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on Education |
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Issue of 2013‒10‒05
eleven papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Aurora A.C. Teixeira (CEF.UP, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto; INESC Porto; OBEGEF; UTEN) |
| Abstract: | The empirical literature focusing mainly on the USA suggests that class absenteeism undermines students’ academic performance and that an enforced mandatory attendance policy may be beneficial. Based on a different cultural and economic context, and using data on 146 second-year management students enrolled in a Macroeconomics course at an elite economics school in Portugal, it is shown that even when controlling for potential endogenous factors associated to attendance and academic performance, absenteeism considerably lowers the students’ final grade (about 2 points in a 0-20 point grading scheme). In addition, it is established that a compulsory, though flexible, attendance policy contributes to improving students’ academic performance. |
| Keywords: | Absenteeism; Academic performance; Economics; Management; University; Portugal |
| JEL: | I21 I29 J22 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:503&r=edu |
| By: | Aysit Tansel (Middle East Technical University Department of Economics, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Bonn, Economic Research Forum (ERF) Cairo) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to provide the recent developments on the supplementary education system in Turkey. The national examinations for advancing to higher levels of schooling are believed to fuel the demand for Supplementary Education Centers (SEC). Further, we aim to understand the distribution of the SECs and of the secondary schools across the provinces of Turkey in order to evaluate the spacial equity considerations. The evolution of the SECs and of the secondary schools over time are described and compared. The provincial distribution of the SECs, secondary schools and the high school age population are compared. The characteristics of these distributions are evaluated to inform the about spatial equity issues. The distribution of high school age population that attend secondary schools and the distribution of the secondary school students that attend SECs across the provinces are compared. The evidence points out to significant provincial variations in various characteristics of SECs and the secondary schools. The distribution of the SECs is more unequal than that of the secondary schools. The provinces located mostly in the east and south east of the country have lower quality SECs and secondary schools. Further, the SEC participation among the secondary school students and the secondary school participation among the relevant age group are lower in some of the provinces indicating major disadvantages. The review of the most recent developments about the SECs, examination and comparison of provincial distributions of the SECs and of the secondary schools are novelties in this paper. |
| Keywords: | Supplementary Education, Demand for Education, Turkey. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koc:wpaper:1319&r=edu |
| By: | Do Won Kwak (School of Economics, The University of Queensland); Hyejin Ku |
| Abstract: | To separately identify the effects of single-sex “schooling†versus single- sex “schoolsâ€, we exploit two unusual experiments in South Korea: students are randomly assigned to academic high schools within districts regardless of school types, and some schools changed their types from single-sex to coeducational over time. While the overall effects of attending a single-sex school are positive for both boys and girls, these are driven by the differences in resources between school types, rather than classroom gender composition per se. We find that coed (versus single-sex) classroom teaching itself has positive effects for boys, and neutral or negative effects for girls. |
| Date: | 2013–09–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qld:uq2004:487&r=edu |
| By: | Martin Fischer; Martin Karlsson; Therese Nilsson |
| Abstract: | Theoretically, there are several reasons to expect education to have a positive effect on health, and empirical research suggests that education can be an important health determinant. However, it has not yet been established whether education and health are indeed causally-related, and the effects found in previous studies may be partially attributable to methodological weaknesses. Moreover, existing evidence on the education-health relationship using information of schooling reforms for identication generally uses information from fairly recent reforms implying that health outcomes are observed only over a limited time period. This paper examines the effect of education on mortality using information on a national roll-out of a reform leading to one extra year of compulsory schooling in Sweden. In 1936, the national government made a seventh school year compulsory; however, the implementation was decided at the school district level, and the reform was implemented over a period of 12 years. Taking advantage of the variation in the timing of the implementation across school districts by using county-level proportions of reformed districts, census data and administrative mortality data, we find that the extra compulsory school year reduced mortality. In fact, the mortality reduction is discernible already before the age of 30 and then grows in magnitude until the age of 55–60. |
| Keywords: | Returns to schooling; education reform; mortality |
| JEL: | I12 I14 I18 I21 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0441&r=edu |
| By: | Takahiro Akita (International University of University); Heryanah (Central Bureau of Statistics Indonesia) |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the relationship between the level of educational attainment, educational inequality and expenditure inequality in Indonesia based on a provincial panel data set from 1996-2011 and attempts to test the Kuznets hypothesis for educational expansion. We found that educational inequality decreases as the average level of educational attainment increases. In contrast, expenditure inequality follows an inverted U-shaped pattern with respect to educational expansion and reaches the maximum at around 9-10 years of education. Given the current average educational level, further educational expansion would increase expenditure inequality. However, more equal distribution of education has an equalizing effect. |
| Keywords: | educational expansion, expenditure inequality, educational inequality, Kuznets hypothesis, panel data regression, Indonesia |
| JEL: | I24 I25 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iuj:wpaper:ems_2013_18&r=edu |
| By: | ZHANGALIYEVA, Aigerim; NAKABAYASHI, Masaki (Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo) |
| Abstract: | Employers use educational background as a signal of a workerfs latent ability. This signaling effect decreases as employers learn about the workerfs ability with his/her work experience, which results in negative coefficient of interaction term between schooling and experience in wage equation. Meanwhile, if schooling and experience are complements, it works to make the coefficient positive. We show the latter complementarity effect dominates for vocational school graduates school in Russia. Given that European vocational school systems were introduced from the Russian Empire, our results at least partly explain why employer learning is only weakly observed in Europe. |
| Keywords: | Signaling; employer learning; complementarity of schooling and experience; vocational school; Russia. |
| JEL: | J31 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:itk:issdps:f163&r=edu |
| By: | Takahiro Akita (International University of University); Sachiko Miyata (Rikkyo University) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the roles of location (rural and urban sectors) and education in the distribution of economic well-being in Indonesia by employing the hierarchical and non-hierarchical decomposition methods of the Theil indices. This is done by using household expenditure data from the national socio-economic survey (Susenas) in 2008. It shows that there are large expenditure disparities across education levels but that these are more pronounced in the urban sector than the rural sector. When there are differences in educational structure between the rural and urban sectors, the hierarchical decomposition method appears to offer a better approach than the non-hierarchical method. |
| Keywords: | Inequality; Hierarchical and non-hierarchical decompositions; Theil indices; Urban and rural locations; Education; Indonesia |
| JEL: | O15 O18 R12 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iuj:wpaper:ems_2013_15&r=edu |
| By: | Paulo Bastos (Research Department, Inter-American Development Bank, United States); Odd Rune Straume (Department of Economics, University of Minho) |
| Abstract: | We examine if an expansion in the supply of public preschool crowds-out private enrollment using rich data for municipalities in Brazil from 2000-2006, where federal transfers to local governments change discontinuously with given population thresholds. Results from a regression-discontinuity design reveal that larger federal transfers lead to a significant expansion of local public preschool services, but show no effects on the quantity or quality of private provision. These findings are consistent with a theory in which households differ in willingness-to-pay for preschool services, and private suppliers optimally adjust prices in response to an expansion of lower-quality, free-of-charge public supply. |
| Keywords: | Preschool education; private and public provision; crowding-out. |
| JEL: | D12 I21 I28 L21 O15 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nip:nipewp:16/2013&r=edu |
| By: | Brian Gill; Julie Bruch; Kevin Booker |
| Keywords: | teacher effectiveness, alternative assessment, student growth, valued added, student learning objectives |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7897&r=edu |
| By: | Menno Pradhan; Daniel Suryadarma; Amanda Beatty; Maisy Wong; Arya Gaduh; Armida Alisjahbana; Rima Prama Artha |
| Keywords: | Educational Quality, Indonesia, Randomized Field Experiment |
| JEL: | F Z |
| Date: | 2013–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7902&r=edu |
| By: | Ho Fai Chan; Bruno S. Frey; Jana Gallus; Markus Schaffner; Benno Torgler; Stephen Whyte |
| Abstract: | The external influence of scholarly activity has to date been measured primarily in terms of publications and citations, metrics that also dominate the promotion and grant processes. Yet the array of scholarly activities visible to the outside world are far more extensive and recently developed technologies allow broader and more accurate measurement of their influence on the wider societal discourse. Accordingly we analyze the relation between the internal and external influences of 723 top economics scholars using the number of pages indexed by Google and Bing as a measure of their external influence. Although the correlation between internal and external influence is low overall, it is highest among recipients of major key awards such as the Nobel Prize or John Bates Clark medal, and particularly strong for those ranked among the top 100 researchers. |
| Keywords: | Academia, Scholarly Importance, Role of Economics, Social Importance of Economists, External and Internal Influence, Academic Performance, Awards. |
| JEL: | A11 A13 Z18 Z19 |
| Date: | 2013–09–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qut:qubewp:wp020&r=edu |