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on Education |
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Issue of 2011‒11‒21
eighteen papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Coupe, Tom; Olefir, Anna; Alonso, Juan Diego |
| Abstract: | Using a rich data set of almost the entire population of Ukrainian secondary schools, the authors estimate the effect of school size and class size on the performance of secondary schools on Ukraine's External Independent Test. They find that larger schools tend to have somewhat better performance, both in terms of test scores and in terms of test participation. The size of this effect is relatively small, however, especially in rural areas for which the estimates are likely to be more clean estimates. Class size is found to be insignificant in most specifications and, if significant, of negligible size. |
| Keywords: | Tertiary Education,Secondary Education,Teaching and Learning,Education For All,Primary Education |
| Date: | 2011–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5879&r=edu |
| By: | Wen Fan (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | While much empirical work concerns job tenure, this paper introduces the concept of school tenure -- the length of time one student has been in a given school. I examine whether and how school tenure impacts students’ output using rich cohort data on England’s secondary schools. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimates suggest that, on average, students benefit from longer own school tenure but suffer from that of their peers. Using the number of times the student moved school during the academic year as an instrument for school tenure to deal with potential endogeneity, the resulting Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS) estimates suggest the effects of school tenure are positive and heterogeneous across students. While advantaged students are more likely to gain from own longer school tenure, disadvantaged ones are benefit if their peers have longer tenure. |
| Keywords: | school tenure; school moving; peer effects |
| Date: | 2011–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucn:wpaper:201124&r=edu |
| By: | J. Ignacio García-Pérez (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide); J. Antonio Robles-Zurita (Department of Economics, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) |
| Abstract: | Grade retention practices are at the forefront of the educational debate. In this paper, we use PISA 2009 data for Spain to measure the effect of grade retention on students’ achievement. One important problem when analyzing this question is that school outcomes and the propensity to repeat a grade are likely to be determined simultaneously. We address this problem by estimating a Switching Regression Model. We find that grade retention has a negative impact on educational outcomes, but we confirm the importance of endogenous selection, which makes observed differences between repeaters and non-repeaters appear 14.6% lower than they actually are. The effect on PISA scores of repeating is much smaller (-10% of non-repeaters’ average) than the counterfactual reduction that non-repeaters would suffer had they been retained as repeaters (-24% of their average). Furthermore, those who repeated a grade during primary education suffered more than those who repeated a grade of secondary school, although the effect of repeating at both times is, as expected, much larger. |
| Keywords: | Grade retention, educational scores, PISA |
| JEL: | D63 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pab:wpaper:1109&r=edu |
| By: | Carneiro, Pedro; Lokshin, Michael; Ridao-Cano, Cristobal; Umapathi, Nithin |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates average and marginal returns to schooling in Indonesia using a non-parametric selection model estimated by local instrumental variables, and data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey. The analysis finds that the return to upper secondary schooling varies widely across individual: it can be as high as 50 percent per year of schooling for those very likely to enroll in upper secondary schooling, or as low as -10 percent for those very unlikely to do so. Returns to the marginal student (14 percent) are well below those for the average student attending upper secondary schooling (27 percent). |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Secondary Education,Teaching and Learning,Primary Education,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2011–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5878&r=edu |
| By: | Bauer, Thomas (RWI); Grave, Barbara S. (RWI) |
| Abstract: | German universities are regarded as being under-financed, inefficient, and performing below average if compared to universities in other European countries and the US. Starting in the 1990s, several German federal states implemented reforms to improve this situation. An important part of these reforms has been the introduction of indicator-based funding systems. These financing systems aimed at increasing the competition between universities by making their pubic funds dependent on their relative performance concerning different output measures, such as the share of students obtaining a degree or the amount of third party funds. This paper evaluates whether the indicator-based funding created unintended incentives, i.e. whether the reform caused grade inflation. Estimating mean as well as quantile treatment effects, we cannot support the hypothesis that increased competition between universities causes grade inflation. |
| Keywords: | grade inflation, higher education funding, university competition |
| JEL: | H52 I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6073&r=edu |
| By: | Marina Murat |
| Abstract: | This paper uses data from PISA 2006 on science, mathematics and reading to analyse immigrant school gaps – negative difference between immigrants’ and natives’ scores - and the structural features of educational systems in two adjacent countries, Italy and France, with similar migration inflows and with similar schooling institutions, based on tracking. Our results show that tracking and school specific programs matter; in both countries, the school system upholds a separation between students with different backgrounds and ethnicities. Residential segregation or discrimination seem also to be at work, especially in France. Given the existing school model, a teaching support in mathematics and science in France and in reading in Italy would help immigrant students to converge to natives’ standards. |
| Keywords: | International migration; educational systems; PISA |
| JEL: | F22 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mod:recent:073&r=edu |
| By: | Francois Keslair; Eric Maurin; Sandra McNally |
| Abstract: | The need for education to help every child rather than focus on average attainment has become a more central part of the policy agenda in the US and the UK. Remedial programmes are often difficult to evaluate because participation is usually based on pupil characteristics that are largely unobservable to the analyst. In this paper we evaluate programmes for children with moderate levels of 'special educational needs' in England. We show that the decentralized design of the policy generates significant variations in access to remediation resources across children with similar prior levels of difficulty. However, this differential is not reflected in subsequent educational attainment - suggesting that the programme is ineffective for 'treated' children. In the second part of our analysis, we use demographic variation within schools to consider the effect of the programme on whole year groups. Our analysis is consistent with no overall effect on account of the combined direct and indirect (spillover) effects. Thus, the analysis suggests that a key way that English education purports to help children with learning difficulties is not working. |
| Keywords: | education, special needs, evaluation, |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:ceedps:0129&r=edu |
| By: | Antonella D'Agostino; Stefania Fruzzetti; Giulio Ghellini; Laura Neri |
| Abstract: | Recently the quality of Higher Education (HE) system and its evaluation have been key issues of the political and scientific debate on education policies all over Europe. In the wide landscape that involves the entire HE system we draw attention on the third level of its organization, i.e. the Ph.D. In particular, this paper discusses the necessity of monitoring the recruitment process of Ph.D. system because it represents a fundamental aspect of the Ph.D. system as a whole. We introduce a set of concepts related to the recruitment process and then we make them computable with synthetic indicators. The study provides an empirical analysis based on doctoral schools of four academic years at the University of Siena. Proposed indicators are finally used for detecting weakness and strength of each Ph.D. school. |
| Keywords: | Ph.D. schools, Ph.D.s. recruitment, diversity, external attractiveness, polarization |
| JEL: | I21 I23 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:619&r=edu |
| By: | Lindahl, Lena (Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Many countries have had to tackle escalating youth unemployment in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, but compared with other countries in the European Union, youth unemployment has increased particularly sharply in Sweden. Currently, Swedish 20-24 year olds are more than three times as likely to be unemployed than are adult workers, which is the greatest such ratio within the EU-15. The bulk of youth unemployment spells starts directly after upper secondary school ends, which in turn suggests special attention should be directed to the interaction of vocational education and labor markets. This paper discusses in the light of international research findings how to ease the transition from school into the labor market for vocational students. The evidence discussed in the paper centers on which educational structures lead to good labor market outcomes for vocational students and especially what we know about the relative merits of workplace- and school-based education and the role of employer contacts. |
| Keywords: | - |
| Date: | 2011–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sofiwp:2011_013&r=edu |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Susanne Link; Ludger Woessmann |
| Abstract: | Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we identify the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results show that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These results are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas. |
| JEL: | H4 I20 J24 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17591&r=edu |
| By: | Corak, Miles (University of Ottawa) |
| Abstract: | The successful acquisition of a language is often characterized in terms of critical periods. If this is the case it is likely that children who migrate face different challenges in attaining high school credentials depending upon their age at immigration. This paper examines the education outcomes of a cohort of immigrants who arrived in Canada as children. The 2006 Census is used and it is found that there is in fact a distinct change in the chances that children will hold a high-school diploma according to the age at which they arrived in the country. The chances of being a high-school dropout do not vary according to age at arrival up to about the age of nine, with children arriving after that age facing a distinct and growing increase in the chances that they will not graduate from high school. The findings suggest that public policy addressing the long run success of immigrant children needs to be mindful of the variation in risks and opportunities by age, and the role of both early childhood investment and the structure of the education system faced by young adolescents in determining them. |
| Keywords: | education, immigration, children |
| JEL: | I29 J13 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6072&r=edu |
| By: | Piero Cipollone (World Bank and Bank of Italy); Alfonso Rosolia (Bank of Italy and CEPR) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between education and mortality in a young population of Italian males. In 1981 several cohorts of young men from specific southern towns were unexpectedly exempted from compulsory military service after a major quake hit the region. Comparisons of exempt cohorts from least damaged towns on the border of the quake region with similar ones from neighbouring non-exempt towns just outside the region show that, by 1991, the cohorts exempted while still in high school display significantly higher graduation rates. The probability of dying over the decade 1991-2001 was also significantly lower. Several robustness checks confirm that the findings do not reflect omitted quake-related confounding factors, such as the ensuing compensatory interventions. Moreover, cohorts exempted soon after high school age do not display higher schooling or lower mortality rates, thus excluding that the main findings reflect direct effects of military service on subsequent mortality rather than a causal effect of schooling. We conclude that increasing the proportion of high school graduates by 1 percentage point leads to 0.1-0.2 percentage points lower mortality rates between the ages of 25 and 35. |
| Keywords: | education, mortality, health, schooling, human capital |
| JEL: | I20 I12 |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_811_11&r=edu |
| By: | Yuan-Cheih Chang; Phil Yihsing Yang; Tung-Fei Tsai-Lin; Hui-Ru Chi |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how universities can develop a new organizational structure to cope with the rise of academic entrepreneurship. By deploying the Pasteurian quadrant framework, knowledge creation and knowledge utilization in universities are measured. The relationships between university antecedents, Pasteurian orientation, and research performance are analyzed. A survey of university administrators and faculty members collected 634 responses from faculty members in 99 departments among 6 universities. The findings indicate that university antecedents of strategic flexibility and balancing commitment contribute to a greater Pasteurian orientation in university departments. The higher degree of Pasteurian orientation has significantly positive impacts on the performance both of knowledge creation and knowledge utilization. Moreover, the Pasteurian orientation acts as a mediator between university antecedents and research performance. Using cluster analysis, the departments are categorized into four groups. The differences between university- and department- factors in these four groups are examined and discussed. We conclude that not all university departments should move toward the Pasteurian group, and there are specific organizational and disciplinary factors resulting in mobility barriers among groups. Policies to encourage academic entrepreneurship should consider these mobility barriers, along with this new governance of science. |
| Keywords: | Academic entrepreneurship, Pasteur’s quadrant, research excellence, research commercialization |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:11-07&r=edu |
| By: | Lundborg, Petter (Lund University); Nordin, Martin (Lund University); Rooth, Dan-Olof (Linneaus University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we focus on possible causal mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of human capital. For this purpose, we use both an adoption and a twin design and study the effect of parents' education on their children's cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and health. Our results show that greater parental education increases children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills, as well as their health. These results suggest that the effect of parents' education on children's education may work partly through the positive effect that parental education has on children's skills and health. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational transmission, human capital, education, health, cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, adoptees, twins |
| JEL: | I12 I11 J14 J12 C41 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6099&r=edu |
| By: | Sébastien Massoni (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I); Jean-Christophe Vergnaud (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I) |
| Abstract: | The Action Lecture program is an innovative teaching method run in some nursery and primary schools in Paris and designed to improve pupils' literacy. We report the results of an evaluation of this program. We describe the experimental protocol that was built to estimate the program's impact on several types of indicators. Data were processed following a Differences-in-Differences (DID) method. Then we use the estimation of the impact on academic achievement to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis and take a reduction of the class size program as a benchmark. The results are positive for the Action Lecture program. |
| Keywords: | Economics of education, evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis, field experiment. |
| Date: | 2011–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00639571&r=edu |
| By: | Winkler, Anne E. (University of Missouri-St. Louis); Levin, Sharon (University of Missouri-St. Louis); Stephan, Paula (Georgia State University); Glänzel, Wolfgang (K.U.Leuven) |
| Abstract: | There is good reason to think that non-elite programs in economics may be producing relatively more research than in the past: Research expectations have been ramped-up at non-PhD institutions and new information technologies have changed the way academic knowledge is produced and exchanged. This study investigates this question by examining publishing productivity in economics (and business) using data from the Web of Science (Knowledge) for a broad set of institutions – both elite and non-elite – over a 17-year period, from 1991 through 2007. Institutions are grouped into six tiers using a variety of sources. The analysis provides evidence that non-elite institutions are gaining on their more elite counterparts, but the magnitude of the gains are small. Thus, the story is more of constancy than of change, even in the face of changing technology and rising research expectations. |
| Keywords: | higher education, research productivity, publishing trends, inequality |
| JEL: | A14 I23 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6082&r=edu |
| By: | Jaromir Cekota (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe); Claudia Trentini (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the educational attainment, labour market participation and living conditions of young Roma adults in Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania based on data from the generations and gender surveys and other sources of information. It shows that in spite of a small improvement in the educational attainment of young Roma in comparison to the generation of their parents, the educational achievement and employment gaps have increased considerably during the post-communist period. The paper also compares living conditions of the Roma with other population groups. It concludes with a discussion of policy challenges. |
| Keywords: | minorities, Roma, discrimination, employment, education, transition |
| JEL: | I31 J15 J71 |
| Date: | 2011–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ece:dispap:2011_2&r=edu |
| By: | Mendolicchio, Concetta (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]); Rhein, Thomas (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany]) |
| Abstract: | "We study the returns on education in Europe in a comparative perspective. We extend the model of de la Fuente [(2003). Human Capital in a Global and Knowledgebased Economy. part II: Assessment at the EU Country Level. Report for the European Commission], by estimating the values of the relevant parameters for men and women and introducing several variables specifically related to maternity leaves and benefits. As a preliminary step, we evaluate the effect of education on the wage profile. We estimate the Mincerian coefficients for 12 West European countries using the EU-SILC data for 2007 and use them as input in the optimisation problem of the individual to calibrate the model. Finally, we analyse the impact and relevance of several public policy variables. In particular, we evaluate the elasticities of the returns on education with respect to unemployment benefits, marginal and average tax rates, maternity leaves and childcare benefits." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) |
| Keywords: | Bildungsertrag - internationaler Vergleich, Humankapital, geschlechtsspezifische Faktoren, Westeuropa, Österreich, Belgien, Dänemark, Frankreich, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Irland, Italien, Luxemburg, Niederlande, Portugal, Spanien, Schweden |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2011–10–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iab:iabdpa:201120&r=edu |