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on Education |
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Issue of 2013‒01‒12
eight papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Baranov, Igor N. |
| Abstract: | In this paper we examine determinants of the quality of secondary education for making informed policy decisions at the levels of student / family, school, country's education system institutions and macroeconomic indicators. The quality of education is estimated by the outcomes of the latest round of PISA from 2009 on mathematics and science skills of 15-year old students from 67 countries. After regression analysis for the pool of countries, we estimate the same determinants for Russia in order to reveal in what way the Russian secondary education system is different from other countries, with a special attention paid to possible explanation of a surprisingly different performance of Russian students on TIMSS and PISA tests. We conclude with the discussion of the limitations of analysis based on international tests and possible policy issues related to the factors of quality of secondary education in Russia. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sps:wpaper:538&r=edu |
| By: | Saniter, Nils |
| Abstract: | In this paper I investigate the causal returns to education for different educational groups in Germany. I circumvent potential drawbacks of IV by employing a new method by Klein and Vella (2010). In this approach identification is not based on instruments but on the presence of heteroskedasticity. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) I find that the causal return to education is 8.5% for the entire sample, 2% for graduates from the basic school track and 11% for graduates from a higher school track. Across these groups the endogeneity bias in simple OLS regressions varies significantly. This confirms recent evidence in the literature on Germany. Various robustness checks support my findings. -- |
| JEL: | C30 I21 J31 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc12:62050&r=edu |
| By: | Goldbach, Stefan |
| Abstract: | Policy makers are interested in fostering economic growth and employment. Therefore, it is important to know how to boost innovation in an effective way. This paper investigates whether entrepreneurs with technical education are more innovative in high-tech industries than economists. The main contribution to the literature is in using the type of education as main explanatory variable for innovation. To analyze this question, the KfW/ZEW Start-Up Panel between 2005 and 2007 is used. Two independent OLS regressions are conducted for entrepreneurs with university degree and practical education. The results suggest that education matters for individuals with a university degree in high-tech industries but not for people with practical education. Having an economics degree is correlated with higher innovativeness. Therefore, for the underlying sample we do not find a nerd effect . -- |
| JEL: | A20 L26 I21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc12:62307&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: | We see a weakness of the merit-based government scholarship program for students from poor families, Bidik Misi, as most of them fail to meet the minimum academic requirement. This paper provide a policy simulation that compares two programs, private tutoring voucher (PTV) and conditional cash transfer (CCT), to complement the Bidik Misi scholarship to boost the number of poor students to get the support. To this end, we offer a policy targeted for second and third year high school students at public schools. The data sources that we used in this study are the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS), the Indonesia Social and Economic Survey (SUSENAS), and some primary data. To choose the best alternatives, we compare the cost effectiveness of both program and we find that the cost effectiveness per student in private tutoring voucher (PTV) is lower than conditional cash transfer program. The PTV program is also more convincing than CCT as PTV could directly influence the quality of instruction. We also check the robustness of the scenario using two one way sensitivity analyses. The sensitivity analyses support our finding that PTV program has more cost effective than the CCT. |
| Keywords: | Policy simulation, Cost Effectiveness Analysis, Sensitivity Analysis, Private Tutoring Voucher, Conditional Cash Transfer |
| JEL: | I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unp:wpaper:201301&r=edu |
| By: | Cygan-Rehm, Kamila; Mäder, Miriam |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the effect of education on the number of children, childlessness, and the timing of the first birth. We use exogenous variation from a mandatory reform to compulsory schooling in West Germany to deal with the endogeneity of schooling. In contrast to studies for other developed countries, we find a significant negative effect of education on completed fertility. We attribute this finding to the particularly high opportunity costs of child-rearing in Germany. -- |
| JEL: | I21 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:vfsc12:62037&r=edu |
| By: | Pedro Abrantes; Manuel Abrantes |
| Abstract: | Education is reasonably expected to enhance intergenerational social mobility. However, the extent to which educational systems foster or otherwise constrain social mobility remains controversial. In this paper, data from the European Social Survey covering 22 countries is analysed in order to assess social mobility in the second half of the 20th Century. Variation across five cohesive regional clusters is examined in detail. Results confirm increasing rates of social mobility in Europe and their close relation to massive structural shifts. The erosion of the education-occupation linkage presents a current threat to this trend. Considering formal credentials only, the most equalitarian educational systems are to be found in the United Kingdom and Ireland, but their ability to allocate individuals in the occupational structure is lower than in the other regions. Scandinavian systems show higher chances of social mobility through education, while Mediterranean systems present lower fluidity rates in both the background-education link (like Eastern European countries) and the education-occupation link (like the UK & Ireland). Gender and migration are identified as key factors to explain these differences. |
| Keywords: | education, educational systems, gender, migration, social mobility |
| JEL: | I24 J21 J70 Y10 Z13 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soc:wpaper:wp012012&r=edu |
| By: | Prettner, Klaus |
| Abstract: | We introduce publicly funded education into R&D-based economic growth theory. Our framework allows us to i) explicitly describe a realistic process of human capital accumulation within these types of growth models, ii) reconcile semi-endogenous growth theory with the empirical evidence on the relationship between economic development and population growth, and iii) revise the policy invariance result of semi-endogenous growth frameworks. In particular, we show that the model supports a negative association between economic growth and population growth if the education sector is well developed and the population growth rate is low, that is, for modern industrialized countries. Furthermore, within our framework, changes in public educational investments have the potential to affect the long-run balanced growth rate. -- |
| Keywords: | public education,human capital accumulation,technological change,semi-endogenous economic growth |
| JEL: | I25 J24 O11 O31 O41 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:tuweco:022012&r=edu |
| By: | Van Leeuwen, Bas; van Leeuwen-Li, Jieli; Foldvari, Peter |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we address the issue of how education affected income inequality in twentieth-century Africa. Three channels are identified through which education may affect income inequality. First, an increase in the average educational level is correlated with an increase in average income, which, ceteris paribus, reduces inequality. Second, a reduction in educational inequality may, given a positive correlation between education level and income, reduce income inequality. Thirdly, an increase in the supply of education may decrease the price of skilled labour thus lowering income inequality. We find that in the long-run education does not affect income growth, indicating that in twentieth-century Africa it was inspiration (i.e., Total Factor Productivity [TFP]) rather than perspiration (i.e., education and physical capital) that drove economic development. Testing for the effects of the remaining two channels, we found a significant non-linear relationship between educational and income inequality suggesting that, contrary to the level of education, these two channels were important in determining income inequality in Africa. Taking an example from the end of the twentieth century, if educational equality had been eliminated, then income inequality would decline by no less than 81%. |
| Keywords: | Africa; education; history; inequality; economic growth |
| JEL: | N1 O55 D6 N3 N17 |
| Date: | 2012–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:43574&r=edu |