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on Education |
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Issue of 2026–02–16
seventeen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Filippo Da Re (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how the parental occupations of grademates influence students’ choice to enrol in an academic high school track. Exploiting variation in the distribution of parental occupations across classes within Italian middle school cohorts, I find that a one standard deviation increase in the share of classmates with prestigious (humble) parental occupations raises (lowers) the likelihood of academic track enrolment by 2 percentage points. Instrumental variable estimates suggest this effect is not driven by individual or peer ability, indicating a direct influence of peer networks. The negative impact of peers from disadvantaged backgrounds is particularly pronounced for low-SES students and in provinces with low social mobility. The effect is concentrated in the most prestigious academic curricula, pointing to the role of social prestige and networks. Notably, immigrant students do not enrol in the academic track regardless of their peers. |
| Keywords: | High school track choice, peer effects, occupations. |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0320 |
| By: | Rohen Shah (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | High-dosage tutoring has the potential to substantially raise adolescent academic achievement, but schools may lack the resources to deliver small-group tutoring frequently at scale. This paper studies the relative importance of tutoring group size (quality) versus tutoring frequency (quantity) using a randomized controlled trial in a Midwestern U.S. charter middle school. Students were randomized to a control group, tutoring twice a week in 2-student groups, or tutoring three times a week in 3-student groups, with equal total cost per student across the two treatment arms. The results show that tutoring in 2-student groups led to a statistically significant improvement in math skills of 0.23 standard deviations, while the more frequent 3-student group tutoring did not produce significant gains. The findings suggest that, under budget constraints, smaller group size may be more effective than higher frequency. |
| Date: | 2026–01–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2493 |
| By: | Fedeli, Emanuele (University of Trento); Triventi, Moris |
| Abstract: | Students in compulsory education spend a considerable amount of time in the classroom interacting with peers and teachers, from whom they receive feedback and signals about their academic competencies. We develop a theoretical framework that integrates the role of teachers’ evaluations, the labeling effect, the categorical judgements model, the big-fish-in-little-pond, and the rational choice theory for understanding categorical inequalities generated within the school environment induced by classroom peer comparison. We argue that teachers, via attributing marks to students, create Teacher-Induced Student Hierarchy (TISH), and the perception of one’s position in this hierarchy affects subsequent educational outcomes, but heterogeneously depending on students’ ascriptive characteristics. We exploit the idiosyncratic variation generated by differential teachers' grading standards across classrooms to identify the effect of TISH. The relative student's position in the classroom hierarchy, net of her absolute performance level, raises the probability of enrolling in the academic track, the expectation of university enrolment, and levels of academic competencies. We observed that boys and students from lower SES backgrounds, who typically have weaker academic standings, are more responsive to their placement in the TISH. Some of these effects seem to stem from the influence of TISH on some socio-emotional skills. |
| Date: | 2026–01–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:jevdr_v2 |
| By: | Dadgar, Iman (Center for Education and Leadership Excellence); Nermo, Magnus (Department of Sociology, Stockholm University); Shahbazian, Roujman (Swedish Institute for Research (SOFI), Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how students’ relative academic rank in compulsory school affects entry into the teaching profession. Using population-wide Swedish administrative data, we link grade-9 GPA for cohorts attending grade 9 in 1990–1997 to detailed occupational outcomes observed at age 40. We measure relative position as within-school–cohort GPA rank and estimate rank effects by exploiting variation in ordinal position among students with similar absolute achievement. The empirical design includes school-by-cohort fixed effects and controls for absolute ability via national GPA-rank indicators interacted with grading-environment (school-type) measures, along with family background controls. We find that lower-ranked students are more likely to become teachers, but the pattern differs across teaching segments: low local rank predicts entry into compulsory and upper-secondary teaching, while very high local rank predicts university teaching; there is no clear relationship for pre-school teaching. Effects are concentrated among women and are strongest for women in high-achieving schools. Results are robust to alternative specifications. The findings highlight relative academic standing as an important, previously overlooked determinant of occupational choice into teaching. |
| Keywords: | Educational inequality; Teaching profession; Occupational choice; School position; Reference groups; Relative deprivation; Sweden |
| Date: | 2026–02–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhb:hastel:2025_002 |
| By: | Na'ama Shenhav; Danielle H. Sandler |
| Abstract: | We study the causal effect of women's education on their wages, non-wage job amenities, and spillovers to children. Using a regression discontinuity at the school entry birthdate cutoff, we find that women born just before the cutoff are more likely to complete some college, and experience multi-dimensional career gains that grow over the life cycle: greater employment and earnings, as well as more professional and higher-status jobs, more socially meaningful work, and better working conditions. Children’s early-life health and prenatal inputs improve in tandem with career improvements, consistent with professional advances spurring—not hindering—infant investments. Career gains are concentrated in jobs that require exactly some college, the same schooling margin shifted by the cutoff, which indicates that increased post-secondary education is the primary channel for these effects. Together, the results show that women's college attendance generates large career returns—from both wages and amenities—that strengthen over time and produce meaningful benefits for children. |
| JEL: | I12 I26 J13 J16 J32 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34767 |
| By: | Tanner S. Eastmond; Michael Ricks; Julian Betts; Nathan Mather |
| Abstract: | We study how teacher "value added" should inform optimal teacher-assignment policy. Our welfare-theoretic framework illustrates (1) how theoretically optimal assignments leverage variation in teachers' impacts both across student types and across different outcomes, and (2) how empirically optimal assignments trade off improved targeting from estimating richer student heterogeneity against increasing misallocation risk. In practice, optimal assignments use limited student types (only lagged achievement) and multiple outcomes (not just math). Even after correcting for policy overfitting, assignments raise average present-value earnings by $2, 800 and increase lower-achieving students' earnings by 70-156% more than benchmark value-added policies that assume that teacher effects are homogeneous across students, that allow for heterogeneous effects across students but for a single subject, or teacher deselection. |
| JEL: | H42 I20 I28 I3 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34768 |
| By: | Na'ama Shenhav; Danielle H. Sandler |
| Abstract: | We study the causal effect of women's education on their wages, non-wage job amenities, and spillovers to children. Using a regression discontinuity at the school entry birthdate cutoff, we find that women born just before the cutoff are more likely to complete some college, and experience multi-dimensional career gains that grow over the life cycle: greater employment and earnings, as well as more professional and higher-status jobs, more socially meaningful work, and better working conditions. Children’s early-life health and prenatal inputs improve in tandem with career improvements, consistent with professional advances spurring—not hindering—infant investments. Career gains are concentrated in jobs that require exactly some college, the same schooling margin shifted by the cutoff, which indicates that increased post-secondary education is the primary channel for these effects. Together, the results show that women's college attendance generates large career returns—from both wages and amenities—that strengthen over time and produce meaningful benefits for children. |
| Keywords: | education, wages, job amenities, inter-generational transfers |
| JEL: | I26 J24 J13 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cen:wpaper:26-09 |
| By: | Nicolás Irazoque Sillerico (IIE-FCE-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first estimate of the impact of the Venezuelan exodus on Colombian students’ learning. To identify the impact, I use the reopening of the ColombianVenezuelan border in 2016 as a natural experiment and propose a differences-in-differences design. The results indicate that, on average, native high school students exposed to immigrants on the schools experience a decrease of 1.8% of a standard deviation in their academic performance and the effect is persistent for the first four years and tends to zero after that. A possible mechanism for this negative effect is that teachers allocate class time to assist lower-achieving Venezuelans. This effect becomes insignificant when the concentration of immigrants is higher. The negative effect is larger for women, for Colombians with high achievement, with highly educated mothers, and for natives who attend schools with high average scores and a high concentration of educated mothers. |
| JEL: | I21 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0364 |
| By: | Scott A. Imberman; Andrew S. Johnson |
| Abstract: | Students with disabilities (SWDs) encompass a sizable share of charter students and have an array of individualized needs. Charter schools may operate differently than traditional public schools with respect to SWDs and special education (SPED), as funding incentives may induce charter schools to underserve SWDs. Nonetheless, there is little empirical evidence regarding how enrollment in charter schools affects SWDs’ educational environments and outcomes. We use data from Michigan to estimate charter impacts using a heterogeneous difference-in-differences model that compares students who enter charters to students who have not yet but will eventually enter charters. We find that charters are slightly more likely to identify students as SWDs after charter entry. While assignments to SPED programs increase comparably, there is a significant reduction and subsequent reversion in time spent in SPED-specific environments and services provided. Despite these changes, SWDs realize achievement and attendance gains after charter entry at similar levels to non-SWDs. |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34778 |
| By: | Fedeli, Emanuele (University of Trento); Borgen, Solveig Topstad (University of Oslo); Triventi, Moris |
| Abstract: | A longstanding debate in research on peer effects concerns whether exposure to high-achieving classmates enhances or depresses students’ academic performance. While normative models emphasize positive spillovers, social comparison theories highlight negative contrast effects, and empirical evidence remains mixed. Moreover, it is unclear whether peer effects operate similarly across institutional contexts. This study addresses these issues through a comparative analysis of Italy and Norway, two educational systems that differ markedly in competitiveness, tracking, evaluation practices, and gender norms. Using harmonized, population-wide administrative register data, we follow three full student cohorts from Grade 5 to Grade 8. This longitudinal design allows us to control for prior achievement—an advantage unavailable in international assessments such as PISA, TIMSS, or PIRLS. We estimate value-added school fixed-effects models that exploit within-school, across-cohort variation in peer composition. Across both countries, higher average peer achievement is associated with lower individual performance, consistent with social comparison mechanisms. Exposure to top-performing peers has negative effects, while exposure to low-performing peers has positive effects. These patterns are similar across countries and do not vary systematically by gender, suggesting that peer comparison processes are remarkably stable across institutional contexts. |
| Date: | 2026–01–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:sr8fn_v1 |
| By: | Andreas Leibing |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how labor market conditions around high school graduation affect postsecondary skill investments. Using administrative data on more than six million German graduates from 1995-2018, and exploiting deviations from secular state-specific trends, I document procyclical college enrollment. Cyclical increases in unemployment reduce enrollment at traditional universities and shift graduates toward vocational colleges and apprenticeships. These effects translate into educational attainment. Using large-scale survey data, I identify changes in expected returns to different degrees as the main mechanism. During recessions, graduates expect lower returns to an academic degree, while expected returns to a vocational degree are stable. |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2602.02483 |
| By: | Hertweck, Friederike; Maris, Robbie; Tonin, Mirco; Vlassopoulos, Michael |
| Abstract: | This paper examines university application patterns in the UK, focusing on the joint decision of selecting both an institution and a subject. Using administrative data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) covering almost all undergraduate applications between 2008 and 2021, we document three key facts: (i) students generally choose subject before university: they apply on average to around 1.6 subject areas across 4.6 institutions, and roughly half apply to a single field across multiple universities; (ii) there are significant gender gaps in application and offer rates that reflect field composition; (iii) high-socioeconomic status students submit more applications, apply less to local institutions, and obtain more offers, but these differences shrink sharply once we control for attainment and the selectivity of the programmes that students apply to. An expert survey suggests that several of these patterns run against conventional wisdom. |
| Abstract: | Die Studie untersucht Bewerbungsmuster an britischen Hochschulen, an welchen im Rahmen der Bewerbungen eine Entscheidung für eine Hochschule und einen Studiengang simultan getroffen werden muss. Anhand von Verwaltungsdaten des "Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)", welche fast alle Bewerbungen für Bachelor-Studiengänge zwischen 2008 und 2021 abdecken, dokumentieren wir drei wichtige Fakten: Erstens wählen Studierende in der Regel zuerst das Studienfach und dann die Hochschule: Sie bewerben sich im Durchschnitt für etwa 1, 6 Fachbereiche an 4, 6 Hochschulen, und etwa die Hälfte bewirbt sich für ein einziges Fach an mehreren Hochschulen. Zweitens gibt es erhebliche geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede bei den Bewerbungs- und Zulassungsquoten, die aber überwiegend die Zusammensetzung der Studienfächer widerspiegeln. Drittens reichen Studierende mit hohem sozioökonomischem Status mehr Bewerbungen ein, bewerben sich weniger bei Einrichtungen nahe ihrer Heimatregion und erhalten mehr Zulassungen, aber diese Unterschiede verringern sich stark, sobald wir die Leistungen und die Selektivität der Studiengänge, für die sich die Studierenden bewerben, berücksichtigen. Eine Befragung unter Expertinnen und Experten deutet darauf hin, dass einige dieser Muster den gängigen Einschätzungen zu Bewerbungsmustern widersprechen. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Application patterns, UCAS data, Gender, Socioeconomic Status |
| JEL: | I20 I23 M38 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:335899 |
| By: | Krumme, Anna; Westphal, Matthias |
| Abstract: | We estimate monetary wage returns to academic-track education, Germany's elite secondary school type granting university entrance. Because academic-track attendance and subsequent university education are institutionally linked, we disentangle their contributions using a causal mediation analysis. Leveraging quasi-experimental variation from the educational expansion - independent openings of schools and universities - we identify (i) the direct effect of academic-track education holding university attendance constant and (ii) the indirect effect operating through university education. We find total monetary returns of 118%, with about 60 percentage points attributable to the indirect effect of additional university education with prior academic-track schooling, and the remaining 40 points to academic-track education alone. |
| Abstract: | Diese Studie untersucht monetäre Bildungsrenditen des Abiturs sowie deren Zusammenspiel mit einem anschließenden Universitätsabschluss für Männer in Westdeutschland. Auf Grundlage von Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanels (NEPS) und selbst erhobenen Informationen zu Schul- und Universitätsgründungen während der Bildungsexpansion wird ein kausaler Mediationsansatz angewendet. Dadurch lassen sich sowohl Endogenität in der Wahl des Schulzweigs und beim Hochschulzugang als auch unbeobachtete Heterogenität der Bildungseffekte gleichzeitig berücksichtigen. Mit diesem Papier schließen wir eine Lücke zwischen bisher getrennten Befunden zu unterschiedlichen Bildungsniveaus und liefern neue kausale Evidenz für das Zusammenspiel von Sekundar- und Tertiärbildung im deutschen Bildungssystem. Im Durchschnitt verzeichnen sogenannte Complier - also Personen, deren Bildungsweg durch den Zugang zu einem Gymnasium beeinflusst wurde - Einkommenszuwächse von rund 118 %. Der Erwerb des Abiturs erhöht dabei die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Universitätsabschlusses um 37 Prozentpunkte. Der indirekte Effekt über das Studium erklärt etwa 60 Prozentpunkte der Gesamtrendite und ist auf dem 5 %-Niveau statistisch signifikant. Der direkte Effekt des Abiturs ohne Universitätsabschluss macht die verbleibenden 40 Prozentpunkte aus, ist weniger präzise geschätzt, bleibt aber ökonomisch bedeutsam. Insgesamt verdeutlicht die Studie damit, dass das Abitur nicht nur eigenständig zur Einkommensentwicklung beiträgt, sondern vor allem in Verbindung mit zusätzlicher tertiärer Bildung auf das spätere Einkommen wirkt. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education, IV estimation, causal mediation analysis |
| JEL: | I26 C26 J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:335907 |
| By: | Esther Bailey; Daniel Fehder; Eric Floyd; Yael Hochberg; Daniel J. Lee |
| Abstract: | We use a randomized experiment with 553 science- and technology-based startups in 12 co-working spaces across the US to evaluate the effects of intensive, short-term entrepreneurial training programs on survival and performance for innovation-driven startups. Treated startups are more likely to shut down their businesses and do so sooner than control startups. Conditional on survival, however, treated startups are more likely to raise external funding for their ventures, raise funding faster, and raise more funding than the control group; they also exhibit higher employment and revenue. Treated founders are less likely to found a new startup after shutdown. Our findings are consistent with practitioner arguments that early entrepreneurship training interventions can help entrepreneurs with less viable ventures “rationally quit” (“fail fast”). We use machine learning techniques (causal random forest) to provide exploratory insights on the most impacted subgroups. |
| JEL: | C93 D22 M13 M53 O32 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34755 |
| By: | Rocco Macchiavello (LSE); Josepa Miquel Florensa (Toulouse School of Economics.); Nicolás de Roux (Universidad de los Andes); Eric Verhoogen (Columbia University); Mario Bernasconi (University of Basel); Patrick Farrell (Columbia University) |
| Abstract: | Do the returns to quality upgrading pass through supply chains to primary producers? We explore this question in the context of Colombia’s coffee sector, in which market outcomes depend on interactions between farmers, exporters (which operate mills), and international buyers, and contracts are for the most part not legally enforceable. We formalize the hypothesis that quality upgrading is subject to a key hold-up problem: producing high-quality beans requires long-term investments by farmers, but there is no guarantee that an exporter will pay a quality premium when the beans arrive at its mills. An international buyer with sufficient demand for highquality coffee can solve this problem by imposing a vertical restraint on the exporter, requiring the exporter to pay a quality premium to farmers. Combining internal records from two exporters, comprehensive administrative data, and the staggered rollout of a buyer-driven quality-upgrading program, we find empirical support for the key theoretical predictions, both the lack of pass-through of quality premia under normal circumstances and the possibility of a buyer-driven solution through a vertical restraint. Calibration of the model suggests that one-third to two-thirds of the (substantial) gains from the program accrue to farmers, with the vertical restraint playing a critical role. The results are consistent with the hypotheses that quality upgrading can provide a path to higher incomes for farmers, but also that it is unlikely to be viable under standard market conditions in the sector. |
| Keywords: | Quality Upgrading, Relational Contracts, Vertical Restraints, Buyer-Driven Voluntary Standards |
| JEL: | O12 F61 L23 Q12 Q13 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:022173 |
| By: | Matias Ciaschi (CEDLAS-IIE-FCE-UNLP and CONICET); Mario Negre (The World Bank); Guido Neidhöfer (Türk-Alman Üniversitesi & ZEW Mannheim) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents comprehensive evidence on intergenerational mobility in Mozambique—the country with the lowest documented level of mobility worldwide—and investigates its relationship with child labor. Using survey data that includes a module on non co-resident adult children, we document a strong link between children’s educational attainment and parental education and household wealth. Interestingly, our findings suggest that child labor perpetuates intergenerational inequality, not merely as a response to income shocks, but mainly due to labor market structures—particularly the complementarity between parental and child labor and the substantial opportunity costs associated with schooling. These findings underscore the need for targeted policies that decouple children’s labor market prospects from those of their parents and enhance awareness of the long-term returns to education. |
| JEL: | D63 I24 J62 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0365 |
| By: | Raj Chetty; Rebecca Diamond; Thomas B. Foster; Lawrence F. Katz; Sonya Porter; Matthew Staiger; Laura Tach |
| Abstract: | We study whether low-economic-mobility neighborhoods can be transformed into high-mobility areas by analyzing the HOPE VI program, which invested $17 billion to revitalize 262 distressed public housing developments. We estimate the program’s impacts using a matched difference-in-differences design, comparing outcomes in revitalized developments to observably similar control developments using anonymized tax records. HOPE VI reduced neighborhood poverty rates by attracting higher-income families to revitalized neighborhoods, but had no causal impact on the earnings of adults living in public housing units. Children raised in revitalized public housing units earned more, were more likely to attend college, and were less likely to be incarcerated. Using a movers exposure design and sibling comparisons, we show that these improvements were driven by changes in neighborhoods’ causal effects on children’s outcomes. The improvements in neighborhood causal effects were driven in large part by changes in social interaction: HOPE VI increased interaction between public housing residents and peers in surrounding neighborhoods and increased earnings more for subgroups with higher-income peers. Many low-income families in the U.S. currently live in neighborhoods that are as socially isolated as the HOPE VI developments were prior to revitalization. We conclude that it is feasible to create high-opportunity neighborhoods and that connecting socially isolated areas to surrounding communities is a cost-effective approach to doing so. |
| JEL: | H0 J01 R0 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34720 |