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on Education |
| By: | Padilla-Romo, María (University of Tennessee); Peluffo, Cecilia (University of Florida) |
| 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. |
| Keywords: | educational trajectories, migration, local violence |
| JEL: | I24 I25 O15 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18155 |
| By: | Manuel Flores; Mariana Gerstenblüth; Lucía Suárez; Luciana Cantera |
| Abstract: | We examine the effects of virtual instruction on academic achievement at the Univer-sidad de la Rep´ublica, Uruguay, in 2022. We analyze student performance by considering the sequential nature of the evaluation process within the courses. Our results reveal that students in virtual courses are less likely to be active or achieve course approval. When possible, we use alternative identification strategies that show the stability of the estimated effects. We also find that the gap in the results is explained by the sequence of intermediate tests, which combine different performances in terms of retention and test scores. We highlight the importance of ef-fective targeting as the negative effects disappear for students facing constraints on attendance. |
| Keywords: | Virtual education · Student performance · Sequential Treatment Effects · Hetero-geneous Treatment Effects · Program Targeting |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ude:wpaper:0124 |
| By: | Blanden, Jo (University of Surrey); Cassagneau-Francis, Oliver (University College London); Macmillan, Lindsey (University College London); Wyness, Gill (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Inequality in college attendance is a key driver of intergenerational mobility. We focus upstream to examine how elite high-schools – specifically UK private (feepaying) schools – shape university destinations across the achievement distribution. Using linked-administrative data, we show the main advantage conferred by private schools is not access to elite colleges for their best students, but that lower-achieving students are more likely to ‘overmatch’: lower-achieving pupils from private schools enrol in university courses around 15 percentiles higher ranked than similarly qualified state-school students. Examining mechanisms, we show that this overmatch is driven largely by differences in application behaviour. |
| Keywords: | mismatch, college choice, educational economics, higher education, private schools |
| JEL: | I22 I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18171 |
| By: | Ethan Kaplan; Jörg L. Spenkuch; Cody Tuttle |
| Abstract: | We estimate the impact of education on voter turnout and partisanship using a regression discontinuity design based on school-entry cutoffs and exact date of birth. Drawing on nationwide administrative voter registration data, we find that individuals who were slotted to enter school one year earlier are more likely to vote and more likely to register as independents. These reduced-form effects may be driven by changes in educational attainment or by differences in the quality of individuals’ educational experiences. We leverage age-related heterogeneity in effect sizes to isolate the role of educational attainment. Our results imply that an additional year of schooling increases turnout by about 3 percentage points. |
| JEL: | D72 I20 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34355 |
| By: | Rosenqvist, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Sauermann, Jan (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Substantial and persistent differences in learning outcomes between schools largely caused by school segregation is a recurrent issue in many countries and is seen as a threat against equality of opportunity. Compensatory resource allocation policies are sometimes used to mitigate this problem, but the evidence on the effects of such policies is limited. In this paper, we evaluate a large compensatory grant in Sweden, the Equity grant, which was launched by the government in 2017/2018 with the aim of improving the prospects of success for students with a disadvantaged background. The grant, which has since increased to more than SEK 7 billion per year, is allocated based on a socioeconomic index. We examine the relationship between education provider index and teacher-to-student ratio in the years before and after the introduction of the grant and find that teacher-to-student ratios are significantly more compensatory as the grant is introduced and then gradually expanded. Overall, however, we do not see that the increased teacher resources among providers serving disadvantaged students led to smaller test score differences between providers serving advantaged and disadvantaged students respectively. However, in grade 9, where the effect on class size is most pronounced, there are indications of improved student performance, which also translate into increased high-school enrollment. |
| Keywords: | education providers; disadvantaged students; compensatory resource allocation; equity grant; learning outcomes |
| JEL: | I22 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2025–09–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2025_015 |
| By: | Judith Scott-Clayton; Veronica Minaya; C.J. Libassi; Joshua K.R. Thomas |
| Abstract: | Despite a large earnings premium for bachelor’s degree completion in general, graduates from low-income families earn substantially less than graduates from high-income families. While prior research has documented the role of college quality and major choice in explaining these gaps, we examine undermatching on a different margin: the first (post-college) job transition. The transition from college to the labor market can be challenging to navigate, and students with financial, informational, or other disadvantages during the job search may be more likely to “undermatch” to their first job. Using administrative data from a large, urban, public college system, we document large gaps in earnings five years after graduation by SES (proxied by financial aid receipt) that remain unexplained even after controlling for GPA, college, field of study, and other pre-graduation characteristics. We then examine how features of the initial job transition relate to longer-term earnings, and to what extent differences in the first job transition can explain later SES earnings gaps. Our results show that first job transitions are rocky for many graduates, strongly predict earnings at Year 5, and are a substantial mediator of socioeconomic gaps in earnings five years after college graduation—reducing the unexplained gap by almost two-thirds. |
| JEL: | I23 I24 J62 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34366 |
| By: | Akesaka, Mika (Kobe University); Shigeoka, Hitoshi (University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | This study demonstrates that heat disproportionately impairs human capital accumulation among low-performing students compared with their high-performing peers, using nationwide examination data from 22 million students in Japan. Given the strong correlation between academic performance and socioeconomic background, this suggests that heat exposure exacerbates pre-existing socioeconomic disparities among children. However, access to air conditioning in schools significantly mitigates these adverse effects across all achievement levels, with particularly pronounced benefits for lower-performing students. These findings suggest that public investment in school infrastructure can help reduce the unevenly distributed damage caused by heat to student learning, thereby promoting both efficiency and equity. |
| Keywords: | air conditioning, adaptation, student achievement, distributional impact, heat, children, climate change |
| JEL: | I21 I24 Q54 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18165 |