|
on Education |
|
Issue of 2009‒09‒11
ten papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe Kortajarene (Universidad de Alicante); Marisa Hidalgo (Universidad de Alicante) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes public intervention in education, taking into account the existence of two educational levels: basic education and college education. The government decides per capita expenditure at each level and the subsidy for college education. We explore the effects of transferring resources from one level to the other on equity and efficiency, where efficiency refers to average productivity of college graduates. Except in the special case in which the economy is at the Equity-Efficiency Frontier (EEF), there is always a policy reform that increases the productivity of college graduates without excluding the talented poor from college. For developed countries, this policy consists of transferring resources from college to basic education. |
| Keywords: | Basic education, college education, public expenditure in education |
| JEL: | H52 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2009–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2009-18&r=edu |
| By: | Karthik Muralidharan; Venkatesh Sundararaman |
| Abstract: | Performance pay for teachers is frequently suggested as a way of improving education outcomes in schools, but the theoretical predictions regarding its effectiveness are ambiguous and the empirical evidence to date is limited and mixed. We present results from a randomized evaluation of a teacher incentive program implemented across a large representative sample of government-run rural primary schools in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The program provided bonus payments to teachers based on the average improvement of their students' test scores in independently administered learning assessments (with a mean bonus of 30% of monthly pay). At the end of two years of the program, students in incentive schools performed significantly better than those in control schools by 0.28 and 0.16 standard deviations in math and language tests respectively. They scored significantly higher on "conceptual" as well as "mechanical" components of the tests, suggesting that the gains in test scores represented an actual increase in learning outcomes. Incentive schools also performed better on subjects for which there were no incentives, suggesting positive spillovers. Group and individual incentive schools performed equally well in the first year of the program, but the individual incentive schools outperformed in the second year. Incentive schools performed significantly better than other randomly-chosen schools that received additional schooling inputs of a similar value. |
| JEL: | C93 I21 M52 O15 |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15323&r=edu |
| By: | Pierre Bailly (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Jean-Louis Besson (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : UMR5252 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II) |
| Abstract: | Double diploma is a means for distance learning to set up international cooperation which 1) are economic (out of money and time) for students 2) respectful partner institution 3) without risk for partner institution. European higher education area constitutes the legal framework and helpful structure for recognising training periods (credits). Two schemes were chiefly explored and implemented by Distance learning department of economics Faculty (ESE). The two principal models are: double symmetrical diploma out of complete cursus: for one year study, each institution validates 30 credits of partner's institution the result is only one cursus delivers two diplomas double asymmetrical diploma (access in last year of local studies): ESE recognizes the formation followed in economics formation in the partner university (several conventions in Russia, in particular) for a certain amount of credits and the students follow, during their last local year, the missing French credits in EAD. Indeed, the international mobility of the students does not only require to regulate the problems of organisation (also crucial they are) but also to define the methods of mutual recognition of the appropriations obtained in the same field. |
| Keywords: | motility ; student ; international cooperation ; higher education ; diploma ; university ; distance learning |
| Date: | 2009–06–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00406606_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Davia, Maria A. (Universidad de Castilla, La Mancha); McGuinness, Seamus (ESRI); O'Connell, Philip J. (ESRI) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses EU-SILC data from 2005 and 2006 to explore the hypothesis that international differences in rates of return to education reflect variations in the level of risk associated with educational investments. While there was some evidence to support this hypothesis with regards to returns to ISCED level 5 qualifications among males, the majority of the variation in international returns was related to distributional impacts. The results suggest that higher rates of return to more advanced qualifications relate to more dispersed distributions among poorly qualified workers which, in turn, raise the returns to credentials further up the educational spectrum. |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esr:wpaper:wp311&r=edu |
| By: | Leonardo Becchetti (University of Rome Tor Vergata); Pierluigi Conzo (University of Rome Tor Vergata); Fabio Pisani (University of Rome Tor Vergata) |
| Abstract: | We devise a retrospective panel data approach to evaluate the effects of fair trade affiliation on the schooling decisions of a sample of Thai organic rice producers across the past 20 years. We find that the probability of school enrolment in families with more than two children is significantly affected by affiliation years. The finding is robust when dealing with endogeneity and heterogeneity issues in the estimate. The non-positive preaffiliation performance documents that our result is not affected by selection bias and that fair trade affiliation generates a significant break in the schooling decisions of affiliated households. |
| Keywords: | child schooling, market access, fair trade. |
| JEL: | O19 O22 D64 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2009-122&r=edu |
| By: | Kenn Ariga (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University); Masako Kurosawa (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Fumio Ohtake (Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University); Masaru Sasaki (Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University) |
| Abstract: | We use a survey of the Japanese youth within 10 year after high school graduation to investiage the impacts of the academic and social skills on their success in the job market. We find three major factors account for the job market outcome immediately after school: school characteristics and job placement services, academic performance, and social skills, including the negative impacts of problematic behaviors at the school. Second, when we run a Probit regression on whether or not the surveyed individuals hold regular, full time job, we find the persistent but declining (over age) im- pact of the job placement immediately after school. Moreover, we find the impact of variables pertaining to the sociall skills remain significant even after controling for the job placement outcome after school, whereas other variables such as GPA or attributes of highschools are largely irrelevant to the current employment status. |
| Date: | 2009–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kyo:dpaper:001&r=edu |
| By: | Carlos Medina; Cristhian Manuel Posso |
| Abstract: | This document provides evidence to show that Colombia is a net exporter of 5% of its population with a university or post-graduate degree, while Argentina, Brazil and Chile are net importers of people with a similar level of education. We find that those Colombians who returned home to Colombia from the United States between the years 1990 and 2005 were, on average, less well educated than those who decided to stay in the States, a fact which has contributed to emphasising the positive selection made by Colombians when choosing the US as their destination, and as a result has increased the net flight of human capital (the so-called “brain drain”). The same exercise carried out on the South American countries as a whole leads to an analogous result. Although data does not allow us to include the quality of jobs immigrants are performing in the US as a determinant of the decision to return, it allow us to show that immigrants to the US from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela are generally employed in activities that require better qualifications than those in which Colombian migrants are working, although the Colombians are usually engaged in work which requires better qualifications than the jobs where migrants from Ecuador and Peru are employed. In the case of Colombians, and for the rest of South Americans taken as a whole, their level of education is closely linked to the level of qualification required for the work they do in the United States. |
| Date: | 2009–08–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000094:005758&r=edu |
| By: | Christian Belzil (Department of Economics, Ecole Polytechnique - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X, ENSAE - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - ENSAE); Marco Leonardi (Università degli studi di Milano - Università di Milano - Università degli studi di Milano) |
| Abstract: | Using unique Italian panel data in which individual differences in attitudes toward risk are measurable (from a lottery pricing question), we investigate the effect of the individual specific time invariant risk aversion factor on the probability of entering higher education. Apart from the risk aversion factor, absolute risk aversion depends on various state variables (wealth, liquidity constraints, back- ground risk) and is assumed to be measured with nonclassical error. We also take into account the endogeneity of the response to the risk aversion question, as well as potential non-classical measurement error in wealth. All model specifications point out to the fact that individual specific risk aversion acts as a deterrent to higher education investment. |
| Keywords: | Risk Aversion, Ex-ante risk, schooling, subjective beliefs, dynamic discrete choices |
| Date: | 2009–08–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00411099_v1&r=edu |
| By: | Pablo Brañas-Garza (Universidad de Granada); Juan C. Cárdenas (Universidad de los Andes); Máximo Rossi (Universidad de la República, Uruguay) |
| Abstract: | There is not general consensus about if women are more or less generous than men. Although the number of papers supporting more generous females is a bit larger than the opposed it is not possible to establish any definitive and systematic gender bias. This paper provides new evidence on this topic using a unique experimental dataset. We used data from a field experiment conducted under identical conditions (and monetary payoffs) in 6 Latin American cities, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lima, Montevideo and San José. Our dataset amounted to 3,107 experimental subjects who played the Trust Game. We will analyze the determinants of behavior of second movers, that is, what determines reciprocal generosity. In sharp contrast to previous papers we found that males are more generous than females. In the light of this result, we carried out a systematic analysis of individual features (income, education, age, etc.) for females and males separately. We found differential motivations for women and men. Third, we see that (individual) education enhances pro-social behavior. Lastly, we see that subjects’ expectations are crucial. |
| Keywords: | Reciprocal altruism, gender, education |
| JEL: | C93 D64 J16 |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2009-128&r=edu |
| By: | Eytan Sheshinski |
| Abstract: | It has been argued that increased life expectancy raises the rate of return on education, causing a rise in the investment in education followed by an increase in lifetime labor supply. Empirical evidence of these relations is rather weak. Building on a lifecycle model with uncertain longevity, this paper shows that increased life expectancy does not suffice to warrant the above hypotheses. We provide assumptions about the change in survival probabilities, specifically about the age dependence of hazard rates, which determine individuals' behavioral response w.r.t. education, work and age of retirement. Comparison is made between the case when individuals have access to a competitive annuity market and the case of no insurance. |
| Date: | 2009–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:huj:dispap:dp520&r=edu |