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on Education |
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Issue of 2026–08–17
thirty-one papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Goulas, Sofoklis; Griselda, Silvia; Megalokonomou, Rigissa; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | How do disruptive peers shape academic and career paths? We examine this question by leveraging the random assignment of students to classrooms in Greece and identifying the effects of peer disruptiveness on academic performance and career paths. Using suspension hours as a measure of disruptiveness, we find that students assigned to more disruptive classrooms have lower academic achievement, a higher risk of grade retention, and reduced likelihood of graduating from high school on time. They are also less likely to pursue competitive STEM fields or enroll in selective postsecondary programs. The adverse effects are more pronounced for students from low-income areas, in larger classrooms, or with fewer female peers. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment, we find that exposure to multiple disruptors, compared to just one, reduces students’ study motivation, college aspirations, and readiness for science studies and careers, especially for those seated closer to disruptive peers. |
| Keywords: | Lab-in-the-field experiment |
| JEL: | I24 I26 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19793 |
| By: | Contractor, Zara (Middlebury College); Reyes, Germán (Middlebury College) |
| Abstract: | We study how generative AI affects student learning in a randomized experiment. In proctored, in-person sessions, undergraduates learn about an unfamiliar topic and write an analytical essay with or without access to off-the-shelf generative AI, then complete unaided assessments immediately and one week later. We measure learning with knowledge tests (factual and conceptual understanding) and open-ended essays (higher-order skills). AI access raises immediate test scores by 0.27 standard deviations. These gains persist one week later. Essay quality, by contrast, changes little while students have AI access but improves in style and relevance one week later, when students write unaided. These delayed gains are larger among augmentation users—who use AI to explain concepts rather than generate text—whereas automation users' short-run quality gains vanish once AI is removed. We find evidence for two mechanisms behind the learning gains: students shift time away from drafting text and toward reading and searching for information, and they report greater learning enjoyment. |
| Keywords: | generative AI, human capital, learning, higher education, randomized experiment |
| JEL: | I21 I23 J24 O33 C93 D83 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18792 |
| By: | Arellano, Manuel; Attanasio, Orazio; Borella, Margherita; De Nardi, Mariacristina; Paz-Pardo, Gonzalo |
| Abstract: | We develop a new approach to estimating earnings, job, and employment dynamics using subjective expectations data from the NY Fed Survey of Consumer Expectations. These data provide beliefs about future earnings offers and acceptance probabilities, offering direct information on counterfactual outcomes and enabling identification under weaker assumptions. Our framework avoids biases from selection and unobserved heterogeneity that affect models using realized outcomes. First-step fixed-effects regressions identify risk, persistence, and transition effects; second-step GMM recovers the covariance structure of unobserved heterogeneities such as ability, mobility, and match quality. We find lower risk and persistence of the individual productivity component than in prior work, but greater heterogeneity in ability and match quality. Simulations show that reduced-form estimates overstate persistence and volatility on individual-level productivity due to job transitions and sorting. After accounting for heterogeneity, volatility declines and becomes flat across the earnings distribution. These results underscore the value of expectations data. JEL Classification: C23, C81, D15 |
| Keywords: | earnings dynamics models, subjective expectations |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20263264 |
| By: | Yue Ma; Tianli Feng; Robert W. Fairlie; Chengfang Liu; Prashant Loyalka; Scott Rozelle; Xinwu Zhang |
| Abstract: | The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has heightened interest in personalizing computer assisted learning (CAL) programs to tailor their instruction to individual students. Despite the proliferation of AI-driven CAL programs, evidence for their effectiveness remains limited. We present findings from a large-scale field experiment in rural China examining whether an AI-driven personalized CAL program improves student achievement. We randomly assign 8, 647 students from 315 primary school classes to one of three treatment arms: (i) AI-CAL, (ii) non-personalized CAL (active control), and (iii) non-CAL educational activities (pure control). Results indicate that AI-CAL does not significantly improve achievement, with estimates precise enough to rule out non-trivial positive effects. This finding holds across the difficulty of assessment items and across the baseline achievement of students. The finding that R-CAL modestly benefits students in the middle ability tercile while AI-CAL shows no impact on students in any ability tercile suggests caution when projecting the promise of scaling adaptive AI-driven educational technologies in under-resourced settings. |
| Keywords: | AI, education technology, computer assisted learning, adaptive learning, ICT, RCT, rural China |
| JEL: | I21 O15 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12837 |
| By: | Barwick, Panle; Chen, Siyu; Fu, Chao; Li, Teng |
| Abstract: | Concerns about excessive mobile phone use among youth are mounting. We present estimates of both behavioral and contextual peer effects, along with comprehensive evidence on how students' own and their peers' app usage affect academic performance, physical health, and labor market outcomes. Our analysis draws on administrative data from a Chinese university covering three student cohorts over four years. We exploit random roommate assignments, differential exposure to a policy shock (gaming restrictions for minors), and differential exposure to a discrete event (the introduction of a blockbuster video game) for identification. App usage is contagious: a one s.d. increase in roommates' in-college app usage raises own usage by 5.8%. High app usage is harmful across all measured outcomes. A one s.d. increase in app usage reduces GPAs by 36.2% of a within-cohort-major s.d. and lowers wages by 2.3%. Roommates' app usage reduces a student's GPAs and wages through both disruptions and behavioral spillovers, generating a total negative effect that exceeds half the magnitude of the impact from the student's own app usage. Extending China's three-hour-per-week gaming restriction for minors to college students would boost their initial wages by 0.9%. High-frequency GPS and app usage data show that heavy app users spend less time in study halls, are more frequently late or absent from class, and get less sleep. |
| JEL: | E24 D91 I23 L82 L86 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19579 |
| By: | Aoki, Yu (University of Aberdeen); Arulampalam, Wiji (University of Warwick); Lloyd, Neil (University of St Andrews) |
| Abstract: | We estimate the causal effect of exposure to fast-food outlets on adolescent z-BMI using the UK Millennium Cohort Study linked to comprehensive geospatial data. We develop a novel approach to modelling z-BMI persistence by clustering early childhood z-BMI trajectories, allowing us to distinguish baseline obesity susceptibility from contemporaneous environmental effects. Identification exploits the near-universal transition from primary to secondary school, generating plausibly exogenous variation in exposure to fast-food outlets around schools. We find that adolescents with at least one major-brand outlet near school have, on average, a 0.158 standard-deviation higher z-BMI. Effects decline with distance, are limited around the home, and do not extend to other food outlets. |
| Keywords: | adolescent obesity, body mass index, fast food, school food environment |
| JEL: | I12 I18 R14 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18770 |
| By: | Mikdash, Maya (Louisiana State University); Zhong, Jiee (Miami University) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-term effects of access to state-funded early childhood education on educational attainment and labor market outcomes. To do so, we exploit quasi-random variation across districts and cohorts generated by the phased rollout of Texas's large-scale public Pre-K program. Using restricted-access administrative data, we find that access to state-funded Pre-K substantially increases enrollment, particularly in districts without alternative preschool options. Additional results show that in districts that provide Pre-K simultaneously for three- and four-year-olds, access to Pre-K increases earnings at age 27 and high-school graduation by about 4 percent, with no effect on college enrollment. In contrast, access to Pre-K has no effects on labor market and educational outcomes in districts that primarily serve four-year-olds only. We provide suggestive evidence that the effectiveness of state-funded Pre-K depends on program funding rather than access alone. |
| Keywords: | state-funded prekindergarten, early childhood education, human capital, educational attainment, labor market outcomes |
| JEL: | I26 I28 J24 H52 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18790 |
| By: | James M. Zumel Dumlao; Meng Wang; Zhonghan Xie; Junyao Hu; Ivan Bar; George Chaney III; Henry Gold; Misha Teplitskiy |
| Abstract: | The spread of generative AI (GenAI) in higher education has raised concerns that students offload cognitive effort to AI, earning high grades without learning. If this "GenAI substitution hypothesis" is true, grades should rise disproportionately in GenAI-susceptible courses--those relying more on assessments like take-home problem sets and essays rather than in-class exams. Substitution could also affect student satisfaction, measured here as self-reported understanding and interest in the subject, which prior research links to assessments. We test the substitution hypothesis using syllabus and administrative data from a large U.S. university (2015-2025; 156, 135 students; 87, 936 course offerings). We measure courses' GenAI susceptibility using a human-validated LLM pipeline to extract assessment types from syllabi, and use a differences-in-differences design comparing outcomes across courses before and after ChatGPT's release, while modeling COVID-19 pandemic effects as either persistent or transient. We find no significant differential effect of GenAI availability on grades overall or among previously lower-performing students. Effects on self-reported understanding are likewise insignificant; effects on interest are significant only assuming transient pandemic effects. Our findings temper concerns that GenAI inflates grades and reduces students' satisfaction. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2607.21534 |
| By: | Hull, Marie (University of North Carolina, Greensboro); Shah, Hema (Federal Trade Commission); Zhu, Maria (Syracuse University) |
| Abstract: | U.S. public schools play a central role in identifying student disabilities. Using administrative data, we examine how third-grade class rank affects subsequent disability classification, leveraging variation in school-cohort achievement distributions to isolate rank from students' own achievement. Students in the lowest ventile are 3.8 percentage points more likely to be classified as having a disability than students at the median (10\textsuperscript{th} ventile). Students at ventiles above the median exhibit smaller but statistically significant estimated increases relative to the median as well. These patterns are driven primarily by classifications of learning disabilities and health conditions such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). We further document that low-ranked students are more likely to receive a testing accommodation in fourth grade. Together, these findings highlight the role of subjective factors in shaping disability diagnoses and the allocation of testing accommodations. |
| Keywords: | disability, special education, rank effects, testing accommodations |
| JEL: | I21 J14 I10 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18836 |
| By: | Albornoz-Crespo, Facundo; Cabrales, Antonio; Cruces, Guillermo; Lombardi, María |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how different types of school resources affect parental involvement in children’s education and subsequent student effort. Using an original survey of UK primary school parents, we distinguish between school resources for in-person and remote learning. We find that parental involvement serves as a substitute for in-person school resources but complements remote learning resources. Incorporating these findings, we develop a new model of student effort demonstrating that in person learning investments, such as reducing class size, have a positive direct effect on student effort but also trigger a negative indirect effect as parents reduce their involvement. These opposing effects result in a neutral net impact. In contrast, remote learning investments have both a positive direct effect and a positive feedback effect by enhancing parental involvement. We provide evidence supporting these predictions and conduct counterfactual policy analyses, showing that investing in remote learning resources is more cost-effective than reducing class size , subsidizing parental time, or hiring tutors. Notably, ignoring the indirect effect of parental behavioral responses leads to a 15\% overestimation of the cost of increasing student effort via remote learning investments. |
| JEL: | I28 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19873 |
| By: | Acton, Riley (Miami University); Morales, Camila (University of Texas at Dallas); Turner, Julia (Northwestern University); Miller, Lois (University of South Carolina); Cortes, Kalena (Texas A&M University) |
| Abstract: | Despite most community college students intending to earn a bachelor’s degree, few successfully transfer and complete one. Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) programs offer an alternative by allowing community colleges to confer bachelor’s degrees directly, yet little is known about how employers value these credentials. We address this question with the first resume audit study of CCB degrees, submitting fictitious applications to real job vacancies while experimentally varying applicants’ credentials, institutions, and demographics. This pilot focuses on the early childhood education (ECE) labor market, a growing CCB field marked by labor shortages and rising educational requirements. We find that employers view CCB degrees similarly to traditional bachelor’s and associate degrees, with statistically indistinguishable interview-request rates. Callback text shows little evidence of differential employer responses, while a net-price simulation suggests sticker-price comparisons overstate CCB affordability. These findings provide new evidence on the labor market value and affordability of CCB degrees and inform an ongoing audit study across additional fields. |
| Keywords: | community college baccalaureate, college accessibility, college choices, college attainment, associate degree, bachelor’s degree, community colleges, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, public postsecondary institutions |
| JEL: | I21 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18786 |
| By: | de la Fuente Stevens, Diego (University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | Mexico's 1993 reform extended compulsory schooling from six to nine years, creating a birth-cohort discontinuity in educational exposure. Using a regression discontinuity and instrumental variable design in the 2020 Mexican Census, this paper traces the reform's effects from educational attainment through fertility, child mortality, employment, and migration, into the schooling of the next generation. The reform raised attainment across all groups, but its effects were concentrated among Indigenous communities and rural populations, where baseline attainment was lowest: Indigenous literacy rose by 4.5 percentage points and lower-secondary completion by 3.8, from baselines of 78 and 29 per cent. These gains translated into lower fertility, reduced child mortality, higher employment, and a reallocation of workers out of low-productivity agriculture into higher-productivity sectors. Linking parents to children through census household identifiers, an additional year of parental schooling raised children's secondary enrolment by 3 to 4 percentage points and upper-secondary enrolment by 5 to 8. A single compulsory schooling reform thus generated a sustained, multi-domain shift in life trajectories extending across generations. |
| Keywords: | compulsory schooling, education reform, intergenerational mobility, fertility, labour markets outcomes, migration |
| JEL: | I26 I28 I24 J13 J62 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18864 |
| By: | Calvi, Rossella; Farooqi, Hira; Kandpal, Eeshani |
| Abstract: | We study how marriage market considerations influence parental investments in daughters' education in Pakistan. Using a hypothetical choice methodology, we estimate parents' preferences and willingness-to-pay for marital customs and daughters' marital and post-marital outcomes. Our findings highlight considerable heterogeneity between mothers and fathers, even within the same family. On average, fathers prioritize adherence to traditional customs, while mothers emphasize daughters' post-marital agency. Using a model of schooling decisions that incorporates these preferences, perceived costs, and parental beliefs about marital returns to education, we examine educational investments. Counterfactual simulations show that belief-targeting campaigns and policies boosting mothers' decision-power could significantly improve girls' education. |
| Keywords: | Pakistan |
| JEL: | J12 D13 I31 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19694 |
| By: | Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés; Henry de Frahan, Rosalie |
| Abstract: | Education plays a crucial role in fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and equal opportunities in society, acting as a "social elevator." However, an inequitable educational system can perpetuate inequalities, leading to significant social consequences. This paper examines two mechanisms through which schooling systems may generate or reinforce inequalities: private schooling and school composition. Earlier studies often suggested that private schooling, particularly government-dependent private schools, had a positive impact on student achievement. However, more recent research has challenged this view, highlighting the importance of contextual factors such as school composition and socio-economic background. Building on these findings, our analysis explores how the advantages attributed to private schools are shaped by the demographic profiles of their students. Using data from the OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 and employing an education production function, we assess the effects of private schooling and school composition on student performance. Our findings contribute to the growing body of research questioning the comparative advantage of private schools, demonstrating that their perceived superiority often arises from the socio-economic advantages of the students they enroll, rather than the quality of education provided. The study also reveals significant variations across countries, underscoring the urgent need to address the segregation issues linked to private school networks. |
| Keywords: | Education; Segregation; Inequalities |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I28 J24 H52 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19624 |
| By: | David Card; Ciprian Domnisoru; Seth Sanders; Lowell Taylor; Victoria Udalova |
| Abstract: | We document an enduring influence of female primary school teachers on their female students in rural America circa 1940. Using historical US Census data linked to IRS records, later censuses, and death records, we find that exposure to female teachers significantly improved girls’ educational attainment—particularly among those with poorly-educated parents and in areas with limited labor market opportunities for women. These educational gains translated into delayed marriage and childbearing, marriage matches to better-educated husbands and higher household income. We also find that exposure to female teachers increased longevity of women relative to men. |
| Keywords: | Female Teachers; Education and Gender Equality; Education and Mortality |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:26-39 |
| By: | Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Rivera-Olvera, Angelica |
| Abstract: | Schooling increases earnings but getting causal information on the impact of schooling requires generating evidence from policy changes. In this paper, we estimate causal effects of additional education on earnings using new compulsory schooling law data across 16 European countries. We use recent and comparable microdata and analyze the impact of reforms on schooling and earnings. Results show that a year of education substantially increases earnings, especially for those with tertiary education. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education, compulsory schooling reforms, instrumental variables, causal inference, human capital, earnings, Europe |
| JEL: | I26 J31 C26 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1800 |
| By: | Betthäuser, Bastian Andreas (Sciences Po, Paris); Konechni, Bartholomew; Wittemann, Vanessa Astrid; Grassi, Gaia; Swingler, Susan; Bach-Mortensen, Anders; Ayris, Niklas; Oljaca, Una |
| Abstract: | While there is a large body of evidence on the effectiveness of educational interventions, the robustness of this evidence has not been systematically assessed. Here we conduct a preregistered systematic review, quality appraisal, and meta-analysis of all available estimates of the effects of four common supplementary learning interventions—tutoring, summer programs, afterschool programs, and extended instruction time—on children’s learning in mathematics and reading. We use multiple diagnostic techniques to assess the risk of bias of individual effect size estimates and to test for publication bias in the evidence base on supplementary learning interventions as a whole. We find that about half of all effect size estimates are at serious or critical risk of bias, with confounding and deviation from intended treatment being the most prominent risk-of-bias domains. We find substantial publication bias in the existing evidence base, indicated by a marked discontinuity in the distribution of test statistics at the conventional significance threshold and a significant association between magnitude and precision of effect size estimates. We combine five bias-correction techniques to estimate bias-adjusted effects for the four intervention types. Correcting for publication bias substantially reduces effect size estimates for tutoring, summer programs, and extended instruction time and renders estimates for afterschool programs statistically insignificant. After correction, tutoring is the only intervention that consistently yields positive and statistically significant effects. Our findings suggest that the existing evidence base substantially overestimates the effectiveness of commonly implemented supplementary learning interventions. |
| Date: | 2026–07–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:rf8kx_v2 |
| By: | Benos, Nikolaos (Department of Economics, University of Ioannina); Conti, Maurizio (University of Genoa); Papazoglou, Michail (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training); Tsoumaris, Stamatis (Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi)) |
| Abstract: | We examine universities and urban growth in pre-industrial Europe using a panel of 2, 247 cities from 1000 to 1800 and a staggered difference-in-differences design. Under the maintained identifying assumptions, university establishment is associated with approximately 20 percent higher city population, but estimates are highly heterogeneous. Population gains are strongest in earlier centuries and weaken as universities diffuse, while after 1500 they are concentrated among high-quality universities and commercially connected cities, especially near Atlantic and North Sea trade routes. University establishment is also followed by improved local market access. Overall, universities matter most where academic quality and commercial opportunities are greatest. |
| Keywords: | universities, urban growth, upper-tail human capital, market access, pre-industrial Europe |
| JEL: | N33 O15 O18 R11 I23 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18781 |
| By: | Bindler, Anna (University of Potsdam and DIW); Boelmann, Barbara (University of Cologne); Janys, Lena (University of Konstanz); Santiago-Wolf, Luisa (University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | How do labor demand shocks affect workforce diversity in the absence of targeted diversity policies? A conceptual framework illustrates the potential trade-off between the demographic and quality composition of a workforce when there is a positive labor demand shock. Exploiting the German reunification as a natural experiment, we analyze the academic labor market where nearly all social sciences professors in East Germany were replaced while STEM faculty remained largely unchanged. Using administrative data and a regional difference-in-differences design, we find increased dispersion in the institutional quality of hires, indicating that the new hires came from less select departments. At the same time, female representation did not increase despite qualified women in the pipeline. Instead, East German hiring patterns converged to those in West Germany in terms of gender composition. In simulations, we investigate implied losses: Under conservative assumptions, we show that, considering the pipeline of qualified applicants, the marginal female hire’s quality is approximately half a standard deviation higher than the marginal male hire’s quality. |
| Keywords: | labor demand, diversity, higher education, universities |
| JEL: | I23 J23 J45 J70 J82 N34 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18756 |
| By: | Alves, Augusto; Pantaleão, Bruno; Santos, Alei |
| Abstract: | We examine the mechanisms through which full-time schooling reduces crime, exploiting the staggered rollout of São Paulo’s Integral Education Program (2012 - 2024) using a difference-in-differences estimator. Full-time school adoption reduces property crime by 18.8 incidents per hexagon-year (7%), driven primarily by robbery. Crucially, effects are temporally concentrated: robbery falls 12.1% during school hours versus 8.8% outside them, and theft falls 25.8% during school hours while increasing 4.2% outside. This pattern provides direct evidence for an incapacitation mechanism—crime reduction is largest when school supervision is most direct. Underage-perpetrator crimes are reduced disproportionately (65% for theft, 23% for robbery), indicating school-based supervision particularly deters youth. Full-time schooling operates primarily through direct supervision rather than longer-run opportunity-cost mechanisms, a finding relevant for developing country policy |
| Date: | 2026–07–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:8a6t7_v1 |
| By: | Holzman, Brian; Wang, Shuyu |
| Abstract: | As students from immigrant families comprise a growing share of the U.S. student population, understanding their access to postsecondary education is increasingly critical. Drawing on nationally representative survey data, this study investigates generational differences in high school students’ college knowledge, including their ability to estimate college costs and expected earnings, their accuracy in doing so, and their awareness of financial aid. The findings show that students across immigrant generations substantially overestimate college costs, especially for public institutions. Compared with third- and higher-generation students, first- and second-generation students show some initial disadvantages in tuition knowledge, but these differences are largely reduced after accounting for background characteristics. Subgroup analyses suggest that first-generation gaps in public four-year tuition accuracy are most evident among relatively advantaged and college-oriented students. In contrast, first-generation students are less likely than third- and higher-generation students to report not knowing what the Free Application for Federal Student Aid is after controls are added. This study contributes to the literature on immigrant-generation differences and postsecondary choice by showing that college financial knowledge is multidimensional: students from immigrant families may be less calibrated in their understanding of college costs while also demonstrating awareness of specific financial aid tools. |
| Date: | 2026–07–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:mf9ux_v1 |
| By: | Guo, Naijia (The University of Hong Kong); Zhong, Ling (Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu) |
| Abstract: | Federal student loan interest rates affect college financing, education and job choices, and career outcomes. Using U.S. microdata, we exploit changes in federal loan rates over time and regional variation in expected loan reliance. Higher interest rates reduce student loan take-up and the amount borrowed without raising total interest payments, and students shift toward funding sources that do not require repayment. Students facing higher borrowing costs sort into higher-earning majors and occupations, increase labor supply, and move away from self-employment and small-firm jobs. Affected individuals earn more but report lower satisfaction with job independence and responsibility. |
| Keywords: | federal student loans, interest rates, education outcomes, labor market outcomes, college financing costs |
| JEL: | I23 J24 H81 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18768 |
| By: | Machin, Stephen; Sandi, Matteo |
| 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 |
| JEL: | K42 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19877 |
| By: | Ekaterina Sprenger (University of Hamburg, ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics); Eva Markowsky (University of Potsdam, CEPA) |
| Abstract: | Most economic decisions are fundamentally about the preference for larger rewards later over smaller rewards sooner, and a growing body of literature suggests that linguistic structures, in particular the grammatical marking of future time reference (FTR), may shape individuals’ time preferences and future-oriented behaviour. This paper examines whether variation in language proficiency among bilingual adolescents exposed to both weak- and strong-FTR languages within the same institutional and cultural environment is associated with differences in future-oriented behaviour and educational outcomes. We analyse German–Turkish and German–Russian bilingual students and relate individual-level language proficiency to willingness to invest time in learning, mathematics grades and self-assessed patience. Across a range of specifications and robustness checks, we find no evidence that greater proficiency in a strong-FTR language is associated with less future-oriented behaviour; if anything, it is weakly positively associated with willingness to invest in learning. The absence of negative associations suggests that previously documented effects may operate through long-run cultural transmission rather than grammatical structure alone and has important implications for education policy in increasingly multilingual European societies. |
| Keywords: | future-time reference, linguistic-savings hypothesis, time preferences, patience, bilingualism, heritage-language proficiency, educational investment, human capital |
| JEL: | Z13 D15 J15 I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:cepadp:105 |
| By: | Dee, Thomas (Stanford University); Gibbs, Chloe (University of Notre Dame); Margolit-Chan, Rebecca (Cornell University); Morrell, Lillian (University of Notre Dame); Sullivan, James (University of Notre Dame) |
| Abstract: | Timely high school completion is a critical step in successful transitions to post-secondary schooling and the labor market. This randomized controlled trial, deployed in two urban, disadvantaged school districts, tests the effectiveness of a mature and comprehensive student-support program on an unusually large scale (n=2, 528). While overall effects on graduation rates are small and statistically insignificant, exploratory analyses reveal notable variation by site and over time, mirroring heterogeneity in treatment timing and program implementation. These findings highlight the challenges of scaling interventions and raise concerns about generalizing results from small-scale, single-site evaluations. |
| Keywords: | graduation, dropout |
| JEL: | I24 I26 I31 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18840 |
| By: | Braghieri, Luca; Eichmeyer, Sarah |
| Abstract: | Can teaching the history of authoritarian regimes built on extreme ideology lastingly reduce support for those ideologies? We leverage a natural experiment in Germany where the senior high school history curriculum exogenously alternated covering, across cohorts, the communist German Democratic Republic and fascist Nazi Germany. Data collected a decade post-graduation reveals that studying the GDR rather than the Nazi regime increases knowledge about the GDR and reduces support for extreme left-wing ideology. The treatment does not increase support for extreme right-wing ideology on average, but does so in more right-leaning regions, highlighting substitutabilities of the production function of extreme ideology. |
| Keywords: | Education; Political ideology; History; Schooling curricula |
| JEL: | P00 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19575 |
| By: | Ruchir Agarwal; Patrick Gaule |
| Abstract: | Many individuals with exceptional ability may never realize their potential. Whether expanding access to structured online instruction can unlock such learning remains an open question. We study this by randomly assigning 620 students from 44 countries to a combinatorics course or self-study. Assignment raised exam performance by 0.16 SD, but engagement varied widely and was unpredictable (R2 ≈ 0.09). Using random assignment as an instrument for engagement, we estimate gains of 0.66 SD for fully engaged students, with sizeable gains among a small subset later competing in the IMO. Access generates large gains, but only when engagement is sustained. |
| Date: | 2026–01–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:uobdis:26/846 |
| By: | Gould, Eric; Lichtinger, Guy |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes how the “child penalty†associated with career interruptions for women after becoming a mother is influenced by preferences absorbed during childhood, and how the child penalty, in turn, is related to the quantity and quality (education) of her own children. Using linked administrative data on Israeli parents and children, the analysis shows that mothers who grew up in larger and more traditional families marry men from larger families, and together they have more children. Growing up with more siblings is also associated with a larger child penalty for a mother in earnings and employment, as well as in terms of commuting less and moving to “mother friendly†firms at the expense of higher wage firms. The results also indicate that the child penalty produces two opposing effects on child human capital – a negative impact due to the loss of parental income, and a positive influence of increased maternal time away from work. Overall, the evidence suggests that the family preferences and norms absorbed during childhood significantly influence a woman’s choices of spouse, fertility, and child penalty later in life – but with little overall impact on her children’s high school achievements. |
| Keywords: | Child penalties |
| JEL: | J12 J13 J16 J22 J24 J31 J62 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19722 |
| By: | Aguilar-Bohorquez, Joseph; Mykerezi, Elton; Johnson, Janna E. |
| Abstract: | Teacher turnover is an issue that has long been a concern for rural educators. In parallel, the four-day school week has being introduced in several states and, despite the fact that it was never intended as a solution for teacher retention, several think that four day school schedules could be helping rural districts retain teachers. The aim of this study is to address this question using policy variation from 11 school districts in Minnesota that implemented this policy at different points in time since the school year 2008-09. We use three different approaches (Generalized Difference-in-Difference, event studies and duration analysis) to determine whether the four-day school week has an effect on teacher retention. Our data observe teachers that have worked in all public school districts in Minnesota at any point between the school year 2001-02 and 2018-19. We find that the average effect of introducing the schedule on retention is small and imprecisely estimated. However, we find significant heterogeneous effects; teachers who start working under the new schedule are more likely to stay than their peers who started in other districts or those who started before the schedule change. On the other hand, incumbents who had been working on a traditional district when the switch happens are more likely to exit after the change. Overall we do not find evidence that the four day week has large effects on rural teacher retention, but due to heterogeneous preferences of workers, allowing some districts to use the option may provide opportunities for sorting that increase efficiency in the labor market. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea26:404607 |
| By: | Pau Insa-Sanchez (Department of Economics, Jaume I University, Spain); Alba Ruiz-Buforn (Department of Economic Analysis, University of Valencia, Spain); Jose-Ramon Ruiz-Tamarit (Department of Economic Analysis, University of Val`encia, Spain) |
| Abstract: | There is strong evidence that school quality, complemented by the quality of institutional arrangements, is one of the most important determinants of a country’s long-run economic growth. Thus, understanding the role that private and public schools play in this relationship is highly important for both scholars and policymakers. We develop an endogenous growth model to study the effects of different education financing modes on long-run economic growth. We distinguish between public and private education provision by explicitly modeling their differing levels of efficiency based on the distinct characteristics associated with each mode of financing, incorporating their intrinsic features as pointed out by the empirical literature and their predicted effects on quality. By allowing us to model a wide range of policy scenarios commonly observed in practice, our framework shows that, under a plausible characterization of the educational conditions prevailing in many Western countries, the interplay between institutional and socio-educational factors shaping the efficiency of both types of education gives public systems a greater advantage in promoting long-run economic growth. |
| Keywords: | economic growth, human capital, education, education financing |
| JEL: | O41 I22 I25 |
| Date: | 2026–07–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2026014 |
| By: | Fernández-Kranz, Daniel (IE University); Trinh, Trong-Anh (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | India reached below-replacement fertility (TFR = 2.0) despite low income, persistent traditional gender norms, and declining female labour force participation. We study how the expansion of a decentralized, fee-based education market reshaped fertility decisions by increasing households’ exposure to the cost of child quality. Because sons are more likely than daughters to be enrolled in private schools, this cost channel interacts with son preference to generate gender-differentiated fertility stopping behavior. We test predicitons from a dynamic model of parity progression using survey data from NFHS (2015–21) merged with administrative district-level UDISE data on 37, 251 women in 525 districts at the parity-2-to-3 margin. We find that households with only daughters are less responsive to local private-school prevalence than otherwise similar households with sons. This result is stable across subsamples, the exclusion of recent migrants, controls for modernization proxies, and controls for differential baseline-fertility trends. At the district level, private-school expansion is associated with lower parity progression, but this effect is sensitive to district-level confounding. |
| Keywords: | fertility, private schooling, household decision-making, developing economies |
| JEL: | J13 I25 O15 D13 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18771 |