|
on Education |
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Issue of 2011‒08‒15
fifteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | thomas.retzmann (Chair of Economics and Economic Education, University of Duisburg-Essen); Bernd Remmele (Wissenschaftliche Hochschule Lahr); Guenther Seeber (University of Koblenz-Landau); Hans-Carl Joengebloed (Kiel University) |
| Keywords: | economic education, educational standards, general-education schools, germany, competences, competence model |
| JEL: | A21 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:duj:wpaper:1002&r=edu |
| By: | Vera Brusentsev (Department of Economics,University of Delaware); Jeffrey Miller (Department of Economics,University of Delaware) |
| Abstract: | The College Fed Challenge, a competition between undergraduate students from different colleges and universities, is designed to enhance the development of research, critical thinking, and presentation skills. This paper analyzes the value of the competition as an instrument for improving undergraduate economics education. We present results from surveys of (a) students who participated in one district in November 2010 and (b) graduates from the University of Delaware who participated in past years. The results reflect the impressive effect on student learning outcomes. We conclude that the visibility of the College Fed Challenge can be an important factor in determining its impact and that the competition could conceivably have a significant and positive impact on economics education in the United States. |
| Keywords: | economic education, undergraduate economics, education environment, experienced based education |
| JEL: | A20 A22 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dlw:wpaper:11-07.&r=edu |
| By: | Matt Dickson (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin CMPO, University of Bristol); Colm Harmon (UCD Geary Institute, University College Dublin Research School of Economics, Australian National University IZA, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | The estimation of the economic return to education has perhaps been one of the predominant areas of analysis in applied economics for over 50 years. In this short note we consider some of the recent directions taken by the literature, and also some of the blockages faced by both science and policymakers in pushing forward some key issues. This serves by way of introduction to a set of papers for a special issue of the Economics of Education Review. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education, education policy |
| JEL: | J08 J30 J38 C21 |
| Date: | 2011–08–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucd:wpaper:201115&r=edu |
| By: | Claudia Trentini (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) |
| Abstract: | It is widely accepted that disparities in education contribute to the poor labor market outcomes experienced by ethnic minority groups and consequently to their poverty. However, incentives to invest in education are significantly diminished if individuals are discriminated in the labor market and precluded from access to employment. In this paper we analyze differential educational benefits in Bulgaria and compare Roma returns to education with the majority population and the Turkish minority. We show that both ethnic minority groups have lower educational levels and employment rates than the majority population and that they also have lower returns to education. However, the gap in returns to education is much wider for the Roma with respect to both employment and labour-market earnings. The evidence suggests that this group is more vulnerable to discrimination, with a high percentage of the employment gap unexplained by differences in observable skills or characteristics. |
| Keywords: | minorities, Roma, discrimination, returns to education, transition |
| JEL: | J15 J7 P36 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ece:dispap:2011_1&r=edu |
| By: | Fordjour, R.; Badu, E.E.; Adjei, E. |
| Abstract: | The poor performance of students in the various universities has been attributed to the inability of students to effectively retrieve information for academic work. The purpose of the study was to investigate the prospects and challenges of information retrieval among university students. The survey research method was used to investigate the awareness and use of information retrieval systems, document retrieved and its relevance to studentâs information need, challenges of information retrieval among students and future expectation of information retrieving skills by students. Three student faculties in the University of Ghana, Legon participated in the study. A questionnaire consisting of 29 items was used as an instrument for collecting data. The findings reveal that students from all the faculties considered are highly aware of the information retrieval systems. However, there was no relationship between awareness of information retrieval systems and faculties. The study also shows that the use of information retrieval tools to retrieve relevant information depends on the information needs of the student. The study recommends that information retrieval skills training programme should be embedded in the curriculum and undertaken at an appropriate time and supported by academic staff of the University. In addition, the University administrators should ensure students studying subjects without an emphasis upon technology receive sufficient information retrieval skills training so that they are not prejudiced against due to subject chosen. Also, ensure that information retrieval skills training are pitched at a level which is appropriate to the individual needs of the student. |
| Keywords: | Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2010–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaae10:96831&r=edu |
| By: | Kirdar, Murat G. (Middle East Technical University); Tayfur, Meltem Dayioglu (Middle East Technical University); Koc, Ismet (Hacettepe University) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the impact of the extension of compulsory schooling in Turkey from 5 to 8 years on the marriage and fertility behavior of teenage women in Turkey using the 2008 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey. We find that the new education policy reduces the probability of marriage and giving birth for teenage women substantially: the probability of marriage by age 16 is reduced by 44 percent and the probability of giving birth by age 17 falls by 36 percent. The effects of the education policy on the time until marriage and first-birth persist beyond the completion of compulsory schooling. In addition, we find that the delay in the time until first-birth is driven by the delay in the time until marriage. After a woman is married, the rise in compulsory schooling years does not have an effect on the duration until her first-birth. Finally, we find that the education policy was more effective in reducing early marriage than a change in the Civil Code aimed for this purpose. |
| Keywords: | age at marriage, fertility, education, compulsory schooling |
| JEL: | J12 J13 I20 D10 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5887&r=edu |
| By: | Lorraine Dearden (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Bedford Group, Institute of Education, University of London); Emla Fitzsimons (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Gill Wyness (Institute for Fiscal Studies) |
| Abstract: | <p>Understanding how policy can affect university participation is important for understanding how governments can promote human capital accumulation. In this paper, we estimate the separate impacts of tuition fees and maintenance grants on the decision to enter university in the UK. We use Labour Force Survey data covering 1992-2007, a period of important variation in higher education finance, which saw the introduction of up-front tuition fees and the abolition of maintenance grants in 1998, followed some eight years later by a shift to higher deferred fees and the reinstatement of maintenance grants. We create a pseudo-panel of university participation of cohorts defined by sex, region of residence and family background, and estimate a number of different specifications on these aggregated data. Our findings show that tuition fees have had a significant negative effect on participation, with a £1,000 increase in fees resulting in a decrease in participation of 3.9 percentage points, which equates to an elasticity of -0.14. Non-repayable support in the form of maintenance grants has had a positive effect on participation, with a £1,000 increase in grants resulting in a 2.6 percentage point increase in participation, which equates to an elasticity of 0.18. These findings are comparable to, but of a slightly lower magnitude than, those in the related US literature. </p> |
| Keywords: | university participation, higher education funding policies, tuition fees, maintenance grants, pseudo-panel |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:11/17&r=edu |
| By: | Lorraine Dearden; Emla Fitzsimons; Gill Wyness |
| Abstract: | Understanding how policy can affect university participation is important for understanding how governments can promote human capital accumulation. In this paper, we estimate the separate impacts of tuition fees and maintenance grants on the decision to enter university in the UK. We use Labour Force Survey data covering 1992-2007, a period of important variation in higher education finance, which saw the introduction of up-front tuition fees and the abolition of maintenance grants in 1998, followed some eight years later by a shift to higher deferred fees and the reinstatement of maintenance grants. We create a pseudo-panel of university participation of cohorts defined by sex, region of residence and family background, and estimate a number of different specifications on these aggregated data. Our findings show that tuition fees have had a significant negative effect on participation, with a £1,000 increase in fees resulting in a decrease in participation of 3.9 percentage points, which equates to an elasticity of -0.14. Non-repayable support in the form of maintenance grants has had a positive effect on participation, with a £1,000 increase in grants resulting in a 2.6 percentage point increase in participation, which equates to an elasticity of 0.18. These findings are comparable to, but of a slightly lower magnitude than, those in the related US literature. |
| Keywords: | university participation, higher education funding policies, tuition fees, maintenance grants, pseudo-panel |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:ceedps:0126&r=edu |
| By: | Mohamad Fahmi (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Achmad maulana (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University); Arief Anshory Yusuf (Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University) |
| Abstract: | In 2006, Indonesia started implementing a nation-wide program of teacher certification with the aim to certify as many as 2.3 million teachers in 2015 with the budgetary cost of as much as US$460 million. Despite the magnitude and the importance of this program, there has been no quantitative study to evaluate the impact of such program on student’s achievement. In this study, we conducted a teacher survey in the Greater Bandung Area and collected the information on average national exam scores of the students of certified and not-certified teachers. We use two different impact evaluation techniques namely Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Difference (DD) to evaluate the impact of certification. Both methods suggest that teacher certification has no impact on student’s achievement. The certification program may have improved teacher’s living standard as remuneration increase is an elemental part of it, yet its formally-stated goal to improve the quality of education as should be indicated in better students’ performance may not have been achieved. This program, being the largest in the nation’s history, may have confused means and ends. |
| Keywords: | teacher certification, propensity score matching, impact evaluation, Indonesia |
| JEL: | J31 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201107&r=edu |
| By: | Wallace, Michael T.; Jack, Claire G. |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates returns to education for a sample of farm operators in Northern Ireland. The analysis examines the relationship between education and on-farm and off-farm labour incomes. Human capital earnings functions are estimated to identify the marginal return to education measured as years of schooling as well as the qualification level attained. Extending to a structural model, the methodology controls for the endogeneity of education in the earnings function and potential selection bias associated with off-farm labour market participation. In off-farm employment, the analysis shows that returns to education are of the order of between 6% and 9% for each additional year of schooling. However, on-farm earnings were not found to be significantly related to years of education, although the analysis does identify a significant on-farm return to an agricultural qualification |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Time Allocation and Labor Supply, Agricultural Labor Markets, Wage Level, Labor and Human Capital, J24, J22, J43, J31, |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc11:108786&r=edu |
| By: | Reale Emanuela (Ceris - Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth, Rome, Italy); Seeber Marco |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on policy implementation in higher education (HE) to be analysed through the evolution and transformation of the policy instruments, namely those related to the Government funding and evaluation. The research questions are: to what extent instruments can reveal the evolution of policy rationales and justifications? How instruments emerged, and become institutionalised, affecting and being affected by the characteristics of national configuration of HE systems? Whether and how they produce desired effects or evolve in unpredictable ways, generating unexpected results, playing new roles and functionalities? The evolution of the instruments seems to be dependent on some characteristics of the context and some key features of the instruments. The development has been often inspired by NPM principles, which aimed at increasing steering capacity of the policy maker on one side, and university role and autonomy on the other. The common narrative is then declined in very different ways among countries, and instruments implementation reveals the extent to which it is adapted to the existing characters (dominant paradigm) of the HE system. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Funding, Evaluation, Policy instruments, Policy implementation |
| JEL: | I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:cerisp:201102&r=edu |
| By: | Uschi Backes-Gellner (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Christian Rupietta (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich); Simone N. Tuor (Department of Business Administration, University of Zurich) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines spillover effects from education at the firm level, separating the effects for different levels and types of education and allowing for a curvilinear relationship. Modeling a Cobb-Douglas production function, we show that wages of tertiary-educated workers depend positively on the number of workers with an apprenticeship degree. These effects are the result of informational spillovers between differently educated workers. We estimate an aggregated Mincerian earnings equation using data from a large employer-employee survey and account for firm fixed effects as well as endogeneous workforce composition. Our results are highly significant and robust throughout our specifications and show that the number of workers with an apprenticeship degree has a positive impact on average wages of tertiary-educated workers but with a decreasing rate. |
| Keywords: | Education, Informational Spillovers, Wages |
| JEL: | I20 J24 J30 |
| Date: | 2011–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0065&r=edu |
| By: | Nelson, A. Gene; Litzenberg, Kerry K. |
| Abstract: | The effectiveness of Personal Response System (PRS) technology, sometimes called clickers, in engaging millennial students in more active learning is evaluated using pre-use and post-use surveys in three undergraduate agricultural economics courses with a total of 300 students. A PRS allows students to respond to their instructorâs questions and receive immediate feedback. The expectations of millennial students are described, along with the reasons why faculty might be interested in this technology. The survey results encouraged the authors to continue to develop their skills in posing questions and evaluating student responses using clickers. |
| Keywords: | teaching, undergraduates, millennials, personal response systems, clickers, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:waea11:107374&r=edu |
| By: | Manello Alessandro (University of Bergamo and Ceris - Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth, Moncalieri (TO), Italy) |
| Abstract: | this research presents an extension of the directional distance function model to measure performances for firms which produce a large number of pollutants and operate in different industrial sectors. I use this methodology to estimate productivity indexes on a sample of Italian firms that were forced to declare their emissions to the European Pollution Release and Transfer Register in 2007. A proxy for the environmental regulation’s cost is derived and results show a significant impact in term of potential value added lost. Estimations also reveal differences in mean environmental performances among industries; furthermore, the effect of pollution control follows the same path. |
| Keywords: | Directional distance function, Environmental regulation, Polluting industries |
| JEL: | Q50 Q52 Q56 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:csc:cerisp:201103&r=edu |
| By: | Hunjra, Ahmed Imran; Ahmad, H. Mushtaq; Rehman, Kashif-Ur-; Safwan, Nadeem |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that are influencing the young graduates for intention to create new venture. The study further highlights how the attraction, networking support, entrepreneurial capabilities, self-independence and self-reliance influence the young students to initiate their new businesses. The sample size of this study was 255 final semester students of various disciplines in different universities from Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The survey based questionnaire was used for data collection. Based on findings this study concludes that all variables, included in the study, play a vital role in new venture creation. Therefore, on the basis of findings this study concludes that young students are more motivated towards new venture creation and start their own businesses. |
| Keywords: | Influencing factors; new venture creation; different disciplines; young graduates; motivation |
| JEL: | A20 A23 |
| Date: | 2011–01–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:32679&r=edu |