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on Education |
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Issue of 2013‒03‒02
ten papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Marco Bertoni; Giorgio Brunello; Lorenzo Rocco |
| Abstract: | We use a natural experiment to show that the presence of an external examiner has both a direct and an indirect negative effect on the performance of monitored classes in standardized educational tests. The direct effect is the difference in the test performance between classes of the same school with and without external examiners. The indirect effect is the difference in performance between un-monitored classes in schools with an external examiner and un-monitored classes in schools without external monitoring. We find that the overall effect of having an external examiner in the class is to reduce the proportion of correct answers by 5.5 to 8.5% - depending on the grade and the test - with respect to classes in schools with no external monitor. The direct and indirect effects range between 4.3 and 6.6% and between 1.2 and 1.9% respectively. Using additional supporting evidence, we argue that the negative impact of the presence of an external examiner on measured test scores is due to reduced cheating (by students and/or teachers) rather than to the negative effects of anxiety or distraction from having a stranger in the class. |
| Keywords: | Education, testing, external monitoring, indirect treatment effects |
| JEL: | C31 H52 I2 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1191&r=edu |
| By: | Steven Levitt; John List; Susanne Neckermann; Sally Sadoff |
| Abstract: | Research on behavioral economics has established the importance of factors such as reference dependent preferences, hyperbolic preferences, and the value placed on non-financial rewards. To date, these insights have had little impact on the way the educational system operates. Through a series of field experiments involving thousands of primary and secondary school students, we demonstrate the power of behavioral economics to influence educational performance. Several insights emerge. First, we find that incentives framed as losses have more robust effects than comparable incentives framed as gains. Second, we find that non-financial incentives are considerably more cost-effective than financial incentives for younger students, but were not effective with older students. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, consistent with hyperbolic discounting, all motivating power of the incentives vanishes when rewards are handed out with a delay. Since the rewards to educational investment virtually always come with a delay, our results suggest that the current set of incentives may lead to under-investment. For policymakers, our findings imply that in the absence of immediate incentives, many students put forth low effort on standardized tests, which may create biases in measures of student ability, teacher value added, school quality, and achievement gaps. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:framed:00379&r=edu |
| By: | Barbara L. Wolfe; Jason Fletcher |
| Abstract: | One of the continuing areas of controversy surrounding higher education is affirmative action. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Fisher v. Texas, and their ruling may well influence universities’ diversity initiatives, especially if they overturn Grutter v. Bollinger and rule that diversity is no longer a “compelling state interest.” But what lies behind a compelling state’s interest? One issue that continues to require more information is estimating and understanding the gains for those attending colleges and universities with greater diversity. Most existing studies are either based on evidence from one institution, which has issues of both selectivity and limited “treatments,” or focus on selective institutions, which also face issues of selection bias from college choice behaviors. In this research we use Wave 3 of Add Health, collected in 2001–02 of those then attending college. Add Health collected the IPEDS number of each college and matched these to the racial/ethnic composition of the student body. We convert these data into an index of diversity and then ask whether attending a college/university with a more diverse student body influences a variety of outcomes at Wave 4 (2007–08), including years of schooling completed, earnings, family income, composition of friends, and probability of voting. Our results provide evidence of a positive link between attending a college with greater diversity and higher earnings and family income, but not with more schooling or the probability of voting. |
| JEL: | I2 I21 I23 I24 I25 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18812&r=edu |
| By: | Peter Arcidiacono; Esteban M. Aucejo; V. Joseph Hotz |
| Abstract: | The low number of college graduates with science degrees -- particularly among under-represented minorities -- is of growing concern. We examine differences across universities in graduating students in different fields. Using student-level data on the University of California system during a period in which racial preferences were in place, we show significant sorting into majors based on academic preparation, with science majors at each campus having on average stronger credentials than their non-science counterparts. Students with relatively weaker academic preparation are significantly more likely to leave the sciences and take longer to graduate at each campus. We show the vast majority of minority students would be more likely to graduate with a science degree and graduate in less time had they attended a lower ranked university. Similar results do not apply for non-minority students. |
| JEL: | I23 J15 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18799&r=edu |
| By: | Carroll, David (Macquarie University, Sydney); Tani, Massimiliano (Macquarie University, Sydney) |
| Abstract: | This study considers the relationship between job search and over-education amongst recent Australian bachelor degree graduates. Using a panel estimation method, we find that using universities' career offices is associated with a reduced probability of over-education (between 3% and 8%) vis-à-vis responding to a job advertisement or searching through networking. These results are robust to alternative specifications and estimation techniques. As over-education is characterised by high persistence, the role of university career services and fairs in screening and matching the skills of graduands with the needs of employers at the entry point into the labour market cannot be overlooked. |
| Keywords: | over-education, graduate labour market, job search |
| JEL: | A22 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7202&r=edu |
| By: | Naci Mocan; Duha T. Altindag |
| Abstract: | Using data from NLSY97 we analyze the impact of education on health behavior. Controlling for health knowledge does not influence the impact of education on health behavior, supporting the productive efficiency hypothesis. Although cognition, as measured by test scores, appears to have an effect on the relationship between education and health behavior, this effect disappears once the models control for family fixed effects. Similarly, the impact of education on health behavior is the same between those with and without a learning disability, suggesting that cognition is not likely to be a significant factor in explaining the impact of education on health behavior. |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abn:wpaper:auwp2013-01&r=edu |
| By: | Klaus Prettner |
| Abstract: | We introduce publicly funded education in R&D-based economic growth theory. The framework allows us to i) incorporate a realistic process of human capital accumulation for industrialized countries, ii) reconcile R&D-based growth theory with the empirical evidence on the relationship between economic prosperity and population growth, iii) revise the policy invariance result of semi-endogenous growth frameworks, and iv) show that the transitional effects of an education reform tend to be qualitatively different from its long-run impact. |
| Keywords: | human capital accumulation; technological progress; scale-free economic growth; public education policy |
| JEL: | I25 J24 O11 O31 O41 |
| Date: | 2013–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:got:cegedp:149&r=edu |
| By: | Alberto Chong; Marco Gonzalez-Navarro; Dean Karlan; Martin Valdivia |
| Abstract: | Sexual health problems cause negative externalities from contagious diseases and public expenditure burdens from teenage pregnancies. In a randomized evaluation, we find that an online sexual-health education course in Colombia leads to significant impacts on knowledge and attitudes and, for those already sexually active, fewer STIs. To go beyond self-reported measures, we provide condom vouchers six months after the course, and find a 9 percentage point increase in redemption. We find no evidence of spillovers to untreated classrooms, but we do observe a social reinforcement effect: the impact intensifies when a larger fraction of a student’s friends is also treated. |
| JEL: | I1 I2 O12 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18776&r=edu |
| By: | Emily Blanchard; Gerald Willmann |
| Abstract: | We develop a new model of trade in which educational institutions drive comparative advantage and determine the distribution of human capital within and across countries. Our framework exploits a multiplicity of sectors and the continuous support of human capital choices to demonstrate that freer trade can induce crowding out of the middle occupations towards the skill acquisition extremes in one country, and simultaneous expansion of middle-income industries in another. Individual gains from trade may be non-monotonic in workers' ability, and middle ability agents can lose the most from trade liberalization. Comparing trade and education policy, we find that targeted education subsidies are more effective than tariffs as a means to preserve "middle class" jobs, while uniform educational subsidies have no effect |
| Keywords: | Trade and Education Policy, Skill Acquisition, Education, Income Distribution |
| JEL: | F11 F13 F15 F16 |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1831&r=edu |
| By: | Domenico Lembo (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Massimo Mecella (Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"); Mario Vacca (Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza") |
| Abstract: | The ways of schooling and teaching is quickly changing for the continuous evolution of the surrounding world: new forms of education are required; in fact, on the one side the birth of the smart cities and the smart community ask for active citizens interacting with institutions and on the other side the enormous potentiality of ICT is modifying both the learning environments and the training models. The so called “21st century schools”, differ from the current ones in almost all the aspects: building architecture, furniture, teaching and learning methods and so on. This new kind of school are spreading all over Europe and the world and governments, which recognize the importance of an efficient, modern and up to date education system, are committed in the design and implementation of these new schools. Two problems make this scenario confusing, preventing an ordered development of this new kind of schools: first, the lack of theoretical models able to represent the “21st century school” features; second, tools to manage and design these schools and their services and activities are, when they exist, based on the old paradigms (i.e., the traditional school with classrooms, etc.) and are not still integrated in an unique tool to support the overall school working and management. In this paper, the ongoing BPM4ED (Business Process Management for EDucation) research project is described: schools are seen as organizations and the business processes management techniques are used to analyze and classify them; the final and ambitious goals of the project are the development of a design methodology for “21st century schools” and the definition, design and implementation of a new class of integrated tools, possibly including the existing ones, to manage all the school activities and services. |
| Keywords: | Business Process Modeling; Learning environments;Design Methodology |
| Date: | 2013–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:report:2013-02&r=edu |