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on Education |
| By: | A. DiLiberto; L. Giua; F. Schivardi; M. Sideri; G. Sulis |
| Abstract: | We study how managerial practices of school principals affect student performance and aspirations. For 2011 and 2015, we merge administrative data on Italian high school students with the management quality indices of their principals, constructed using the World Management Survey methodology. The frequent principals' turnover over this period allows us to causally interpret school-fixed-effect estimates. We find that management quality positively and substantially impacts standardized math and language tests and student desire to attend college. The comparison to pooled-OLS suggests that fixed effects correct for the downward bias arising from selection of better principals into more difficult schools. |
| Keywords: | management;School principals;Student outcomes |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cns:cnscwp:202518 |
| By: | Parijat Maitra; Libertad González |
| Abstract: | We examine the impact of early elective birth timing on children's health and educational outcomes, focusing on cognitive development as measured by elementary school grades. We exploit a natural experiment in Spain: the abrupt termination of a generous child benefit at the end of 2010, which led to a sharp increase in elective deliveries during the final week of December. Children born during this spike had slightly shorter gestation periods and lower birth weights (within the normal range), and experienced a higher incidence of respiratory disorders during infancy. We find that the affected cohort of children had significantly lower academic performance at age seven (in second grade), suggesting large persistent effects on cognitive development. Our results provide causal evidence on the medium-term costs of early elective deliveries, and underscore the link between neonatal health and human capital. |
| Keywords: | birthweight, education, family benefits, health |
| JEL: | I2 I1 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1539 |
| By: | Daniel Bianchi (Universidad de La Laguna); Ã lvaro Choi (Universitat de Barcelona); John Jerrim (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Early gender gaps condition future educational decisions and labor market and social outcomes. There is extensive evidence reporting the existence of significant gender gaps in mathematical and scientific competencies at age 15. It has been suggested these patterns may explain why men tend to make a clean sweep on STEM careers. This has led to a debate on which factors may be driving gender gaps in educational outcomes. While some authors point to the existence of differences in psychological traits by gender, others focus on external factors, such as socioeconomic characteristics, parental values and educational trajectories. Another factor which is sometimes claimed to be a relevant determinant of the gender gap in performance are socially determined gender roles. Evidence on this last point has been however rarely tested. In this paper we shed light on this issue. We do so by exploring the relationship between the use of leisure time in science-related activities at early ages and the emergence of gender gaps in performance and career expectations at age 15. We take advantage of intra and across country variation for a set of countries. Results show that game patterns at early ages are decisive for explaining gender gaps in performance. Boys have a higher likelihood of playing brick games when they are at preschool, as well as several science related activities at age 10. More time spent in science-related leisure activities influences performance in grade 4 and at age 15, and, in turn, STEM expectations. In this sense, childhood play patterns contribute to explaining gender gaps in mathematics and science achievement, as well as in STEM expectations. Gender-differentiated play dynamics from an early age can explain the widening of gender gaps several grades later. These results contribute to identifying how certain play practices and leisure activities in childhood may eventually bias mathematics and science achievement and preferences between girls and boys. The implications for an education policy committed to equal educational opportunities are discussed. |
| Keywords: | STEM, gender gap, game, academic performance |
| JEL: | I24 J16 J24 I21 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ewp:wpaper:491web |
| By: | Paul Glewwe (University of Minnesota); David Raitzer (Asian Development Bank); Uttam Sharma (Integrated Development Studies); Kenn Chua (University of Minnesota); Milan Thomas (Asian Development Bank) |
| Abstract: | Although Asian economies have increased access to education, students’ learning often trails grade level expectations. In the Philippines, learning worsened through prolonged classroom closure during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Together with the Department of Education, we conducted a 42-school randomized controlled trial of computer-assisted instruction in remote areas of the country. The tested intervention consisted of digitized learning modules deployed on tablets that connected to school local Wi-Fi networks for junior high school students. The tablets were the main source of instruction for 2.5 months before schools reopened, after which they served as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, in-person instruction. We find that the intervention increased student learning in mathematics, but not in English. For mathematics, we estimate intent-to-treat effects of 0.34 standard deviations of the distribution of test scores and average treatment-on-the-treated effects of 0.46 standard deviations for schools that ever used the digitized materials. Students with higher levels of “grit” at baseline benefit more from the intervention, as do those who have higher baseline test scores. The mathematics treatment-on-the-treated effect for schools that continued usage for a second year is 1.6 standard deviations, suggesting that those schools drove the observed impacts. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19 pandemic;computer-assisted instruction;EdTech;distance learning;remote schools |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J13 N35 O14 |
| Date: | 2025–12–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbewp:021834 |
| By: | Forsberg, Erika (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Individuals working in larger labor markets tend to earn more than those working in smaller labor markets, but the reason for this is still unclear. This paper studies whether larger cities provide better occupational skill matches by combining machine learning techniques with data on individuals’ productive skills matched with employer data to construct a novel measure of match quality. I show that occupational skill-match quality is higher for individuals living in large local labor markets. Conditional on skills, differences in match quality explain around 30 percent of the city-size wage gap. The higher match quality in larger labor markets is related to a more diversified occupation structure and more learning possibilities in these markets. |
| Keywords: | Matching; Agglomeration; Occupational choice |
| JEL: | J24 J31 R12 R23 |
| Date: | 2025–12–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_024 |