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on Education |
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Issue of 2026–03–16
nineteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Silvia Griselda; Paola Profeta; Giulia Savio |
| Abstract: | Students’ university experience includes both academic and non-academic outcomes, which are shaped by the educational environment in which students interact. We refer to this environment as university climate and measure it along three dimensions: conformity to masculinity-related attitudes and perceptions, the perceived academic impact of mental health (worry and anxiety), and classroom interactions. Using administrative records combined with original survey data, and exploiting the random assignment of students to teaching classes within degree programs at an Italian university, we identify the causal effect of peer gender composition on university climate and academic performance. Greater exposure to female peers reduces conformity to masculinity-related attitudes, lowers the perceived academic impact of mental health, fosters more collaborative classroom interactions, and increases academic performance. These effects are observed for both male and female students. Our findings provide causal evidence that peer gender composition influences multiple dimensions of university climate beyond academic achievement alone. |
| Keywords: | gender, education, mental health, masculinity attitudes, classroom interactions, academic performance, univerisity climate |
| JEL: | D91 I21 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12523 |
| By: | Petri Böckerman; Mika Haapanen; Christopher Jepsen; Hannu Karhunen |
| Abstract: | We estimate the effect of receiving a higher grade on an academic high school exit exam on labor-market outcomes in adulthood. Identification is based on comparing students on different sides of grade cutoffs. Using nationwide Finnish register data, we find that better grades lead to higher income, although the effects are heterogeneous across the grade distribution. The largest and most precise income gains are concentrated among students in the middle of the grade scale. In contrast, we find little evidence of an income increase for those who barely passed, and the estimates for men with the highest grade are large but imprecise. |
| Keywords: | high school exit exam, regression discontinuity, earnings, income |
| JEL: | I21 I26 J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12532 |
| By: | Hübsch, Theresa (University of Bonn); Mahlstedt, Robert (University of Copenhagen); Pinger, Pia (University of Cologne); Settele, Sonja (University of Cologne); Willadsen, Helene (National Research Centre for the Working Environment) |
| Abstract: | Using surveys with Danish students transitioning to secondary education, we study mental models of how gender and parental education shape academic performance. Students hold heterogeneous beliefs about performance gaps by gender and parental background, which appear to be shaped by within-family transmission and broader social environments. Open-text responses reveal that respondents link strong performance by girls and less socioeconomically privileged students to effort, while attributing privileged students' success to external advantages. Mental models matter: beliefs about performance gaps predict enrollment in upper secondary education by gender and parental education and causally affect students’ self-assessments, intended effort, and educational aspirations, as shown in an information experiment with girls. We highlight two mechanisms: updating about the returns to effort and about gender-specific effort costs in response to observed gender performance gaps. Our findings advance the understanding of education choices and shed light on the determinants and effects of mental models in a high-stakes setting. |
| Keywords: | mental models, academic performance gaps, educational aspirations, returns to effort, gender, socioeconomic background, information experiment, secondary education |
| JEL: | D83 D84 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18433 |
| By: | Preeya P. Mbekeani; John P. Papay; Ann Mantil; Richard J. Murnane |
| Abstract: | Improving education and labor market outcomes for low-income students is critical for advancing socioeconomic mobility in the United States. We use longitudinal data on five cohorts of 9th grade students to explore how Massachusetts public high schools affect the longer-term outcomes of students, with a special focus on students from low-income families. Using detailed administrative and student survey data, we estimate school value-added impacts on college outcomes and earnings. Observationally similar students who attend a school at the 80th percentile of the value-added distribution instead of a school at the 20th percentile are 11% more likely to enroll in college, are 31% more likely to graduate from a four-year college, and earn 25% (or $10, 500) more annually at age 30. On average, schools that improve students’ longer-run outcomes the most are those that improve their 10th grade test scores and increase their college plans the most. |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34913 |
| By: | Lorenzo Cappellari (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Marco Morelli |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the causal effects of the Bologna Process reform in Italy, analyzing the impact of the introduction of the “3+2” degree structure at different stages of the educational system. We implement multiple Difference-in-Differences designs on a nationally representative dataset composed of more than 140, 000 high school graduates and 220, 000 university graduates. We find that the reform increased graduations from the academic-oriented high school track by +5.50 p.p., revealing a “backward spillover effect” on high school completion. For university-related outcomes, we estimate a positive effect on enrollments (+5.53 p.p.) and in-time graduations (+7.22 p.p.) and a negative effect on dropout (–2.70 p.p.). The effects are always larger for students coming from the most disadvantaged parental backgrounds, particularly when combined with high ability. These findings suggest that the Bologna Process was effective in reducing barriers to educational investment, especially for talented students with financial constraints, thus challenging the narrative of the reform attracting low ability students. Finally, descriptive labor-market analyses show a convergence of performances for graduates with different parental backgrounds, but only among Bachelor’s graduates. |
| Keywords: | Earning ability, AKM model, ageing. |
| JEL: | J31 J21 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def149 |
| By: | Haeringer, Guillaume; Nguyen, Lan; placido, Latitia; Ravaioli, Silvio |
| Abstract: | We study how different framings of otherwise equivalent information affect school choice under uncertainty. In an online experiment, subjects repeatedly submitted rank-ordered lists of schools knowing only a probability distribution over their own score. Admission depended solely on whether the score exceeded exogenous school cutoffs. Across rounds, subjects varied in “type” (advantaged/disadvantaged score distributions) and faced one of four information treatments: a control (score distribution only), ex-ante admission probabilities, simulated ex-post composition statistics, and composition statistics based on actual choices of prior participants. We find that information framing has large and heterogeneous effects. Advantaged students react strongly to both ex-ante and ex-post information, becoming more cautious under probability information and more ambitious under composition information; disadvantaged students respond more weakly and only under specific cutoff environments. Ex-ante information significantly reduces segregation between advantaged and disadvantaged types. Our results highlight that the impact of information depends critically on student type and market competitiveness, implying that effective information policies must be carefully tailored to their intended beneficiaries. |
| Keywords: | School choice, Uncertainty, Information, Segregation |
| JEL: | C78 D78 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–01–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127870 |
| By: | Xu, Lei (Loughborough University); Zhu, Yu (University of Dundee) |
| Abstract: | We apply a novel approach to estimate the effects of exposure to peers with different attributes by using the predetermined leave-own-out attributes of all classmates in randomly assigned classes. This strategy allows a behavioural interpretation of the peer effect over and above the pure mechanical channel. We find that being exposed to peer groups with attributes conducive to academic achievements, induced by random variations in the shares of classmates with college-educated parents, increases exam scores. We show that estimates based on the commonly used leave-own-out measures are highly sensitive to sample selection bias arising from non-random tracking in the sample. We show that estimates based on the commonly used leave-one-out measures are highly sensitive to non-random tracking in the sample. |
| Keywords: | parental education, random assignment, China |
| JEL: | I20 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18416 |
| By: | Rodríguez-Planas, Núria (Queens College, CUNY); Westergren, Kerstin (University of Gothenburg) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the impact of inflation on human capital investment decisions. Using a specially designed survey we estimate the causal effect of recent price level increases on the graduation plans of over 1, 200 U.S. university students. We find that inflation caused over half of the respondents to alter their plans, with nearly 60 percent of these opting to accumulate less human capital and the remainder increasing their human capital by taking additional courses or pursuing double majors or advanced degrees. A comparison of empirical treatment estimates to predictions derived from our theoretical framework reveals that inflation-driven higher direct costs reduced human capital investments, particularly among those for whom inflation had reduced their ability to pay bills. Conversely, while some students merely postponed graduation because they believed inflation would not persist, higher inflation-induced uncertainty in the post-graduation labor market generally caused greater human capital accumulation, especially among economically vulnerable students and those whose confidence in finding a job after graduation had declined. The study concludes with policy implications. |
| Keywords: | human capital Investments, inflation, survey data, expected outcomes |
| JEL: | I22 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18405 |
| By: | Karbownik, Krzysztof (Emory University); Svaleryd, Helena (Uppsala University); Vlachos, Jonas (Stockholm University); Wang, Xuemeng (Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Work-related burnout and stress-related sickness absence have become increasingly prevalent, but evidence on which workplace features shape workers’ mental health remains limited. Using population-level Swedish register data covering all lower- and upper-secondary teachers from 2006–2024, we show that schools serving more disadvantaged students exhibit substantially higher rates of sickness absence, particularly for stress-related diagnoses. Exploiting within-teacher variation across student cohorts, we separate sorting from exposure and find that a one standard deviation increase in student disadvantage raises overall and stress-related sick leave by 3.6% and 8.7%, respectively. Survey evidence indicates that these effects operate through classroom conditions rather than workload or organizational differences. The findings establish client composition as a distinct and policy-relevant determinant of worker health in contact-intensive occupations. |
| Keywords: | student composition, mental health, contact-intensive occupations |
| JEL: | I10 I21 J63 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18404 |
| By: | Acton, Riley (Miami University); Morales, Camila (University of Texas at Dallas); Cortes, Kalena (Texas A&M University); Turner, Julia (Northwestern University); Miller, Lois (University of South Carolina) |
| Abstract: | We provide the first descriptive analysis of the economic value of Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) degrees by examining graduates’ early-career earnings, the costs of completing these programs, and the alignment between field of study and subsequent employment. Using administrative data and controlling for institution and field, we find that CCB graduates earn $4, 000 to $9, 000 more annually than Associate’s (AA) degree holders one year after graduation but experience average earnings penalties of roughly $2, 000 relative to traditional Bachelor’s (BA) recipients. These averages mask substantial heterogeneity: penalties are largest in Computer and Information Technology and Engineering Technology, whereas CCB graduates in Nursing, other Healthcare fields, Business, and Criminal Justice exhibit minimal or no penalties. To contextualize these returns, we analyze tuition and fee structures across CCB-granting institutions and identify two dominant pricing models—constant and escalating. Total CCB program costs fall between those of AA and BA degrees, with escalating structures increasing upper-division prices by about 40 percent. |
| Keywords: | community college baccalaureate, college accessibility, college choices, college attainment, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, community colleges, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, public postsecondary institutions, college tuition and fee structures, field of study, field-to-industry match |
| JEL: | I21 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18400 |
| By: | Victor Lavy; Moses Shayo |
| Abstract: | We study how teachers' rule violations in grading affect students' ethical behavior. Using administrative data from high-stakes exams, combining teacher-assigned internal scores with externally graded national exam scores, we track teacher grading violations and subsequent student cheating. We explore three potential mechanisms: imitation (learning that rules can be broken), positive reciprocity (responding favorably to favorable treatment), and negative reciprocity (retaliating against unfavorable treatment). Exploiting within-student variation in exposure to different teachers, we find students are significantly more likely to cheat when teachers break the rules to their detriment (systematically undergrading), consistent with both imitation and negative reciprocity. However, when teachers systematically overgrade, responses vary by community structure. In heterogeneous communities, overgrading increases student cheating, suggesting imitation dominates. In homogeneous communities, students respond by cheating less, consistent with positive reciprocity dominating. This pattern holds across multiple homogeneity measures, including surname concentration and residential clustering. Survey measures of mutual respect and support between students and teachers confirm this pattern. |
| JEL: | I20 J00 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34931 |
| By: | Meli, Francesca |
| Abstract: | Does chronotype affect academic performance? Chronotype is an expression of a person's circadian rhythm. The combination of its biological variation across individuals with rigid social constraints inevitably results in different degrees of alignment between the biological and the social clock, potentially altering efficiency when performing tasks. Using data from Add Health, which combines official high school transcripts with DNA-based information, this paper examines whether the genetic predisposition for a morning-oriented chronotype affects high school GPA. Exploiting the natural experiment of random genetic inheritance among full siblings, I estimate causal effects. Results indicate that, holding the genetic predisposition for educational attainment fixed, a higher propensity for morningness has a positive and statistically significant impact on high school GPA. Findings suggest that this enhancing effect derives from a closer synchronisation between their biological and the social clocks. |
| Keywords: | chronotype, genetics, polygenic index, academic performance, GPA |
| JEL: | I10 I21 J24 J13 I14 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:337666 |
| By: | Shi, Ying (Syracuse University); Villarroel, Francisco (Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | Schools are increasingly restricting cellphones worldwide amid concerns about achievement and mental health, yet causal evidence on school-level bans remains mixed. We examine cellphone restrictions in Chile before the pandemic, where teacher discretion over cellphone use generated classroom-level variation. Using administrative and survey data, we exploit cross-cohort, within-teacher, and within-student cross-subject variation in cellphone policies. Restrictions modestly reduce eighth graders’ in-class recreational cellphone use but not for tenth graders, suggesting uneven compliance. They also lower eighth graders’ perceived academic capability without affecting test scores. Our findings best extrapolate to decentralized policy contexts and contexts with uneven enforcement within schools. |
| Keywords: | cellphone bans, student outcomes |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18426 |
| By: | Francesca Meli |
| Abstract: | Does chronotype affect academic performance? Chronotype is an expression of a person’s circadian rhythm. The combination of its biological variation across individuals with rigid social constraints inevitably results in different degrees of alignment between the biological and the social clock, potentially altering efficiency when performing tasks. Using data from Add Health, which combines official high school transcripts with DNA-based information, this paper examines whether the genetic predisposition for a morning-oriented chronotype affects high school GPA. Exploiting the natural experiment of random genetic inheritance among full siblings, I estimate causal effects. Results indicate that, holding the genetic predisposition for educational attainment fixed, a higher propensity for morningness has a positive and statistically significant impact on high school GPA. Findings suggest that this enhancing effect derives from a closer synchronisation between their biological and the social clocks. |
| Date: | 2026–01–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:26/825 |
| By: | Christa Deneault; Evan Riehl; Jian Zou |
| Abstract: | We use Texas administrative data to assess the long-standing claim that teacher certification exams discriminate against underrepresented minority (URM) candidates. In a regression discontinuity design, we find that failing a certification exam delays entry into teaching and costs the average candidate $10, 000 in forgone earnings. These costs fall disproportionately on URM candidates both because they are more likely to fail and because their earnings losses from failing are 50 percent larger on average. To examine whether these disparities are justified by racial/ethnic differences in teaching quality, we develop a new measure of disparate impact and estimate it using a policy change that increased the difficulty of Texas’ elementary certification exam. The harder exam reduced the URM share of new teachers but had no significant benefits for teaching quality or student achievement. Taken together, our findings show that certification exams have a disparate impact in the sense that they impose much larger economic costs on URM teaching candidates than on white candidates with similar potential teaching quality. |
| Keywords: | Occupational licensing; teacher labor markets; occupational choice |
| Date: | 2026–02–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddwp:102853 |
| By: | Brenøe, Anne (University of Zurich); Rutnam, Daphne (University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | We study how adolescents’ second-order beliefs about their parents’ occupational preferences shape gendered career aspirations. In a consequential early-career choice setting, we combine a parental choice experiment with a randomized salience intervention among students. Parents give gendered recommendations, but students substantially overestimate fathers' preference for boys to choose male-dominated occupations as well as mothers' preference for girls to choose female-dominated occupations. Making the same-gender parent salient raises aspirations for gender-congruent occupations, while highlighting the opposite-gender parent and both parents has no effect. Salience does not shift perceived occupational fit, suggesting that identity-based second-order beliefs can reinforce occupational gender segregation. |
| Keywords: | gender norms, second-order beliefs, occupational aspirations, parental beliefs, identity and career choice, early-career choices, choice experiment, field experiment |
| JEL: | J16 J24 I21 C93 D91 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18431 |
| By: | Ales Marsal (National Bank of Slovakia); Patryk Perkowski (Yeshiva University) |
| Abstract: | We examine how generative AI impacts productivity across the task-based framework using a field experiment at the National Bank of Slovakia. In our experiment, we randomly assign generative AI access to central bank employees completing workplace tasks that mirror the theoretical task-based framework. Our results indicate that generative AI access leads to large improvements in both quality and efficiency for the majority of participants. We find a strong complementarity between generative AI and non-routine work, both on average and for most participants. We also find some support for generative AI as both cognitive-biased and specialist-biased, though smaller in magnitude than our tests of routine-biased. While workers in routine jobs experience larger individual performance gains, generative AI is less effective for the routine task content of their work. The mismatch between generative AI’s task- versus worker-level impacts is economically large, and results from a simulation exercise suggest the organization can increase output by 7.3% by changing how workers are assigned to tasks in the presence of generative AI. Additionally, we find differences in how the benefits of generative AI relate to worker skills: low-skill workers benefitmost in terms of quality while high-skill workers benefit in terms of efficiency. Our findings provide empirical support on generative AI and task-level complementarities, with important implications for how generative AI will impact workers, organizations, and labor markets more broadly. |
| JEL: | J24 M15 E58 C93 O33 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:svk:wpaper:1128 |
| By: | Mamoon, Dawood |
| Abstract: | The paper provides a detailed discussion on different aspects of University Education and University Research. The author had various administrative positions at GIK, Superior University and UMT and thereby role of Director Research and Director Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC) in development of research culture at university level is in-detailed covered to provide understanding of performance of private sector universities in Pakistan and their overtime evolution to become higher education institutions of excellence. The paper further provides the discussion on the importance of international education by providing his personal account towards international enrollment at Erasmus university for a PhD program and its academic and policy aspects that contribute towards economic development of nation states. |
| Keywords: | Education HIgher Education Innovation Policy Commercialization Policy Economics Pedagogy |
| JEL: | A2 A22 A23 A33 L1 L11 L16 L6 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–01–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127727 |
| By: | Milagros Onofri (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP); Inés Berniell (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP); Raquel Fernández (NYU & NBER & CEPR); Azul Menduiña (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the sharp decline in fertility across Latin America using both period and cohort measures. Combining Vital Statistics, Census microdata, and UN population data, we decompose changes in fertility by age, education, and joint age–education groups. We show that the decline in period fertility between 2000 and 2022 is driven primarily by reductions in within-group birth rates rather than by changes in population composition, with the largest contributions coming from younger and less-educated women. Comparing the cohort born in the mid 1950s and the one born in the mid 1970s, we find that the decline in completed fertility reflects not only delayed childbearing but also substantial reductions in the average number of children per woman. This is driven primarily by lower fertility among mothers rather than by rising childlessness. Our findings provide new evidence on the nature of Latin America’s transition to below-replacement fertility and highlight several open questions for future research. |
| JEL: | J11 J13 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0368 |