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on Labour Economics |
| By: | Leonardo Felli; Christopher Harris |
| Date: | 2005–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cla:levrem:122247000000000839&r=lab |
| By: | Erik Canton; Andreas Blom |
| Abstract: | Financial aid to students in tertiary education can contribute to human capital accumulation through two channels: increased enrolment and improved student performance. We analyse the quantitative importance of both channels in the context of a student loan program (SOFES) implemented at private universities in Mexico. <P> With regard to the first channel, results from the Mexican household survey indicate that financial support has a strongly positive effect on university enrolment. <P> Two data sources are used to investigate the second channel, student performance. Administrative data provided by SOFES are analysed using a Regression-Discontinuity design, and survey data enable us to perform a similar analysis using a different control group. The empirical results suggest that SOFES recipients (i) show better academic performance, and (ii) tend to have more part-time jobs than students without a credit from SOFES. |
| Keywords: | education; students; student finance, accessibility, student performance; Mexico |
| JEL: | I2 J24 |
| Date: | 2004–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:33&r=lab |
| By: | Fleisher, Belton M. (Ohio State University); Li, Haizheng (Georgia Tech); Li, Shi (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and IZA Bonn); Wang, Xiaojun (University of Hawaii at Manoa) |
| Abstract: | We estimate selection and sorting effects on the evolution of the private return to schooling for college graduates during China’s between 1988 and 2002. We pay special attention to the changing role of sorting by ability versus budget-constraint effects as China’s education policy has changed from one in which the bulk of direct costs are paid by government for students who pass a rigid set of test to one in which freedom of choice is increasingly the rule for those who can afford to pay for tuition and living expenses while acquiring higher education. We find evidence of substantial sorting gains under the traditional system but that gains have diminished and even become negative as schooling choices widened and participation has become subject to increasing direct private costs. We take this as evidence consistent with the influence of financial constraints on decisions to attend college. |
| Keywords: | return to schooling, sorting gains, heterogeneity, financial constraints, comparative advantage |
| JEL: | J31 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2004–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1446&r=lab |
| By: | Carneiro, Pedro (University College London, Institute for Fiscal Studies and IZA Bonn); Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago, American Bar Foundation, University College London and IZA Bonn); Masterov, Dimitriy V. (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relative significance of differences in cognitive skills and discrimination in explaining racial/ethnic wage gaps. We show that cognitive test scores taken prior to entering the labor market are influenced by schooling. Adjusting the scores for racial/ethnic differences in education at the time the test is taken reduces their role in accounting for the wage gaps. We also consider evidence on parental and child expectations about education and on stereotype-threat effects. We find both factors to be implausible alternative explanations for the gaps we observe. We argue that policies need to address the sources of early skill gaps and to seek to influence the more malleable behavioral abilities in addition to their cognitive counterparts. Such policies are far more likely to be effective in promoting racial and ethnic equality for most groups than are additional civil rights and affirmative action policies targeted at the workplace. |
| Keywords: | ability, test scores, gaps, education |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2005–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1453&r=lab |
| By: | David Brasington |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2005-02&r=lab |
| By: | Christopher M. Cornwell (University of Georgia); Kyung Hee Lee (University of Georgia); David B. Mustard (University of Georgia) |
| Abstract: | A common justification for HOPE-style merit-aid programs is to promote and reward academic achievement, thereby inducing greater investments in human capital. However, grade-based eligibility and retention rules encourage other behavioral responses. Using the longitudinal records of all undergraduates who enrolled at the University of Georgia (UGA) between 1989 and 1997, we estimate the effects of HOPE on course enrollment, withdrawal and completion, and the diversion of course taking from the academic year to the summer, treating non-residents as a control group. First, we find that HOPE decreased full-load enrollments and increased course withdrawals among resident freshmen. The combination of these responses results in an 11\% lower probability of full-load completion and an annual average reduction in credits completed of 1.0. The latter implies that between 1993 and 1997 Georgia-resident freshmen completed 15,710 fewer credit hours or 3,142 individual course enrollments than non-residents. Second, the scholarship's influence on course-taking behavior is concentrated on students with GPAs on or below the scholarship-retention margin. Third, the effect increased as the income cap was lifted and more students became eligible for the award. Fourth, these freshmen credit-hour reductions represent an intertemporal substitution, not a general slowdown in academic progress. Finally, residents diverted an average of 1.65 more credits from the regular academic year to the first summer term after their matriculation, which amounts to a 72\% rise in summer course taking. |
| Keywords: | Education, Merit-based aid, Education Finance, HOPE Scholarship |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2005–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0501001&r=lab |
| By: | Christopher M. Cornwell (University of Georgia); David B. Mustard (University of Georgia); Deepa Sridhar |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of Georgia's merit-based HOPE Scholarship on college enrollment. Introduced in 1993, the HOPE Scholarship covers tuition, fees, and book expenses for students attending Georgia public colleges, and provides a subsidy of comparable value to students attending in-state private colleges, without any income restrictions. Treating HOPE as a natural experiment, we contrast college enrollment in Georgia with those in the other member states of the Southern Regional Educational Board using IPEDS data for the period 1988-97. We estimate that the HOPE increased total freshmen enrollment by 5.9 percent, with the gains concentrated in 4-year schools. For freshmen recently graduated from high school attending 4-year colleges, two-thirds of the program effect is explained by a decrease in students leaving the state. Both white and black enrollments increased because of HOPE, with the state's historically-black institutions playing an important role. Finally, the total HOPE-induced enrollment increase represents only 15 percent freshmen scholarship recipients. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Enrollment, HOPE, Merit-based Aid |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2005–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwphe:0501002&r=lab |
| By: | Petri Böckerman (Labour Institute for Economic Research); Pekka Ilmakunnas (Helsinki School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the role of adverse working conditions in the determination of individual wages and overall job satisfaction in the Finnish labour market. The potential influence of adverse working conditions on self-reported fairness of pay at the workplace is considered as an alternative, indirect measure of job satisfaction. The results show that working conditions have a very minor role in the determination of individual wages in the Finnish labour market. In contrast, adverse working conditions substantially increase the level of job dissatisfaction and the perception of unfairness of pay at the workplace. |
| Keywords: | compensating wage differentials, job satisfaction, working conditions |
| JEL: | J28 J31 |
| Date: | 2005–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0501001&r=lab |
| By: | Petri Böckerman (Labour Institute for Economic Research); Pekka Ilmakunnas (Helsinki School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study explores the potential role of adverse working conditions at the workplace in the determination of on-the-job search in the Finnish labour market. The results reveal that workers currently facing adverse working conditions have greater intentions to switch jobs and they are also more willing to stop working completely. In addition, those workers search new matches more frequently. There is evidence that adverse working conditions consistently increase the level of job dissatisfaction and, in turn, it is job dissatisfaction that drives workers’ intentions to quit and intensifies actual job search. |
| Keywords: | working conditions, job satisfaction, on-the-job search, quit intentions |
| JEL: | J28 J31 J64 |
| Date: | 2005–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0501002&r=lab |
| By: | Ari Hyytinen (Research Institute of the Finnish Economy ETLA); Pekka Ilmakunnas (Helsinki School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we study the labour market behavior of employed individuals that have entrepreneurial aspirations in addition to aspirations to switch job. We analyze empirically these two “search processes” side-by-side and report three main findings: First, neither entrepreneurial aspirations nor aspirations to switch job are uncommon, but only few are engaged in both search processes. Second, the two processes are not alike: It is more difficult to empirically explain entrepreneurial aspirations than aspirations to switch job. Only few observable characteristics of the employed are related to both processes. Varied experience and job dissatisfaction are directly related to the probability of having entrepreneurial aspirations and aspirations to switch job, while job tenure is inversely related to them. Finally, the two processes are not conditionally independent. Unobservable heterogeneity common to many non-searchers drives this result. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurship, job search, experience, job satisfaction |
| JEL: | J |
| Date: | 2005–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0501003&r=lab |
| By: | Reinhold Kosfeld (Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Kassel); Christian Dreger (Author-Workplace-Name: Institute for Economic Research Halle (IWH)) |
| Abstract: | Changes in production, employment and unemployment are closely related over the course of the business cycle. However, as exemplified by the laws of Verdoorn (1949, 1993) and Okun (1962, 1970), thresholds seem to be present in the relationship. Due to capacity reserves of the firms, output growth must exceed certain levels for the creation of new jobs or a fall in the unemployment rate. In order to get efficient estimates of these bounds, we take a wide range of information into account. In particular, thresholds for employment and unemployment are determined on the grounds of 180 German regional labour markets. To capture cross section dependencies, a spatial SUR model is built up utilizing the eigenfunction decomposition approach suggested by Griffith (1996, 2000). The results indicate, that minimum output growth sufficient for a rise in employment is below the level which is needed for a simultaneous drop in the unemployment rate. Especially, the thresholds turn out to be about 1.2 and 2.2 percent, respectively. The ordering is related both to demographic changes and institutional settings on the labour market, such as the working of the unemployment benefit system. If spatial effects are not controlled for, the thresholds seem to be overrated. |
| Keywords: | Threshold employment and unemployment, regional labour markets, spatial filtering techniques, spatial SUR analysis |
| JEL: | C21 C23 E24 E32 |
| Date: | 2004–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kas:wpaper:52/04&r=lab |