nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2007‒10‒27
twelve papers chosen by
Fabio Sabatini
University of Rome, La Sapienza

  1. New Technology, Human Capital and Growth for Developing Countries By Cuong Le Van; Manh-Hung Nguyen; Thai Bao Luong; Tu-Anh Nguyen
  2. Education, unemployment and migration By Wolfgang Eggert; Tim Krieger; Volker Meier
  3. Returns to Education in Australia By Andrew Leigh
  4. The Changing Role of Family Income and Ability in Determining Educational Achievement By Philippe Belley; Lance Lochner
  5. Estimating Marginal Returns to Higher Education in the UK By Robert Moffitt
  6. Education and income inequality in the regions of the European Union By Andrés Rodríguez-Pose; Vassilis Tselios
  7. Equity on Access of Low SES Group in the Massification of Higher Education in Indonesia By Mohamad Fahmi
  8. Mapping the european regional educational distribution: educational attainment and inequality By Andrés Rodríguez-Pose; Vassilis Tselios
  9. Early Labour Market Returns to College Subject. By Paolo Buonanno; Dario Pozzoli
  10. Am I missing something? The effects of absence from class on student performance By Arulampalam, Wiji; Naylor, Robin A.; Jeremy Smith
  11. Far Away From A Skill-Biased Change:Falling Educational Wage Premia In Italy By NATICCHIONI PAOLO; RICCI ANDREA; RUSTICHELLI EMILIANO
  12. Public School Choice and Integration: Evidence from Durham, North Carolina By Robert Bifulco; Helen F. Ladd; Stephen Ross

  1. By: Cuong Le Van (Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, Universite Paris-1, France); Manh-Hung Nguyen (Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, Universite Paris-1, France); Thai Bao Luong (Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, Universite Paris-1, France); Tu-Anh Nguyen (Centre d’Economie de la Sorbonne, Universite Paris-1, France)
    Abstract: We consider a developing country with three sectors in economy: consumption goods, new technology, and education. Productivity of the consumption goods sector depends on new technology and skilled labor used for production of the new technology. We show that there might be three stages of economic growth. In the first stage the country concentrates on production of consumption goods; in the second stage it requires the country to import both physical capital to produce consumption goods and new technology capital to produce new technology; and finally the last stage is one where the country needs to import new technology capital and invest in the training and education of high skilled labor in the same time.
    Keywords: Optimal growth model, New technology capital, Human Capital, Developing country
    JEL: D51 E13
    Date: 2007–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpc:wpaper:0107&r=hrm
  2. By: Wolfgang Eggert (University of Paderborn & CESifo); Tim Krieger (University of Paderborn); Volker Meier (Ifo Institute for Economic Research, University of Munich & CESifo)
    Abstract: This paper studies a two-region model in which unemployment, education decisions and interregional migration are endogenous. The poorer region exhibits both lower wages and higher unemployment rates, and migrants to the richer region are disproportionally skilled. The brain drain from the poor to the rich region is accompanied by stronger incentives to acquire skills even for immobile workers. Regional shocks tend to affect both regions in a symmetric fashion, and skilled-biased technological change reduces wages of the unskilled. Both education and migration decisions are distorted by a uniform unemployment compensation, which justifies a corrective subsidization.
    Keywords: Education, Unemployment, Interregional migration, Externalities, Brain drain
    JEL: H23 I20 J61 J64 R10
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:wpaper:7&r=hrm
  3. By: Andrew Leigh
    Abstract: Using data from the 2001-2005 waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey, and taking account of existing estimates of ability bias and social returns to schooling, I estimate the economic return to various levels of education. Raising high school attainment appears to yield the highest annual benefits, with per-year gains as high as 30 percent (depending on the adjustment for ability bias). Some forms of vocational training also appear to boost earnings, with significant gains from Certificate Level III/IV qualifications (for high school dropouts only), and from Diploma and Advanced Diploma qualifications. At the university level, Bachelor degrees and postgraduate qualifications are associated with significantly higher earnings, with each year of a Bachelor degree raising annual earnings by about 15 percent. For high school, slightly less than half the gains are due to increased productivity, with the rest due to higher levels of participation. For vocational training, about one-third of the gains are from productivity, and two-thirds from greater participation. For university, most of the gains are from productivity. I find some evidence that the productivity benefits of education are higher towards the top of the distribution, but the participation effects are higher towards the bottom of the conditional earnings distribution.
    Keywords: Returns to education, ability bias, high school, vocational training, university
    JEL: I28 J31
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:dpaper:561&r=hrm
  4. By: Philippe Belley; Lance Lochner
    Abstract: This paper uses data from the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cohorts (NLSY79 and NLSY97) to estimate changes in the effects of ability and family income on educational attainment for youth in their late teens during the early 1980s and early 2000s. Cognitive ability plays an important role in determining educational outcomes for both NLSY cohorts, while family income plays little role in determining high school completion in either cohort. Most interestingly, we document a dramatic increase in the effects of family income on college attendance (particularly among the least able) from the NLSY79 to the NLSY97. Family income has also become a much more important determinant of college 'quality' and hours/weeks worked during the academic year (the latter among the most able) in the NLSY97. Family income has little effect on college delay in either sample. To interpret our empirical findings on college attendance, we develop an educational choice model that incorporates both borrowing constraints and a 'consumption' value of schooling - two of the most commonly invoked explanations for a positive family income - schooling relationship. Without borrowing constraints, the model cannot explain the rising effects of family income on college attendance in response to the sharply rising costs and returns to college experienced from the early 1980s to early 2000s: the incentives created by a 'consumption' value of schooling imply that income should have become less important over time (or even negatively related to attendance). Instead, the data are more broadly consistent with the hypothesis that more youth are borrowing constrained today than were in the early 1980s.
    JEL: H52 I2 J24
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13527&r=hrm
  5. By: Robert Moffitt
    Abstract: A long-standing issue in the literature on education is whether marginal returns to education fall as education rises. If the population differs in its rate of return, a closely related question is whether marginal returns to higher education fall as a greater fraction of the population enrolls. This paper proposes a nonparametric method of estimating marginal treatment effects in heterogeneous populations, and applies it to this question, examining returns to higher education in the UK. The results indicate that marginal returns to higher education fall as the proportion of the population with higher education rises, consistent with the Becker Woytinsky Lecture hypothesis.
    JEL: C21 J24
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13534&r=hrm
  6. By: Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (London School of Economics); Vassilis Tselios (London School Of Economics)
    Abstract: This paper provides an empirical study of the determinants of income inequality across regions of the EU. Using the European Community Household Panel dataset for 102 regions over the period 1995-2000, it analyses how microeconomic changes in human capital distribution affect income inequality for the population as a whole and for normally working people. The different static and dynamic panel data analyses conducted reveal that, while the relationship between income inequality and income per capita is positive, the relationship between income inequality and educational attainment is not clear. Across European regions high levels of inequality in educational attainment are associated with higher income inequality. This may be interpreted as the responsiveness of the EU labour market to differences in qualifications and skills. The above results are robust to changes in the definition of income distribution. Other results indicate that population ageing and inactivity are sensitive to the specification model, while work access and latitude are negatively associated to income inequality. Urbanisation has a negative impact on inequality, but for the population as a whole only, and the relationship between unemployment and income inequality is positive. Female participation in the labour force is negatively associated with inequality and explains a major part of the variation in inequality. Finally, income inequality is lower in social-democratic welfare states, in Protestant areas, and in regions with Nordic family structures.
    Date: 2007–09–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2007-17&r=hrm
  7. By: Mohamad Fahmi (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University)
    Abstract: This paper discussed the e_ect of recent trend in higher education such as massification, the emergence role of private sector and cost sharing in higher education in Indonesia to the access of low SES group. Some evidence particularly from developing countries is reported to get a bigger picture about the problem of access in higher education in Indonesia.
    Keywords: higher education; access; Indonesia; developing countries
    JEL: I21 I22 I28
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:200709&r=hrm
  8. By: Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (London School of Economics); Vassilis Tselios (London School Of Economics)
    Abstract: The geography of education, especially at subnational level, is a huge black box. Basically nothing is known about the distribution of educational attainment and inequality across regions in Europe. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by mapping educational attainment and inequality in 102 regions in western Europe, using data extracted from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) covering more than 100,000 individuals over the period 1995-2000. The results of this Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) reveal a strong correlation between levels of educational attainment and inequality across regions in Europe. Regions with similar educational conditions tend to cluster, often within national borders. In addition a North-South and an urban-rural dimension is evident. Northern regions and large European metropoli have not only the most educated labour force, but also the lowest levels of inequality. Educational inequality seems to be, in any case, a fundamentally within region phenomenon. 90 percent of the educational inequality in Europe takes place among individuals living in the same region.
    Keywords: educational attainment; educational inequality; regions; exploratory spatial data analysis; Europe; urbanisation; EU North-South divide
    Date: 2007–09–24
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imd:wpaper:wp2007-18&r=hrm
  9. By: Paolo Buonanno; Dario Pozzoli
    Abstract: This paper aims at estimating early labour market returns (i.e. participation probability, employment probability and log hourly earnings) of Italian university graduates across college subjects. We devote great attention to endogenous selection issues using alternative methods to control for potential self-selection associated with the choice of the degree subject in order to unravel the causal link between college major and subsequent outcomes in the labour market. We use both a propensity score matching-average treatment on the treated method and the polychotomous selectivity model introduced by Lee (1983) to investigate the existence of unobserved heterogeneity. Our results suggest that "quantitative" fields (i.e. Sciences, Engineering and Economics) increase not only participation to the labour market and employment probability but also early earnings, conditional on employment.
    Keywords: University to work transition, college subject, self-selection, returns to education
    JEL: C34 J24 I21
    Date: 2007–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:brg:wpaper:0705&r=hrm
  10. By: Arulampalam, Wiji (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Naylor, Robin A. (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Jeremy Smith (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)
    Abstract: We exploit a rich administrative panel data-set for cohorts of Economics students at a UK university in order to identify causal effects of class absence on student performance. We exploit the panel properties of the data to control for unobserved heterogeneity across students and hence for endogeneity between class absence and academic performance of students stemming from the likely influence of effort and ability on both absence and performance. Our estimations also exploit features of the data such as the random assignment of students to classes and information on the timetable of classes, which provides potential instruments in our identification strategy. Among other results we find, from a quantile regression specification, that there is a causal effect of absence on performance for students : missing class leads to poorer performance. There is evidence that this is particularly true for better-performing students, consistent with our hypothesis that effects of absence on performance are likely to vary with factors such as student ability.
    Keywords: Randomised experiments ; quantile regression ; selection correction ; panel data ; education ; student performance ; class absence
    JEL: C41 J24 I2
    Date: 2007
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:820&r=hrm
  11. By: NATICCHIONI PAOLO; RICCI ANDREA; RUSTICHELLI EMILIANO
    Abstract: In this paper we apply quantile regressions to investigate the evolution of Educational Wage Premia (EWP) in Italy from 1993 to 2004. Using SHIW data (Bank of Italy) and different classifications for educational attainments, we show that EWP have generally decreased over time across the wage distribution. In particular, the falling of EWP in the private sector is striking, considering both continuous and categorical specifications for education, at all quantiles of the distribution. Different patterns are observed in the public sector, where EWP remain basically stable over time. A number of robustness checks and various econometric specifications are also applied in order to address sample selection issues. Our findings also provide additional evidence in favour of the thesis that the increasing patterns in inequality and EWP, and the related interpretations concerning skill-biased changes, are much less pronounced in continental Europe than in Anglo Saxon countries.
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceiswp:260&r=hrm
  12. By: Robert Bifulco (University of Connecticut); Helen F. Ladd (Duke University); Stephen Ross (University of Connecticut)
    Abstract: Using evidence from Durham, North Carolina, we examine the impact of school choice programs on racial and class-based segregation across schools. Theoretical considerations suggest that how choice programs affect segregation will depend not only on the family preferences emphasized in the sociology literature but also on the linkages between student composition, school quality and student achievement emphasized in the economics literature, and on the availability of schools of different types. Reasonable assumptions about how these factors differ for students of different races and socio-economic status suggest that the segregating choices of students from advantaged backgrounds are likely to outweigh any integrating choices by disadvantaged students. The results of our empirical analysis are consistent with these theoretical considerations. Using information on the actual schools students attend and on the schools in their assigned attendance zones, we find that schools in Durham are more segregated by race and class as a result of school choice programs than they would be if all students attended their geographically assigned schools. In addition, we find that the effects of choice on segregation by class are larger than the effects on segregation by race.
    JEL: H31 I20
    Date: 2007–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2007-41&r=hrm

This nep-hrm issue is ©2007 by Fabio Sabatini. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
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