|
on Education |
| By: | Jung, Dain (Liaoning University); Kim, Jun Hyung (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology); Kwak, Do Won (Korea University) |
| Abstract: | Single-sex schooling is a controversial policy whose effects are inconsistent across different studies with its mechanisms poorly understood. Leveraging the random allocation of high school students in South Korea, we study the effect of single-sex schooling on mental health while considering its interactions with peer relationships and academic achievement. Our results closely align with gender-specific responses to competitive pressure in the literature. Female students with better academic achievement than their peers experience better mental health and peer relationships. However, relatively underperforming female students, subject to intense competitive pressure at school, do not benefit from being in the company of other female students in a single-sex environment. Impacts on male students do not significantly depend on the competitive pressures they face. Our study calls for caution in implementing educational policies that may affect competitive pressure or gender composition in schools. |
| Keywords: | single-sex schooling, gender and competition, mental health, peer relationship |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17330 |
| By: | Brunello, Giorgio (University of Padova); Crocè, Clementina (University of Padova); Giustinelli, Pamela (Bocconi University); Rocco, Lorenzo (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | We randomly assign student profiles to teachers and elicit teachers' beliefs about the student's likelihood of success in alternative high school tracks. We document a large and statistically significant gradient in teachers' beliefs about students' high school prospects with respect to students' socioeconomic background (SEB), ceteris paribus. We find that this gradient varies with teacher's personality, a hard-to-observe and understudied teacher trait. Specifically, higher levels of teacher's extraversion and openness are associated with a steeper negative SEB gradient in teachers' beliefs about students' success prospects in an academic track. Conversely, more conscientious and agreeable teachers assign to low-SEB students, on average, a higher probability of success in a vocational track. We discuss some policy implications of our findings. |
| Keywords: | teachers' beliefs and personality, choice of high school tracks, Italy |
| JEL: | I20 I24 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17331 |
| By: | Richard J. Murnane; John B. Willett; Aubrey McDonough; John P. Papay; Ann Mantil |
| Abstract: | The labor-market payoff to workers with associate degrees in healthcare and STEM occupations is very high in Massachusetts. We examine whether this induced a growing proportion of students in MA community colleges (MACCs) to earn an associate degree (AD) in one of these fields. We do this by using multinomial logit analysis to compare trends across 12 cohorts of MACC entrants in the proportion of students who earned an AD in a healthcare or STEM program within six years of entry. We find a substantial increase across cohorts in the proportion of students who earned an AD in a STEM program, but not in the proportion who earned an AD in a healthcare program. We found differences in degree attainment by student gender, race/ethnicity, family income, and 10th-grade mathematics score. Interviews with MACC program leaders revealed that supply constraints hinder expansion of many healthcare AD programs, but not STEM programs. |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33073 |
| By: | Acton, Riley (Miami University); Cortes, Kalena E. (Texas A&M University); Morales, Camila (University of Texas at Dallas) |
| Abstract: | We study how geographic access to public postsecondary institutions is associated with students' college enrollment decisions across race and socioeconomic status. Leveraging rich administrative data, we first document substantial differences in students' local college options, with White, Hispanic, and rural students having, on average, many fewer nearby options than their Black, Asian, suburban, and urban peers. We then show that students are sensitive to the distance they must travel to access public colleges and universities, but there are heterogeneous effects across students. In particular, we find that White and non-economically disadvantaged students respond to living far from public two-year colleges primarily by enrolling in four-year colleges, whereas Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students respond primarily by forgoing college enrollment altogether. Lastly, in a series of decomposition and simulation exercises to inform public policy efforts to increase college enrollment, especially among underrepresented minorities and low-income students, we find that differences in students' sensitivity to distance, rather than differences in distance to the nearest college, primarily contribute to observed four-year college enrollment gaps across racial and ethnic groups. |
| Keywords: | college proximity, college accessibility, college choices, college enrollment, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, public postsecondary institutions |
| JEL: | I21 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17394 |
| By: | Claes, Ek (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University); Söderberg, Magnus (Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Griffith University); Kataria, Mitesh (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University) |
| Abstract: | In two separate field experiments with Swedish school children aged 10-16, we evaluate variants of an Environmental Education Program designed to promote pro-environmental behavior; specifically, reduce household waste. We match the addresses of participating students with high-resolution administrative records on collected household waste. This allows us to estimate causal effects on the waste generated in households where a child was treated. Both experiments produce null effects on waste generation. In the second experiment, we are also able to estimate the effect of regular environmental education within the Swedish school curriculum, and find only weak evidence that this affects household waste. |
| Keywords: | Field experiments; Environmental Education Programs; Household waste; Intergenerational learning |
| JEL: | D13 I21 Q53 |
| Date: | 2024–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0848 |
| By: | Stephen Machin; Matteo Sandi |
| Abstract: | Research studying connections between crime and education is a prominent aspect of the big increase of publication and research interest in the economics of crime field. This work demonstrates a crime reducing impact of education, which can be interpreted as causal through leveraging research designs (e.g., based on education policy changes) that ensure the direction of causality flows from education to crime. A significant body of research also explores in detail, and in various directions, the means by which education has a crime reducing impact. This includes evidence on incapacitation versus productivity raising aspects of education, and on the quality of schooling at different stages of education, ranging from early age interventions, through primary and secondary schooling and policy changes that alter school dropout age. From this evidence base, there are education policies that have been effective crime prevention tools in many settings around the world. |
| Keywords: | crime, education |
| Date: | 2024–10–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp2046 |