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on Neuroeconomics |
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Issue of 2017‒09‒03
four papers chosen by |
| By: | Martins, Pedro S. (Queen Mary, University of London) |
| Abstract: | Non-cognitive skills programs may be an important policy option to improve the academic outcomes of adolescents. In this paper, we evaluate experimentally the EPIS program, which is based on bi-weekly individual or small-group non-cognitive mediation short meetings with low-performing students. Our RCT estimates, covering nearly 3,000 7th and 8th-grade students across over 50 schools and a period of two years, indicate that the program increases the probability of progression by 11% to 22%. The effects are stronger amongst older students, girls, and in language subjects (compared to maths). |
| Keywords: | student achievement, non-cognitive skills, RCT, gender |
| JEL: | I20 I24 J08 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10950&r=neu |
| By: | Sarah Flèche (Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science); Warn Lekfuangfu (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (THAILAND) - Chulalongkorn University (THAILAND)); Andrew E. Clark (Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | To what extent do childhood experiences continue to affect adult wellbeing over the life course? Previous work on this link has been carried out either at one particular adult age or for some average of adulthood. We here use two British birth-cohort datasets (the 1958 NCDS and the 1970 BCS) to map out the time profile of the effect of childhood on adult outcomes, including life satisfaction. We find that the effect of many aspects of childhood do not fade away over time, but are rather remarkably stable. In both birth cohorts child non-cognitive skills are the strongest predictors of adult life satisfaction at all ages. Of these, emotional health is the strongest. Childhood cognitive performance is more important than good conduct in explaining adult life satisfaction in the earlier cohort, whereas this ranking is inverted in the more recent BCS. |
| Keywords: | life satisfaction,cohort data,childhood,adult outcomes |
| Date: | 2017–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01570057&r=neu |
| By: | Bhalotra, Sonia (University of Essex); Karlsson, Martin (University of Duisburg-Essen); Nilsson, Therese (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)); Schwarz, Nina (University of Duisburg-Essen) |
| Abstract: | We estimate impacts of exposure to an infant health intervention trialled in Sweden in the early 1930s using purposively digitised birth registers linked to school catalogues, census fies and tax records to generate longitudinal microdata that track individuals through fie stages of the life-course, from birth to age 71. This allows us to measure impacts on childhood health and cognitive skills at ages 7 and 10, educational and occupational choice at age 16-20, employment, earnings and occupation at age 36-40, and pension income at age 71.Leveraging quasi-random variation in eligibility by birth date and birth parish, we estimate that an additional year of exposure was associated with improved reading and writing skills in primary school, and increased enrolment in university and apprenticeship in late adolescence. These changes are larger and more robust for men, but we find increases in secondary school completion which are unique to women. In the longer run, we find very substantial increases in employment (especially in the public sector) and income among women, alongside absolutely no impacts among men. We suggest that this may be, at least in part, because these cohorts were exposed to a massive expansion of the Swedish welfare state, which created more jobs for women than for men. |
| Keywords: | Infant health; Early life interventions; Cognitive skills; Education; Earnings; Occupational choice; Programme evaluation; Sweden |
| JEL: | H41 I15 I18 |
| Date: | 2017–08–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1177&r=neu |
| By: | Favara, Marta (University of Oxford); Porter, Catherine (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh); Woldehanna, Tassew (University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) |
| Abstract: | We provide new estimates of the impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) in Ethiopia on child cognitive achievement in the medium term. The programme is the second largest in Africa, and has been rolled out to almost 10 million beneficiaries since 2005. We exploit four rounds of the Young Lives panel data spanning 2002-2013. We find a small but significant effect of the programme on cognitive achievement as measured by numeracy skills. We examine heterogeneity of impacts via "graduation" from the scheme, and find a positive effect on children in households that graduated just before 2013, but none for children in households that remain in the programme. |
| Keywords: | Ethiopia, social protection, children, cognitive development |
| JEL: | I38 O22 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10972&r=neu |