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on Education |
| By: | Uditi Karna; John A. List; Andrew Simon; Haruka Uchida |
| Abstract: | Parents are crucial to children’s educational success, but the role of parental education in fostering academic excellence remains underexplored. Using longitudinal administrative data covering all North Carolina public school students, we document five facts about first-generation excellence gaps. We find large excellence gaps emerge by 3rd grade across all demographics and persist through high school. Yet, socioeconomic status and school quality explain only one-third of the gaps. The overarching facts reveal that excellence gaps re-flect deeper challenges rooted in parental human capital that manifest early and compound over time, rather than merely consequences of socioeconomic disadvantage or school quality differences. |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I30 J08 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34228 |
| By: | Aguirre, Josefa (PUC-Rio); Ramírez-Espinoza, Fernanda (PUC-Rio); Zarate, Roman Andres (University of Toronto) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of violence perpetrated by peers and school staff on student victims. Leveraging unique administrative data from Chile that links reports of school violence to individual educational records, we address longstanding data limitations that have constrained empirical research on this issue. Using a matched difference-in-differences design, we find that exposure to school violence has persistent negative effects: absenteeism increases by 46–64\%, grade retention rates double, and both grades and test scores decline significantly, with impacts lasting up to four years. In the longer term, victims are substantially less likely to graduate from high school or enroll in university, with violence perpetrated by adults having more severe consequences than peer violence. Complementary survey evidence reveals that reported incidents are associated with increased perceptions of violence and discrimination, as well as decreases in school belonging and teacher expectations. While these psychological and perceptual effects tend to fade after one year, the adverse educational consequences persist, underscoring how brief traumatic experiences can lead to long-lasting educational disadvantages. |
| Keywords: | educational outcomes, school violence |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18126 |
| By: | Oliver Cassagneau-Francis (UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities) |
| Abstract: | Recent work has highlighted the significant variation in returns to higher education across individuals. I develop a novel methodology --- exploiting recent advances in the identification of mixture models --- which groups individuals according to their prior ability and estimates the wage returns to a university degree by group, and show that the model is non-parametrically identified. Applying the method to data from a UK cohort study, the findings reflect recent evidence that skills and ability are multidimensional. The flexible model allows the returns to university to vary across the (multi-dimensional) ability distribution, a flexibility missing from commonly used additive models, but which I show is empirically important. Returns are generally increasing in ability for both men and women, but vary non-monotonically across the ability distribution. |
| Keywords: | Mixture models; Distributions; Treatment effects; Higher education; Wages; Human capital; Cognitive and non-cognitive abilities. |
| JEL: | E24 I23 I26 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucl:cepeow:25-10 |
| By: | María Padilla-Romo; Cecilia Peluffo |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of moving away from violent environments into safer areas on migrants' academic achievement in the context of the Mexican war on drugs. Using student location choices across space and over time, we recover individual-level migration paths for elementary school students across all municipalities in Mexico. We find that students who were induced to leave violent areas due to increased violence experience academic gains after relocating to safer areas. Students who migrated from municipalities in the 90th percentile of the violence distribution to municipalities in the 10th percentile experienced improvements of 5.3 percent of a standard deviation in their test scores two years after they migrated. These results appear to be explained by increases in school attendance and improvements in the learning environment after they moved. |
| JEL: | I24 I25 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34270 |
| By: | Christa Deneault; Evan Riehl |
| Abstract: | We provide a comprehensive analysis of a Texas policy that relaxed teacher licensing requirements and created a large for-profit training industry. Using detailed administrative data, we show that for-profit-trained teachers have higher turnover and lower value-added than standard-trained teachers. But the policy significantly increased the supply of certified teachers, reducing schools' reliance on uncertified teachers with even worse outcomes. Exploiting variation in policy exposure across schools, we find a zero net impact on student achievement due to these offsetting forces. Thus lower licensing requirements improved access to teaching and reduced training costs without harming students. |
| JEL: | I28 J44 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34232 |
| By: | Katherine Cuff; Ana Gamarra Rondinel; A. Abigail Payne |
| Abstract: | We analyze whether men and women respond differently to tuition variation for both university entry and STEM major choice, using a 30-year Australian individual-level administrative dataset. The Australian setting is unique: tuition fees are regulated, students can defer payment through income-contingent loans, and universities receive discipline-specific government subsidies. We find women consistently enrolled at higher rates than men, on average 14 percentage points between 1991 and 2020, with the gap widening over the period from 10 to 16 percentage points. By contrast, men were more likely to register in STEM fields. This STEM gap has remained stable in traditional STEM disciplines, but the gap has narrowed since 2005 when including Health in the definition of STEM. We find that women respond more positively than men to tuition increases in terms of overall enrollment. Effects on STEM participation, however, are less clear and vary across time. The STEM choice patterns suggest systematic gender differences in incentives and behavior, reflecting factors such as men’s stronger engagement with higher-paying non-university jobs, higher expected returns to traditional STEM fields for men, narrower earnings dispersion for women across fields, and gender differences in cost sensitivity and risk aversion. Our findings highlight how tuition policy interacts with gender-specific incentives to shape both university enrollment and major choices. |
| Keywords: | post-secondary education, university enrollment, gender, tuition, STEM |
| JEL: | I23 J16 I28 I22 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12141 |
| By: | Jung, Yeonha; Kim, Minki (University of Mannheim); Lee, Munseob (University of California, San Diego) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the long-term impact of Hyanggyo, state-sponsored educational institutions established during the early Joseon Dynasty in Korea (1392-1592), on human capital accumulation. Although these schools largely ceased functioning as educational centers by the late 16th century, their influence has endured to the present day. Drawing on a newly constructed township-level dataset, we find a robust positive association between historical exposure to Hyanggyo and modern educational attainment. This relationship appears to be driven by enduring local demand for education, supported by three complementary findings. First, regions with greater historical exposure experienced larger gains in Japanese literacy during colonial era school expansions. Second, residents in these areas express stronger pro-education attitudes today. Third, historically exposed regions exhibited lower fertility rates, consistent with a quantity–quality tradeoff in parental investment. Together, our findings highlight the lasting legacy of early educational institutions. |
| Keywords: | Hyanggyo, Human capital, historical institutions, Joseon, cultural transmission |
| JEL: | I23 J24 N35 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18123 |
| By: | Drydakis, Nick (Anglia Ruskin University) |
| Abstract: | The study evaluates the effectiveness of a 12-week AI module delivered to non-STEM university students in England, aimed at building students’ AI Capital. An integral part of the process involved the development and validation of the AI Capital of Students scale, used to measure AI Capital before and after the educational intervention. The module was delivered on four occasions to final-year students between 2023 and 2024, with follow-up data collected on students’ employment status. Moreover, AI Capital is positively associated with academic performance in AI-related coursework. However, disparities persist.students, White students, and those with stronger backgrounds in mathematics and empirical methods achieved higher levels of AI Capital and academic success. Furthermore, enhanced AI Capital is associated with higher employment rates six months after graduation. To provide a theoretical foundation for this pedagogical intervention, the study introduces and validates the AI Learning–Capital–Employment Transition model, which conceptualises the pathway from structured AI education to the development of AI Capital and, in turn, to improved employment outcomes. |
| Keywords: | university students, AI Capital, AI literacy, Artificial Intelligence, grades, academic performance, employment rates |
| JEL: | I23 I21 J24 J21 O33 O15 I24 J15 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18138 |
| By: | Monica Deza; Maria Zhu |
| Abstract: | Using individual-level data from the Add Health surveys, we leverage idiosyncratic variation in gender composition across cohorts within the same school to examine whether being exposed to a higher share of female peers affects mental health and school satisfaction. We find that being exposed to a higher proportion of female peers, despite only improving school satisfaction for boys, improves mental health for both boys and girls. The benefits are greater among boys of low socioeconomic backgrounds, who would otherwise be more likely to be exposed to violent and disruptive peers. We find suggestive evidence that the mechanisms driving our findings are consistent with stronger school friendships for boys and better self-image and grades for girls. |
| JEL: | I1 I12 I20 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34269 |