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on Education |
| By: | Bertocchi, Graziella (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia); Bonacini, Luca (University of Bologna); Joxhe, Majlinda (University of Bologna); Pignataro, Giuseppe (University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effect of exposure to math during high school on university major choice and performance, using a unique administrative dataset of 1, 396 twins extracted from the entire student population enrolled between 2011 and 2021 at an Italian university. We apply a Twin Fixed Effect (TFE) estimator to account for unobserved factors like shared family background. We find that attending a low-math high school reduces the likelihood of enrolling in STEM majors by 32.6 percentage points and improves university performance, by increasing the likelihood of on-time graduation by 11.7 percentage points and boosting grades by 0.139 standard deviations. Leveraging a high school reform that expanded the math content in traditionally low-math curricula, we show that the added math background further reduces STEM enrollment for treated students, while it drives their improvement in performance. Our results suggest that, while increased math exposure does not necessarily boost STEM enrollment, it equips students with skills that help them improve their university outcomes. Compared with TFE, Ordinary Least Squares estimates of the effect of math exhibit a downward bias. The same applies to Difference-in-Differences estimates of the effect of the reform obtained using the entire student population. |
| Keywords: | math exposure, twins, twin fixed effects, major choice, stem, university performance, high school reform |
| JEL: | D10 I21 I23 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17703 |
| By: | Laverde, Mariana (Boston College); Mykerezi, Elton (University of Minnesota); Sojourner, Aaron (Upjohn Institute for Employment Research); Sood, Aradhya (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | The literature on assignment mechanisms largely focuses on efficiency based on agents' preferences, though policymakers may prioritize different goals. In assigning teachers to classrooms, a school district might prioritize student learning but must also consider teacher welfare. This paper studies the potential gains in student test scores from alternative within-district assignments of teachers to classrooms, using novel administrative data on teacher and school principal decisions from the district's internal transfer system (ITS) and student test scores under the observed assignments. To credibly predict student test scores under unrealized assignments, we jointly model student achievement and teacher and principal decisions, accounting for potential selection of teachers on test score gains. We estimate the variation in teachers' comparative advantage in producing learning to be one-ninth the magnitude of the variation in their general effectiveness. Further, teachers dislike comparative advantage–based assignments. Assignment of teachers to classrooms to maximize learning under the constraint of not reducing any assigned teacher's welfare would raise the average test score by 7% of a standard deviation (SD) relative to that under the observed assignment, with this effect driven mostly by assignment of teachers with higher general effectiveness to larger classrooms rather than by harnessing teachers' comparative advantage. |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17696 |
| By: | Carcillo, Stéphane (Sciences Po); Valfort, Marie-Anne (Paris School of Economics); Vergara Merino, Pedro (CREST-ENSAE) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the first rigorous evaluation of school-based interventions aimed at reducing LGBTphobia. We focus on a classroom intervention that addresses the issue of LGBT harassment through perspective-taking and narrative exchange. Using a field experiment in France with more than 10, 000 middle and high school students, we find robust evidence of strong positive effects, with variations across gender, age, and socio-economic status. We argue that changing perceptions of group norms is a key channel driving these heterogeneous effects. |
| Keywords: | LGBT, discrimination, social norms |
| JEL: | C93 J15 J16 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17683 |
| By: | Krafft, Caroline Gould; Raikes, Abbie; Nikaein Towfighian, Samira; Mojgani, Rebecca Sayre |
| Abstract: | By the time children in low- and middle-income countries start primary school, large socioeconomic disparities are evident in children’s learning and development. Both pre-primary and home environments can play important roles in influencing school readiness and can contribute to disparities in early childhood development, but there is limited evidence on their relative roles in low- and middle-income countries. This paper examines how pre-primary quality, stimulation at home, and early childhood development vary by socioeconomic status for pre-primary students in the Arab Republic of Egypt. The results demonstrate substantial socioeconomic inequality in stimulation at home, more so than in pre-primary quality and inputs, although there is variation in the degree of inequality across different dimensions of pre-primary quality. “Double inequality” is observed, where students with less stimulating home environments experience slightly lower quality pre-primary inputs. There are particularly large pre-primary inequities in structural quality (physical environment) and less inequity in process quality (pedagogy). These results suggest that targeted investments in pre-primary education in Egypt are necessary to reduce inequality in school readiness but are likely insufficient to close the socioeconomic status gap in children’s development. Investing in interventions to improve vulnerable children’s home learning environments, as well as investing in quality pre-primary, is critical to address disparities in children’s development. |
| Date: | 2023–02–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10317 |
| By: | Danon, Alice Madeleine; Das, Jishnu; De Barros, Andreas; Filmer, Deon P. |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the reliability and validity of cognitive and socioemotional skills measures and investigates the correlation between schooling, skills acquisition, and labor earnings. The primary data from Pakistan incorporates two innovations related to measurement and sampling. On measurement, the paper develops and implements a battery of instruments intended to capture cognitive and socioemotional skills among young adults. On sampling, the paper uses a panel that follows respondents from their original rural locations in 2003 to their residences in 2018, a period over which 38 percent of the respondents left their native villages. In terms of their validity and reliability, our skills measures compare favorably to previous measurement attempts in low- and middle-income countries. The following are documented in the data: (a) more years of schooling are correlated with higher cognitive and socioemotional skills; (b) labor earnings are correlated with cognitive and socioemotional skills as well as years of schooling; and (c) the earnings-skills correlations depend on respondents’ migration status. The magnitudes of the correlations between schooling and skills on the one hand and earnings and skills on the other are consistent with a widespread concern that such skills are underproduced in the schooling system. |
| Date: | 2023–02–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10309 |