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on Education |
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Issue of 2011‒09‒22
eleven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Pradhan, Menno; Suryadarma, Daniel; Beatty, Amanda; Wong, Maisy; Alishjabana, Armida; Gaduh, Arya; Artha, Rima Prama |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the effect of four randomized interventions aimed at strengthening school committees, and subsequently improving learning outcomes, in public primary schools in Indonesia. All study schools were randomly allocated to either a control group receiving no intervention, or to treatment groups receiving a grant plus one or a combination of three interventions: training for school committee members, a democratic election of school committee members, or facilitated collaboration between the school committee and the village council, also called linkage. Nearly two years after implementation, the study finds that measures to reinforce existing school committee structures, the grant and training interventions, demonstrate limited or no effects; while measures that foster outside ties between the school committee and other parties, linkage and election, lead to greater engagement by education stakeholders and in turn to learning. Test scores improve in Indonesian by 0.17 standard deviations for linkage and 0.22 standard deviations for linkage+election. The election intervention alone leads to changes in time household members accompany children studying per week, but this does not lead to learning. Linkage is the most cost effective intervention, causing a 0.13 change in standard deviation in Indonesian test scores for each 100 dollars (US) spent. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Tertiary Education,Primary Education,Teaching and Learning,Disability |
| Date: | 2011–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5795&r=edu |
| By: | David J. Deming; Justine S. Hastings; Thomas J. Kane; Douglas O. Staiger |
| Abstract: | We study the impact of a public school choice lottery in Charlotte-Mecklenburg (CMS) on postsecondary attainment. We match CMS administrative records to the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), a nationwide database of college enrollment. Among applicants with low-quality neighborhood schools, lottery winners are more likely than lottery losers to graduate from high school, attend a four-year college, and earn a bachelor’s degree. They are twice as likely to earn a degree from an elite university. The results suggest that school choice can improve students’ longer-term life chances when they gain access to schools that are better on observed dimensions of quality. |
| JEL: | H4 I2 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17438&r=edu |
| By: | Julia Reilich |
| Abstract: | Looking at smoking-behavior it can be shown that there are differences concerning the time-preference-rate. Therefore this has an effect on the optimal schooling decision in the way that we appear a lower average human capital level for smokers. According to a higher time-preference-rate additionally we suppose a higher return to education for smokers who go further on education. With our empirical findings we can confirm the presumptions. We use interactions-terms to regress the average rate of return with IV. Therefore we obtain that smokers have a significantly higher average return to education than non-smokers. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pot:vwldis:103&r=edu |
| By: | Mauricio Armellini (Durham Business School); Parantap Basu (Durham Business School) |
| Abstract: | An optimal education subsidy formula is derived using an overlapping generations model with parental altruism. The model predicts that public education subsidy is greater in economies with lesser parental altruism because a benevolent government has to compensate for the shortfall in private education spending of less altruistic parents with a finite life. On the other hand, growth is higher in economies with greater parental altruism. Cross-country regressions using the World Values Survey for altruism lend support to our model predictions. The model provides insights about the reasons for higher education subsidy in richer countries. |
| Date: | 2011–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dur:durham:2011_07&r=edu |
| By: | Solga, Heike; Fromm, Sabine; Richter, Maria |
| Abstract: | "This research report is based on the evaluation of the project 'Werkstatt-Schule Saarland'. The project aimed at the reintegration of highly disadvantaged young people into institutional education, helping them graduating from school and thus increasing their chances of a successful school-to-training-transition. In so called 'Werkstattklassen', which were installed at vocational training centres ('Berufsbildungszentren') and into which low-achieving young people could proceed after eight years of schooling, the students were taught in small classes, received intense supervision from social workers, and attended a practical training of two days a week. Thereby, the project sought to improve the occupational orientation and social skills of the young people as well as to increase their learning motivation. With regard to the objective of reintegration into institutional education the project can be seen as successful. The share of absentees in project classes could be reduced by 30 percentage points (compared to a reduction of 10 percentage points in the control classes). In general, the students' motivation of attending school increased drastically. At the end of school, only 68 per cent of the project students, but 77 per cent of the control students graduated successfully with a lower secondary school degree ('Hauptschulabschluss', equating the ISCED level 2). However, as the target group of this project were young people who were classified as not being able to graduate at a regular school this quota can be seen as a success. A comparison of different achievement groups reveals, however, that only participants who enter into the project with good grades did perform better than comparable students in control classes. In contrast, students with mixed or poor grades at the beginning of the project did not better than comparable students in control classes. This difference can be found although the project's students showed a larger increase in their grades than the control students over the course of the ninth grade. Regarding the transition into vocational training there are no differences between these two groups: 17 per cent of the students in project classes and 18 per cent of the students in control classes had started an apprenticeship three months after leaving the Berufsbildungszentrum." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Date: | 2011–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabfob:201105&r=edu |
| By: | Anurag N Banerjee (Durham Business School); Parantap Basu (Durham Business School) |
| Abstract: | An optimal education subsidy formula is derived using an overlapping generations model with parental altruism. The model predicts that public education subsidy is greater in economies with lesser parental altruism because a benevolent government has to compensate for the shortfall in private education spending of less altruistic parents with a finite life. On the other hand, growth is higher in economies with greater parental altruism. Cross-country regressions using the World Values Survey for altruism lend support to our model predictions. The model provides insights about the reasons for higher education subsidy in richer countries. |
| Date: | 2011–02–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dur:durham:2011_08&r=edu |
| By: | Glocker, Daniela; Steiner, Viktor |
| Abstract: | Incentives to invest in higher education are affected by both the direct wage effect of human capital investments and the indirect wage effect resulting from lower unemployment risks and shorter spells in unemployment associated with higher educated. We analyse the returns to education in Austria, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom, countries which differ significantly regarding both their education systems and labour market structure. We estimate augmented Mincerian wage equations accounting for the effects of unemployment on individual wages using EU-SILC data. Across countries we find a high variation of the effect of education on unemployment duration. Overall, the returns to education are estimated to be the highest in the UK, and the lowest for Sweden. A wage decrease due to time spent in unemployment results in a decline in the hourly wages in Austria, Germany and Italy. |
| Keywords: | EU-SILC; returns to education; unemployment |
| JEL: | H42 I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8568&r=edu |
| By: | Hălăngescu, Constantin I. |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to present, in a general, non exhaustive manner, a diachronic relationship the macroeconomic phenomenology of Kondratieff cycles and higher education –targeted reforms. Historical evidence presented by the speciality literature show that these reforms have occured in Kondratieff cycles’ decline stages, subsumed to the socio-economic phenomena characteristic to each of these. Adhering to the idea of crossing through the fifth cycle, the second part of the article launches a problem that could be discussed in extenso in subsequent research, namely: given the quasi-structural reforms in higher education systems (regionally polarized into the U.S.A.-Europe-Asia/Pacific triangle), are we passing through a cyclical phase of global upswing, in the academicus vs. oeconomicus debate from the financial-economic crisis marked beggining of this millennium? Could globalization through internationalization and higher education massification be considered kondratieffian’s current „long wave” paradigms? |
| Keywords: | Kondratieff cycles; economic cycles; higher education; academic reforms; economic decline; globalization; internationalization; macroeconomics |
| JEL: | O11 N30 I23 I21 E65 F01 |
| Date: | 2011–09–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:33286&r=edu |
| By: | Caroline Rizza |
| Abstract: | This working paper aims to give an overview of the national policies that exist in the field of ICT and initial teacher education. Information on this topic was initially gathered via a survey, in the form of a country questionnaire, which was conducted as part of the analytical strand of the OECD study entitled “ICT and Initial Teacher Education”. In addition, desk research was conducted for 31 OECD countries. All of this work has been carried out under the auspices of the New Millennium Learners project. Responses to the survey were received from the following countries: Austria, Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Chile, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom... |
| Date: | 2011–09–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaab:61-en&r=edu |
| By: | Randall S. Jones |
| Abstract: | While Japan has achieved outstanding scores on the PISA exams, further improving educational outcomes is important to sustain growth in the face of rapid population ageing. The government should step up investment in early childhood education and care and integrate childcare and kindergarten to improve its quality, while allowing some diversity in the type of institutions. Upgrading tertiary education, in part through stronger competition and internationalisation, is also important to increase human capital and boost the role of universities in innovation. Given the serious fiscal situation, reforms to further raise the efficiency of educational spending per student, which is above the OECD average for public and private outlays combined, are needed. The large share of private education spending, which accounts for one-third of the total, places heavy burdens on families, thereby discouraging fertility, and creates inequality in educational opportunities and outcomes. Reducing dependence on private after-school educational institutions known as juku would help reduce the burden and enhance fairness. This Working Paper relates to the 2011 OECD Economic Survey of Japan (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/Japan).<P>La réforme de l'enseignement au Japon<BR>Le Japon obtient d’excellents résultats aux tests du PISA, mais il est néanmoins important d’améliorer encore les performances de l’enseignement afin de soutenir la croissance face au vieillissement rapide de la population. Les pouvoirs publics devraient accroître les investissements dans les services d’éducation et d’accueil des jeunes enfants, et regrouper les centres d’accueil et les maternelles pour en améliorer la qualité, tout en préservant une certaine diversité entre les types d’établissements. Il importe également de rendre l’enseignement supérieur plus efficace, notamment en renforçant la concurrence et l’internationalisation, afin de développer le capital humain et d’augmenter la contribution des universités à l’innovation. Compte tenu des graves difficultés budgétaires du pays, il est nécessaire de lancer des réformes visant à améliorer l’efficacité des dépenses unitaires d’éducation, lesquelles dépassent (dépenses privées et publiques confondues) la moyenne de l’OCDE. Le niveau élevé des dépenses privées d’éducation, qui représentent un tiers de l’ensemble, fait peser une lourde charge sur les familles – ce qui freine la natalité – et crée des inégalités en termes de perspectives et de retombées de l’enseignement. Réduire le recours aux instituts privés de soutien scolaire après la classe, appelés juku, contribuerait à diminuer les coûts pour les ménages et à renforcer l’égalité des chances. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE du Japon, 2011 (www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/japon). |
| Keywords: | Japan, dualism, employment protection, labour force participation rates, female employment, vocational training, non-regular workers, part-time workers, older workers, work-life balance, labour market, fertility rate, Japanese economy, dispatched workers, fixed-term contracts, Japon, marché du travail, travailleurs âgés, dualisme, protection de l'emploi, travailleurs non réguliers, formation professionnelle, travailleurs à temps partiel, activité des femmes, taux de fécondité, équilibre entre travail et vie familiale, travailleurs intérimaires, contrats à durée déterminée, taux d’activité |
| JEL: | I21 I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2011–09–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:888-en&r=edu |
| By: | Michael Luca (Harvard Business School, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit); Jonathan Smith (Advocacy and Policy Center - College Board) |
| Abstract: | How do rankings affect demand? This paper investigates the impact of college rankings, and the visibility of those rankings, on students' application decisions. Using natural experiments from U.S. News and World Report College Rankings, we present two main findings. First, we identify a causal impact of rankings on application decisions. When explicit rankings of colleges are published in U.S. News, a one-rank improvement leads to a 1-percentage-point increase in the number of applications to that college. Second, we show that the response to the information represented in rankings depends on the way in which that information is presented. Rankings have no effect on application decisions when colleges are listed alphabetically, even when readers are provided data on college quality and the methodology used to calculate rankings. This finding provides evidence that the salience of information is a central determinant of a firm's demand function, even for purchases as large as college attendance. |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:12-014&r=edu |