZA); Kenneth Troske (University of Kentucky and IZA); Kyung-Seong Jeon (University of Missouri) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides novel evidence on the labor-market returns to for-profit postsecondary school and community college attendance. We link administrative records on college attendance with quarterly earnings data for nearly 400, 000 students in one state. Five years after enrollment, quarterly earnings conditional on employment exceed earnings in the absence of schooling by 20-29 percent for students attending for-profit schools and 16-27 percent for students attending community colleges. In aggregate, the benefits of attendance generally exceed the costs in both for-profit schools and community colleges. Our analyses suggest the two types of schools serve very different markets, both in terms of the characteristics of students and the fields they study. When we perform matching analyses with comparable students in comparable fields, we do not find that returns are consistently higher in for-profit schools or community colleges. |
| Keywords: | postsecondary education, labor-market returns, for-profit schools |
| JEL: | J24 I26 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:umc:wpaper:2407&r= |
| By: | Simeon Lauterbach (Geneva Graduate Institute); Lee Crawfurd (Center for Global Development); Jocelyne C. Kirezi (VVOB - education for development); Aimable Nsabimana (UNU-WIDER); Jef Peeraer (VVOB - education for development) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the short-term impacts of a school leadership professional development program implemented in 525 randomly selected schools across Rwanda from 2018 to 2019. The program aimed to enhance the skills of school headteachers in leadership, management, and teacher support. Although no significant average treatment effects are observed one to two years after the intervention, an increase in test scores is identified in public primary schools compared to government-aided schools by at least 0.11 standard deviations. This disparity may be attributed to the potentially weaker school management and resources in public primary schools at the outset, as well as the time constraints and ownership structure faced by headteachers in government aided schools. Despite the modest effect, the program shows potential for cost-effective improvement in student learning, especially considering that typically only one headteacher per school is trained. Further research should focus on optimizing the design of school leadership professional development programs and exploring the underlying mechanisms necessary to enhance their overall effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | School leadership, professional development, school management |
| JEL: | I22 I28 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–04–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:wpaper:691&r= |
| By: | Chauvin, Juan Pablo |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the effects of changes in local public education budgets on individual schooling attainment and migration, as well as on local labor market outcomes. I leverage the introduction of FUNDEF, a large federal program that redistributed public education finance across Brazilian municipalities in the late 1990s, as a source of exogenous variation. Using a cohort-exposure design, I find that, at the individual level, doubling the program-related public education budget led to a 1.4 percentage point increase in the likelihood of completing primary school, and a 0.5 percentage point decrease in the likelihood of staying in the local labor market among exposed cohorts, on average. The mobility effects are concentrated among individuals educated in municipalities that received a positive budget shock as a result of the program, which were also characterized by relatively worse local labor market conditions. At the local labor market level, difference-in-differences estimates suggest that higher public education budgets were associated with lower employment rates and average wages, suggesting that the “brain drain” effect depressed local labor demand in the long run. |
| Keywords: | school spending;schooling attainment;Migration |
| JEL: | I20 O15 R23 |
| Date: | 2024–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13497&r= |
| By: | Mallika Thomas (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis) |
| Abstract: | Using the historical random assignment of MBA students to peer groups at a top business school in the United States, I study the effect of the gender composition of a student’s peers on the gender pay gap at graduation and long-term labor market outcomes. I find that a 10 percentage point increase in the share of male peers leads to a 2.1 percent increase in the relative earnings of female students at graduation, closing the gender gap in earnings at graduation by two-thirds. The effects on women’s long-term earnings grow even larger with time. Using novel data on job offers, I find that two different mechanisms drive the effects on short- and long-term earnings. Women with a greater share of male peers take more quantitative coursework in business school and receive job offers at graduation in occupations, industries, and firms associated with higher wages, longer hours, and greater earnings growth. However, the effect of male peers on women’s earnings at graduation is primarily driven by female students’ increased willingness to accept the maximum salary offered within their offer set. In contrast, peer-induced effects on human capital alone place female students on dramatically different long-term expected earnings paths due to changes in the initial occupation, initial industry, and initial firm accepted at graduation. This change in the characteristics of the first job at graduation largely explains the effect of peer gender composition on long-term outcomes. |
| Keywords: | peer groups, gender gap, MBA students, course work, job offers, long-term earnings |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J16 J24 J31 J44 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:24-402&r= |