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on Education |
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Issue of 2007‒01‒23
twelve papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Al-Samarrai, Samer |
| Abstract: | This paper presents education finance trends for Bangladesh since 2000. It shows that while government spending on education as a proportion of national income has stagnated, it has increased in real terms. Real increases in education spending have resulted in substantial increases in per student spending in basic education. At primary, enrolment declines have reinforced these trends and in 2005 per student spending in government primary schools was 30% higher, in real terms than in 2001. Despite these increases, per student spending on education in Bangladesh remains low compared to other countries in the region and countries at similar levels of development. Levels of government funding also vary enormously across different providers of basic education although these differences do not appear to have a significant impact on education outcomes at the primary level. At secondary, there appears to be a closer correlation between levels of public funding and outcomes although the socio-economic status of student intakes also appears to play an important role. To achieve equitable access to basic education, it is important to narrow these public funding differences. However, given the comparatively low levels of funding across the basic education system it is perhaps more important to increase overall levels of funding if the quality and overall efficiency of the system is to be improved. |
| Keywords: | Education; education finance; Bangladesh; basic education |
| JEL: | I28 I22 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1505&r=edu |
| By: | Charles T. Clotfelter; Helen F. Ladd; Jacob L. Vigdor |
| Abstract: | Education researchers and policy makers agree that teachers differ in terms of quality and that quality matters for student achievement. Despite prodigious amounts of research, however, debate still persists about the causal relationship between specific teacher credentials and student achievement. In this paper, we use a rich administrative data set from North Carolina to explore a range of questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this research are not new - and, indeed, have been explored in many papers over the years within the rubric of the "education production function" - the availability of data on all teachers and students in North Carolina over a ten-year period allows us to explore them in more detail and with far more confidence than has been possible in previous studies. We conclude that a teacher's experience, test scores and regular licensure all have positive effects on student achievement, with larger effects for math than for reading. Taken together the various teacher credentials exhibit quite large effects on math achievement, whether compared to the effects of changes in class size or to the socio-economics characteristics of students, as measured, for example, by the education level of their parents. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12828&r=edu |
| By: | Mohammad Niaz Asadullah (Reading University), Nazmul Chaudhury (World Bank) and Amit Dar (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | n this paper we present new evidence on the impact of school characteristics on secondary student achievement using a rich data set from rural Bangladesh. We deal with a potentially important selectivity issue in the South Asian context: the non-random sorting of children into madrasas (Islamic faith schools). We do so by employing a combination of fixed effects and instrumental variable estimation techniques. Our empirical results do not reveal any difference in test scores between religious and secular schools when selection into secondary school is taken into account. However, we document significant learning deficit by gender and primary school type: girls and graduates of primary madrasas have significantly lower test scores even after controlling for school and classroom-specific unobservable correlates of learning. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps140&r=edu |
| By: | Ximena Peña |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to explain the decrease and reversal of the education gap between males and females. Given a continuum of agents, the education decisions are modelled as an assignment game with endogenous types. In the first stage agents choose their education level and in the second they participate in the labor and marriage markets. Competition among potential matches ensures that the efficient education levels can always be sustained in equilibrium, but there may be inefficient equilibria. Combining asymmetries intrinsic to the modelled markets the model reproduces the observed education gap. |
| Keywords: | Assortative matching, efficiency, gender, education. Classification JEL: |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:427&r=edu |
| By: | Li Gan; Guan Gong |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates to what extent and through which channels that health and educational attainment are interdependent. A dynamic model of schooling, work, health expenditure, and savings is developed. The structural framework explicitly models two existing hypotheses on the correlation between health and education. The estimation results strongly support the interdependence between health and education. In particular, the estimated model indicates that an individual's education, health expenditure, and previous health status all affect his health status. Moreover, the individual's health status affects his mortality rate, wage, home production, and academic success. On average, having been sick before age 21 decreases the individual's education by 1.4 years. Policy experiments indicate that a health expenditure subsidy would have a larger impact on educational attainment than a tuition subsidy. |
| JEL: | C61 I12 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12830&r=edu |
| By: | CASTRIOTA STEFANO |
| Abstract: | Previous empirical research has found a positive impact of education on happiness on regional and worldwide scale. In this paper I analyze the effect of absolute income on human happiness by education level. Using data from the World Bank’s World Value Survey on more than 118,000 individuals I find that the higher the education level is, the less relevant the absolute income level (GDP per capita measured in PPP constant 2000 international USD) for self-declared life-satisfaction. Higher income makes everybody happier but, everything else being equal, the marginal utility of additional income is higher for less educated people. This might partly explain the Easterlin paradox. Although the GDP level has been constantly rising from the end of World War II onwards, the average life-satisfaction in Western Europe and the United States has remained almost constant. Furthermore, average happiness levels in rich and poor countries are very similar. Since the average education level has risen a lot over time and is much higher in advanced countries, this might contribute to explain why higher absolute income level has not implied higher life-satisfaction across countries and over time. |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceiswp:246&r=edu |
| By: | Brian A. Jacob |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the phenomenon referred to as test score inflation, which occurs when achievement gains on "high-stakes" exams outpace improvements on "low-stakes" tests. The first part of the paper documents the extent to which student performance trends on state assessments differ from those on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). I find evidence of considerable test score inflation in several different states, including those with quite different state testing systems. The second part of the paper is a case study of Texas that uses detailed item-level data from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) and the NAEP to explore why performance trends differed across these exams during the 1990s. I find that the differential improvement on the TAAS cannot be explained by several important differences across the exams (e.g., the NAEP includes open-response items, many NAEP multiple-choice items require/permit the use of calculators, rulers, protractors or other manipulative). I find that skill and format differences across exams explain the disproportionate improvement in the TAAS for fourth graders, although these differences cannot explain the time trends for eighth graders. |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12817&r=edu |
| By: | Borghans Lex; Meijers Huub; Weel Bas ter (ROA rm) |
| Abstract: | AbstractThis paper examines whether noncognitive skills — measures both by personality traits andeconomic preference parameters — influence cognitive tests performance. The basic idea isthat noncognitive skills might affect the effort people put into a test to obtain good results. We experimentally varied the rewards for questions in a cognitive test to measure to what extent people are sensitive to financial incentives. To distinguish increased mental effort from extra time investments we also varied the question’ time constraints. Subjects withfavorable personality traits such as high performance-motivation and an internal locus of control perform relatively well in the absence of rewards; consistent with a model in which trying as hard as you can is the best strategy. In contrast, favorable economic preference parameters (low discount rate, low risk aversion) are associated with increases in time investments when incentives are introduced, consistent with a rational economic model in which people only invest when there are monetary returns. The main conclusion is that individual behavior at cognitive tests depends on noncognitive skills. |
| Keywords: | education, training and the labour market; |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umaror:2006006&r=edu |
| By: | Marcus Dejardin (Faculté des Sciences économiques, sociales et de gestion, FUNDP - [Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix]) |
| Abstract: | Après avoir brièvement mis en exergue quelques unes des raisons pour lesquelles la connaissance est devenue une préoccupation économique majeure, la contribution discute plus précisément les enjeux posés à l'entreprise. Cette discussion porte sur deux points en particulier. D'abord, il s'agit de considérer les effets attendus du contexte de l'économie de la connaissance sur la localisation et sur l'organisation de la production. Ensuite, la question de la politique salariale de l'entreprise est examinée. La dispersion salariale pourrait constituer un moyen de stimuler la performance des firmes et de limiter les risques liés aux asymétries d'information et les pertes de substance suite au départ du capital humain de l'entreprise. Des recherches complémentaires devraient être menées à ce propos. |
| Keywords: | Economie de la connaissance, asymétrie d'information, politique de l'entreprise |
| Date: | 2007–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00122850_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Stennek, Johan (Research Institute of Industrial Economics) |
| Abstract: | Sports organizations, Hollywood studios and TV channels grant satellite and cable networks exclusive rights to televise their matches, movies and media contents. Exclusive distribution prevents viewers from watching attractive programs, and reduces the TV-distributors incentives to compete in prices. This paper demonstrates that exclusive distribution may also give providers of contents incentives to invest in higher quality and, as a result, force competitors to reduce their prices. Exclusive distribution may benefit all viewers, including those who are excluded |
| Keywords: | Exclusive Contracts; Quality; Bargaining; Avertising; Investment |
| JEL: | C78 D43 K21 L42 |
| Date: | 2007–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0691&r=edu |
| By: | Maheshwari Sunil Kumar; Dixit Mukund R.; Jain Abhinandan K.; Bhat Ramesh |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the experience of team teaching to address the issues of integration of academic inputs by bringing multi-disciplinary perspective together and thereby enhance learning experience of participants. The paper delves on the process, events and outcome of team teaching by four faculty members at IIM Ahmedabad who collaborated in teaching, writing cases, and doing research for a period of more than three years. The experience has been summarized using the following dimensions: need for team-teaching, existing mechanisms and barriers, opportunities and potential, imperatives, fall-outs and challenges experienced in the process. The cohesion, trust and mutual respect are key imperatives. The other factors contributing to the success of team-teaching are strong felt need by the members for integration in programmes, complementary skills and experiences of team members, frequent programmes with integrated components that provided continuous opportunities for learning, co-location of the instructors, and off-site programmes that provided opportunities for close get-togethers. The autonomy granted by the institution to instructors and co-coordinators to design and execute learning opportunities was also instrumental in the success. In an environment where the rule of the game is individualism, forming teams creates fears of loss of importance and recognition. The experience shows that the competency of the members and the overall effectiveness of the tasks are strengthened if the team believes in “reciprocating interdependence”. This can be possible only if members allow themselves opportunities to experiment, improvise and review |
| Date: | 2007–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iim:iimawp:2007-01-03&r=edu |
| By: | Darwin Marcelo Gordillo; Natalia Ariza Ramírez |
| Abstract: | El objetivo del documento es dar continuidad al trabajo presentado en l Boletín SISD 27 (2000) que sintetiza para la década de 1990 el papel que ha desempeñado la educación en la explicación de las variables de la fuerza de trabajo y el ingreso. Los cálculos son realizados a partir de la información de las encuestas de Calidad de Vida de 1997 y 2003. En adición a los cálculos presentados en el Boletín SISD 27, se presentan indicadores de equidad en el stock de escolaridad y acceso al sistema educativo de la fuerza de trabajo en Colombia. Se analizan las principales variables de la fuerza de trabajo colombiana en 1997 y 2003y su relación con la asistencia escolar, los años de educación alcanzados y los respectivos niveles educativos. Asimismo, se estudian la relación entre los ingresos laborales y la inversión en capital humano y, se desarrolla un modelo de retornos sociales de la educación en Bogotá para 2003. |
| Date: | 2005–07–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001022:002769&r=edu |