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on Education |
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Issue of 2009‒09‒05
eleven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Coneus, Katja; Gernandt, Johannes; Saam, Marianne |
| Abstract: | We analyse the determinants of dropout from secondary and vocational education in Germany using data from the Socio-Economic Panel from 2000 to 2007. In addition to the role of classical variables like family background and school achievements, we examine the effect of noncognitive skills. Both, better school grades and higher noncognitive skills reduce the risk to become an educational dropout. The influence of school achievements on the dropout probability tends to decrease and the influence of noncognitive skills tends to increase with age. |
| Keywords: | Noncognitive skills,school grades,secondary education,vocational training |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09019&r=edu |
| By: | King Banaian (Department of Economics, St. Cloud State University) |
| Abstract: | None. Forthcoming in Academic Questions |
| Keywords: | economics major; higher education; financial crisis |
| JEL: | A22 A23 |
| Date: | 2009–07–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:scs:wpaper:1002&r=edu |
| By: | Marcelo Soto |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies assume that the macro Mincer return on schooling is con- stant across countries. Using a large sample of countries this paper shows that countries with a better quality of education have on average relatively higher macro Mincer coeficients. As rich countries have on average better educational quality, differences in human capital between countries are larger than has been typically assumed in the development accounting literature. Consequently, factor accumulation explains a considerably larger share of income differences across countries than what is usually found. |
| Keywords: | Human capital; income growth; GMM estimation; development accounting. |
| JEL: | O11 O47 C33 |
| Date: | 2009–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:779.09&r=edu |
| By: | Yuki, Kazuhiro |
| Abstract: | Many empirical works suggest that education has a positive effect on earnings not only because it raises human capital but also because it functions as a signal when employers have incomplete information on employees' skills. The signaling role could have important consequences on the dynamics of education, wages, and wage distribution when there exist intergenerational linkages in educational decisions. This paper examines the dynamic effects in an economy where education has the dual roles and some fraction of individuals is credit constrained from taking education. In particular, it investigates how the number of educated individuals, the importance of the signaling value of education, and the wage inequality between educated and uneducated workers change over time in such economy, and compares the dynamics with those when education does not function as a signal. It also examines whether the signaling role leads to higher aggregate consumption or not in the long run. |
| Keywords: | Human capital; Education; Signaling; Statistical discrimination; Credit constraint |
| JEL: | O11 I20 O15 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:16982&r=edu |
| By: | Coneus, Katja; Sprietsma, Maresa |
| Abstract: | It is a well-known fact that the level of parents' education is strongly correlated with the educational achievement of their children. In this paper,we shed light on the potential channels through which human capital is transmitted from mothers to their children in early childhood. The main channels through which maternal human capital benefits the child's verbal and social skills are birth weight and father's support. Moreover,reading stories to the child is most relevant for the transmision of verbal skills whereas for social skills, a crucial channel for maternal human capital is the attendance of institutional childcare. |
| Keywords: | early childhood,skills,intergenerational transmission |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09038&r=edu |
| By: | Mühlenweg, Andrea M. |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of children's age within grade on school victimization in elementary school. Identification of age effects relies on the instrumental variables approach drawing on official school entry age rules based on children's month of birth. The empirical analysis uses the PIRLS data for 17 countries where such school entry age rules are effectively applied. Possible selection into compliance with official entry rules is taken into account via a control function approach. The study demonstrates that children are causally and significantly harmed by being the youngest within grade. Sub-group analysis reveals that the size of age effects on school victimization tends to be higher for boys than for girls as well as for children with an immigrant background compared to natives. The point estimates suggest that the age effect on school victimization is especially high in countries where there are also high effects on the cognitive outcome variable. |
| Keywords: | education,segregation,school effects |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09031&r=edu |
| By: | Christopher Lubienski |
| Abstract: | This report seeks to address critical issues such as these by synthesising the evidence on innovations in more market-driven education systems. The analysis draws on data from over 20 OECD and non-OECD countries, including both developed nations that seek to move beyond established systems of state-run schools, and developing nations where formal and de facto policies promote more free-market approaches to educational expansion. In doing this, the report focuses on the primary and secondary levels, where education is usually compulsory. The more universal nature of educational access at those levels provides a different set of conditions and incentives compared to the post-compulsory tertiary level. And the report pays special attention to the charter school experiment in North America, where reformers explicitly tried to create more competitive conditions in order to encourage the development of innovations in the education sector. Policy approaches such as this that use decentralisation, deregulation, greater levels of autonomy, competition and choice may have singular potential to induce innovations in the education sector, both in how education is organised and the school content that is delivered — critical concerns if the education sector is to be more effective and reach under-served populations.<BR>Le présent rapport a pour objet d’étudier des questions fondamentales telles que celles-ci, en faisant la synthèse des informations disponibles sur les innovations ayant trait à des systèmes éducatifs qui reposent davantage sur les mécanismes du marché. L’analyse s’appuie sur des données tirées de plus de vingt pays membres et non membres de l’OCDE, y compris des pays développés cherchant à dépasser le stade du système établi des établissements scolaires gérés par l’État, et des pays en développement où les politiques officielles et effectives encouragent des approches plus libérales de l’expansion du secteur éducatif. Dans cette perspective, l’étude privilégie l’enseignement primaire et l’enseignement secondaire, où la scolarité est généralement obligatoire. Le caractère plus universel de l’accès à l’éducation à ces niveaux présente des conditions et des incitations distinctes de celles de l’enseignement supérieur post-obligatoire. Ce rapport prête en outre une attention particulière à l’expérience des établissements scolaires à financement public et à gestion privée (les « charter schools ») en Amérique du Nord, où les responsables de la réforme ont tenté de manière explicite de créer des conditions plus concurrentielles afin d’encourager les innovations dans le secteur éducatif. Les approches de ce type, qui utilisent la décentralisation, la déréglementation et le développement de l’autonomie, de la concurrence et du choix, pourraient singulièrement encourager les innovations dans le secteur éducatif, tant au plan de l’organisation de l’enseignement qu’au niveau du contenu des programmes scolaires – des préoccupations essentielles si le secteur de l’éducation veut être plus efficace et atteindre les populations moins bien loties. |
| Date: | 2009–08–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:25-en&r=edu |
| By: | Grimpe , Christoph; Fier, Heide |
| Abstract: | Existing literature has confined university technology transfer almost exclusively to formal mechanisms, like patents, licenses or royalty agreements. Relatively little is known about informal technology transfer that is based upon interactions between university scientists and industry personnel. Moreover, most studies are limited to the United States, where the Bay-Dole-Act has shaped the institutional environment since 1980. In this paper, we provide a comparative study between the United States and Germany where the equivalent of the Bay-Dole-Act has come into force only in 2002. Based on a sample of more than 800 university scientists, our results show similar relationships for the United States and Germany. Faculty quality which is however based on patent applications rather than publications serves as a major predictor for informal technology transfer activities. Hence, unless universities change their incentives (e.g., patenting as one criterion for promotion and tenure) knowledge will continue to flow out the backdoor. |
| Keywords: | informal university technology transfer, cross-country comparison |
| JEL: | J61 O33 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09033&r=edu |
| By: | Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); Charlene Marie Kalenkoski (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) |
| Abstract: | Recent research suggests that working while in high school reduces the amount of time students spend doing homework. However, an additional hour of work leads to a reduction in homework by much less than one hour, suggesting a reduction in other activities. This paper uses data from the 2003-2007 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS) to investigate the effects of market work on the time students spend on homework, sleeping, household work, and screen time. Results show that an increase in paid work reduces time spent in all of these activities by 84%, with the largest effect found for screen time. |
| Keywords: | teenagers, time allocation, homework, screen time, sleep |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bls:wpaper:ec090010&r=edu |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; Hussinger, Katrin; Schneider, Cédric |
| Abstract: | While often presumed in academic literature and policy discussions there is little empirical evidence showing that academic patents protect more basic inventions than corporate patents. This study provides new evidence on the basicness of academic patents using German professor patents linked to patent opposition data from the European Patent Office (EPO). Patent oppositions are the most important mechanism by which the validity of patents filed at the EPO can be challenged. Controlling for patent value, asymmetric information and diverging expectations between the opposition parties, the likelihood of a potentially litigious situation and the relative costs of opposition versus settlement, we find that academic patents are opposed less frequently than a control group of corporate patents. This suggests that academic patents cover rather basic inventions with a low immediate commercial value not threatening current returns of potential plaintiffs. The effect is weaker for academic patents in collaboration with the business sector, which suggests that those patents are evaluated as more applied by owners of potentially rival technologies. |
| Keywords: | academic inventors,intellectual property rights,patent oppositions |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O34 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09029&r=edu |
| By: | Czarnitzki , Dirk; Toole, Andrew A. |
| Abstract: | Is there a trade-off of scholarly research productivity when faculty members found or join for-profit firms? This paper offers an empirical examination of this question for a subpopulation of biomedical academic scientists who received research funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). In this study, we are able to distinguish between permanent versus temporary employment transitions by entrepreneurial faculty members and examine how their journal article publication rates change using individual-level panel data. We find that the biomedical scientists who eventually choose to found or join a for-profit firm were more productive during their careers in academe than a randomly selected control group of their NIH peers. When they pursue entrepreneurship in the private sector, however, their scholarly productivity falls. Those entrepreneurial faculty members who return to academe are not as productive as they were before their entrepreneurial experience in terms of journal publications. |
| Keywords: | academic entrepreneurship,SBIR,NIH,biomedical research,life scientist productivity |
| JEL: | O38 O31 L53 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:09022&r=edu |