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on Education |
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Issue of 2013‒11‒22
29 papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao Universidade da Beira Interior and Universidade de Lisboa |
| By: | Janssens, Barbara; Smet, Mike |
| Abstract: | Determinants of the decision to enroll in teacher education. Newly linked administrative data from the ministry of education enable us to consider the transition from secondary to higher education of an entire population cohort of students who graduated from secondary education in the academic year 2004-2005. These data allow tracking individual students during their higher education career from the academic year 2005-2006 until 2011-2012. The data include individual student characteristics, detailed individual enrolment information in secondary education and higher education, a number of secondary school and college or university characteristics, as well as regional socioeconomic indicators. The results show that a number of individual characteristics as well as the socio-economic background of the school leavers are significant covariates in explaining the probability to enroll in teacher education. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/417291&r=edu |
| By: | Smet, Mike |
| Abstract: | In this paper we investigate the transition from secondary school to higher education in flanders, more specifically the transition of students from technical and vocational education. We used merged administrative databases from the flemish department of education in order to construct a longitudinal dataset, enabling to track individual students from secondary to higher education. We obtained data from the entire population of school leavers from ten study fields in technical and vocational secondary education (n=9991). The data include individual demographic student characteristics, detailed individual enrolment information in secondary education and higher education for four school years, a number of secondary school characteristics as well as regional socioeconomic indicators. These data allow us explain differences in transition probabilities to a 7th year vocational training, college or university and to quantify the impact of the various explanatory variables. Results from logistic regression models indicate that a number of individual pupil characteristics, as well as school level characteristics are significant covariates in explaining transition probabilities to post-secondary education. In addition, the estimation results also show that specific secondary education study fields have a significant impact on the transition rate to higher education. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/417290&r=edu |
| By: | Friesen, Jane; Harris, Benjamin Cerf; Woodcock, Simon |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effects of public school open enrolment, which allows students to enroll in any public school with available space, on fourth grade test scores. We find a small, positive effect on the average student; this benefit appears to stem from increased competition among schools, rather than directly through expanded choice opportunities. Among students whose catchment school is locally top-ranked according to test scores, greater choice is of no direct benefit; however, students whose catchment school is locally lowest-ranked earn higher scores when they have access to better local schools. Students in both groups benefit from increased school competition. |
| Keywords: | open enrolment, school choice, school competition |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2013–10–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2013-46&r=edu |
| By: | Bratti, Massimiliano (University of Milan); Checchi, Daniele (University of Milan) |
| Abstract: | Thanks to the effort of two local educational authorities, in two regions of North Italy (Valle d'Aosta and the autonomous province of Trento) the PISA 2009 test was re-administered to the same students one year later. This paper is the first to analyse in the OECD-PISA context the potential advantages of re-testing the same students in order to provide better measures of schools' contributions to student achievement. We show that while cross-sectional measures of school value added based on PISA student literacy, which measures "knowledge for life", tend to be very volatile over time whenever there is a high year-to-year attrition in the student population, longitudinal measures of school value added are very robust to student attrition (even without controlling for sample selection). Moreover, persistence in individual test scores tends to be higher in highly "selective" (i.e. high drop-out) school environments. |
| Keywords: | Italy, OECD-PISA, school value added, student attrition |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7722&r=edu |
| By: | Ohinata, Asako (University of Leicester); van Ours, Jan C. (Tilburg University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze how the share of immigrant children in the classroom affects the educational attainment of native Dutch children in terms of their language and math performance at the end of primary school. Our paper studies the spill-over effects at different parts of the test score distribution of native Dutch students using a quantile regression approach. We find no evidence of negative spillover effects of the classroom presence of immigrant children at the median of the test score distribution. In addition, there is no indication that these spill-over effects are present at other parts of the distribution. |
| Keywords: | immigrant children, peer effects, educational attainment |
| JEL: | I21 J15 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7720&r=edu |
| By: | Maria Kuecken (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Josselin Thuilliez (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Marie-Anne Valfort (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | We examine the middle-run effects of the Global Fund's malaria control programs on the educational attainment of primary schoolchildren in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using a quasi-experimental approach, we exploit geographic variation in pre-campaign malaria prevalence (malaria ecology) and variation in exogenous exposure to the timing and expenditure of malaria control campaigns, based on individuals' years of birth and year surveyed. In a large majority of countries (14 of 22), we find that the program led to substantial increases in years of schooling and grade level as well as reductions in schooling delay. Moreover, although by and large positive, we find that the marginal returns of the Global Fund disbursements in terms of educational outcomes are decreasing. Our findings, which are robust to both the instrumentation of ecology and use of alternative ecology measures, have important policy implications on the value for money of malaria control efforts. |
| Keywords: | Malaria; Sub-Saharan Africa; education; quasi-experimental; Global Fund |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-00881371&r=edu |
| By: | Graziosi, Grazia |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to investigate whether the Italian University grants are an effective tool to prevent student drop-out and to favor the degree attainment, both for merit and need-based financial aids. The survey units are Italian students enrolled on a degree course in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics from 2002/03 until 2007/08 in the University of Trieste. On the one hand, the Regional Agency for the Right to Education offers some grants every year to eligible students from low-income families (rarely related to merit). On the other hand, Fonda Foundation offers some (only) merit-based grants to the best students enrolled in Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics degree courses. In order to estimate the causal effect of receiving a grant, we follow the counterfactual analysis and we match treated and control units using Genetic matching and Coarsened Exact Matching. The results suggest that the income-based financial aids have a positive impact to prevent drop-out at 2nd year, but a nonsignificant effect on graduation time, whereas the merit-based scholarships increase the probability to achieve the degree in the time alloted. |
| Keywords: | Financial higher education, Evaluation of university grants, Conterfactual analysis |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tre:wpaper:11&r=edu |
| By: | Ildefonso Méndez Martínez (Dpto. Economía Aplicada); Antonio Villar Notario (Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas); Carmen Herrero Blanco (Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the evaluation of the relative performance of a set of groups when their outcomes are defined in terms of categorical data and the groups’ members are heterogeneous. This type of problem has been dealt with in Herrero and Villar (2012) for the case of a homogenous population. Here we expand their model controlling for heterogeneity by means of inverse probability weighting techniques. We apply this extended model to the analysis of compulsory education in the OECD countries, using the data in the PISA. We evaluate the relative performance of the different countries out of the distribution of the students’ achievements across the different levels of competence, controlling by the students’ characteristics (explanatory variables regarding schooling and family environment). We find that differences in reading ability across OECD countries would lower by 35% if their endowment of students’ characteristics would be that for the OECD average. |
| Keywords: | Group performance, compulsory education, heterogeneity, categorical data, inverse probability weighting. |
| JEL: | I24 C14 |
| Date: | 2013–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ivi:wpasad:2013-08&r=edu |
| By: | Kalfa, Eleni (University of Kent); Piracha, Matloob (University of Kent) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses immigrants' education-occupation mismatch as well as its impact on their wages in Spain. Using cross-sectional data from the National Immigrant Survey of Spain 2007, we estimate a probit model taking into account the possible problem of selection bias. We show that the incidence of immigrants' education-occupation mismatch in the Spanish labour market can largely be explained by the incidence of education-occupation mismatch in the last job held in the home country. The probability of having been over-educated at home shows to have a higher effect on the probability of being over-educated in the first job upon arrival where work experience gained in the home country shows to be highly valued by Spanish employers. In addition, our results show that those who were over-educated in their first job after arrival are more likely to continue in being overeducated in their current/last job in Spain. Furthermore, we analyse the performance of immigrants in Spain by estimating the wage penalty of over-education. Using log wage equation as well as predicted and counterfactual values distinguishing between immigrants being in the correctly matched occupation and those who are over-educated, we show that over-educated immigrants earn significantly lower wage compared to their correctly-matched counterparts, while over-educated immigrants' would have earned an even larger amount if the same individuals were employed in a correctly matched job instead. Significant differences are also apparent when restricting the models to the level of education. |
| Keywords: | sample selection, education-occupation mismatch, immigration |
| JEL: | C34 J24 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7721&r=edu |
| By: | Cabus, S.; De Witte, Kristof |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes to the growing literature on school dropout by proposing and empirically testing a theoretical framework on the enrollment decision of youngsters in secondary education. The model relates school dropout to time preferences, motivation, opportunity costs, and policy measures, and is empirically tested on longitudinal data of about 5,000 Dutch vocational students. We evaluate the enrollment decision of students for (1) di¤erent intensity levels of dropout prevention policy, and for (2) di¤erent levels of economic development. The results indicate that the model can accurately predict actual enrollment rates over the period 2000-2011. Using the model to forecast the level of school dropout in the Netherlands by the year 2020, it is observed that a very strict dropout prevention policy could yield nearly maximum enrollment rates (i.e., 97%) in schools. However, the annual budget for a similar dropout prevention policy is estimated at e574 million or 0.10% of the Dutch GDP. |
| Keywords: | Dropout prevention; Economic modeling; Secondary education; |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/388981&r=edu |
| By: | Patrinos, Harry Anthony; Velez, Eduardo; Wang, Catherine Yan |
| Abstract: | In 2000, the goal that, by 2015, all children will have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality, was set. Despite the progress in terms of student enrollment and completion, the quality of learning produced in developing countries remains poor. Existing models of education production are inadequate for informing education reform for the purpose of improving school quality, as measured by student learning. Thus, a broader and more integrated approach of policy making is put forward. Building on theory and empirical evidence on what works, the paper puts forward a framework for improving the quality of education. The framework includes six factors: (1) assessment; (2) autonomy; (3) accountability; (4) attention to teachers; (5) attention to early childhood development; and (6) attention to culture. Going forward, there is a need to develop a system of international quality benchmarks drawing on a larger body of evidence. Most importantly, more empirical evidence from impact evaluations is needed. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Primary Education,Tertiary Education,Teaching and Learning,Access&Equity in Basic Education |
| Date: | 2013–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6701&r=edu |
| By: | Farzana Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi); Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi); Soham Sahoo (Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi) |
| Abstract: | The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) of India mandates 1/3rd of beneficiaries to be women and equal wages across gender. We study its impact on children's educational attainment via women's increased access to labor market opportunities. Using child level panel data, and taking advantage of the temporal, subdistrict level variation in the intensity of implementation of the NREGS, we find that a rise in mother's share in parental NREGS workdays increases school attendance and grade attainment of her children, particularly girls. This impact is over and above any income effect induced by the scheme. |
| Keywords: | labor, education, gender, bargaining |
| JEL: | I21 I38 J16 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:isipdp:13-03&r=edu |
| By: | Eric Isenberg; Jeffrey Max; Philip Gleason; Liz Potamites; Robert Santillano; Heinrich Hock; Michael Hansen |
| Keywords: | Effective Teaching, Teacher Effectiveness, Teacher Distribution, Value Added, Elementary Secondary Education, Economically Disadvantaged, Minority Group Children, Achievement Gap |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7943&r=edu |
| By: | Jonathan Colmer |
| Abstract: | How does future income uncertainty affect child labour and human capital accumulation? Using a unique panel dataset, we examine the effect of changes in climate variability on the allocation of time among child labour activities(the intensive margin) as well as participation in education and labour activities (the extensive margin). We find robust evidence that increased climate variability increases the number of hours spent on farming activities while reducing the number of hours spent on domestic chores, indicating a substitution of time across child labour activities. In addition, we find no evidence of climate variability on enrolment decisions or educational outcomes, suggesting that households may spread the burden of labour across children to minimise its impact on formal education. |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lsg:lsgwps:wp132&r=edu |
| By: | Alessandro Balestrino; Lisa Grazzini (Università degli Studi di Firenze); Annalisa Luporini (Università degli Studi di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | Using a household production model of educational choices, we characterise a free market situation in which some agents ("high-wagers") educate their children full-time and spend a sizable amount of resources on them, while others ("low-wagers") educate them only partially. The free-market equilibrium is inefficient and iniquitous. Public policy is thus called for: however, redistributive taxation alone is counter-productive, as it forces some agents to move away from full-time education for their kids, and educational price subsidies are only moderately effective, since they only work on the intensive margin. It is instead socially optimal to introduce a compulsory education package, using a redistributive tax system to finance it. Redistributive taxation and compulsory education are therefore best seen as complementary policies. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2013_18.rdf&r=edu |
| By: | Czarnitzki, Dirk; Rammer, Christian; Toole, Andrew A. |
| Abstract: | The creation of spinoff companies is often promoted as a desirable mechanism for transferring knowledge and technologies from research organizations to the private sector for commercialization. In the promotion process, policymakers typically treat these “university” spinoffs like industry startups. However, when university spinoffs involve an employment transition by a researcher out of the not-for-profit sector, the creation of a university spinoff is likely to impose a higher social cost than the creation of an industry startup. To offset this higher social cost, university spinoffs must produce a larger stream of social benefits than industry startups, a performance premium. This paper outlines the arguments why the social costs of entrepreneurship are likely to be higher for academic entrepreneurs and empirically investigates the existence of a performance premium using a sample of German startup companies. We find that university spinoffs exhibit a performance premium of 3.4 percentage points higher employment growth over industry startups. The analysis also shows that the performance premium varies across types of academic entrepreneurs and founders’ academic disciplines. |
| Keywords: | academic entrepreneurship; startups; technology transfer; open science; firm performance; university spinoff policy; human capital; social capital; |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/377375&r=edu |
| By: | Akbari, Ather H.; Aydede, Yigit |
| Abstract: | In universities across many western countries, student enrolments in economics discipline rose sharply towards the end of last decade but not in Canada. One reason for this outcome may be the continued perception of Canadian students of a lower economic reward to an economics degree. Using micro data from the 2006 census, we perform a comparative analysis of the wages earned by university degree holders in 50 disciplines in relation to economics. At undergraduate level, economics majors earned the 9th highest average wage in 2005, after controlling for demographic variables. On average, after controlling for demographic differences, workers whose wages were below those of economics majors earned about 16 percent lower while those who earned above economics majors earned about 10 percent higher. Similarity of their wages with physical science majors and their wage advantage over political science majors are also striking findings of this study. At graduate level, economics majors have greater wage advantage over other disciplines except for the business majors. |
| Keywords: | Education, Economics degree , Economic returns to human capital, Wage differentials |
| JEL: | J6 J15 J61 |
| Date: | 2013–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2013-6&r=edu |
| By: | Matthew Johnson; Stephen Lipscomb; Brian Gill |
| Keywords: | Value Added, Estimates, Peer Control Variables, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2013–11–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7941&r=edu |
| By: | Baker, Michael |
| Abstract: | Many jurisdictions ban teacher strikes on the assumption that they negatively affect student achievement, but there is surprisingly little research on this question. The majority of existing studies make cross section comparisons of the achievement of students who do or do not experience a strike. They conclude that strikes do not have an impact. I present new estimates of this impact of strikes using an empirical strategy that controls for fixed student characteristics at the school cohort level, and a sample of industrial actions by teachers in the province of Ontario. The results indicate that teacher strikes in grades 5 or 6 have negative, statistically significant impact on test score growth between grade 3 and grade 6. The largest impact is on math scores: 29 percent of the standard deviation of test scores across school/grade cohorts. |
| Keywords: | Child development, human capital, universal access |
| JEL: | I28 J13 |
| Date: | 2013–02–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2013-8&r=edu |
| By: | Di Paolo, Antonio (University of Barcelona); Tansel, Aysit (Middle East Technical University) |
| Abstract: | Foreign language skills represent a form of human capital that can be rewarded in the labor market. Drawing on data from the Adult Education Survey of 2007, this is the first study estimating returns to foreign language skills in Turkey. We contribute to the literature on the economic value of language knowledge, with a special focus on a country characterized by fast economic and social development. Although English is the most widely spoken foreign language in Turkey, we initially consider the economic value of different foreign languages among the employed males aged 25 to 65. We find positive and significant returns to proficiency in English and Russian, which increase with the level of competence. Knowledge of French and German also appears to be positively rewarded in the Turkish labor market, although their economic value seems mostly linked to an increased likelihood to hold specific occupations rather than increased earnings within occupations. Focusing on English, we also explore the heterogeneity in returns to different levels of proficiency by frequency of English use at work, birth-cohort, education, occupation and rural/urban location. The results are also robust to the endogenous specification of English language skills. |
| Keywords: | foreign languages, returns to skills, heterogeneity, Turkey |
| JEL: | I25 J24 J31 O15 O53 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7724&r=edu |
| By: | Martens, Kerstin; Breiter, Andreas; Idel, Till-Sebastian; Knipping, Christine; Teltemann, Janna |
| Abstract: | International vergleichende Schulleistungsuntersuchungen wie das Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) der Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) oder die Internationale Grundschul-Leseuntersuchung (IGLU; englisch: Progress in International Reading Literacy Study/PIRLS) zeigen Schwächen und Stärken der Bildungssysteme teilnehmender Länder auf. Sie zielen darauf ab, die Produktionsleistung von Bildungssystemen messbar zu machen, und erlauben es, Bildungsansätze verschiedener Länder und Regionen bis auf die Ebene einzelner Schulen hinsichtlich ihrer Leistungskapazitäten zu quantifizieren und miteinander zu vergleichen. In diesem Beitrag argumentieren wir für eine interdisziplinäre Perspektive auf den Prozess der Bildungsproduktion nach bzw. durch PISA und ähnliche Studien, um die Existenz von Konvergenzprozessen im Bildungsbereich und eventuelle Wechselwirkungen zu analysieren. Wie wir zeigen werden, untersuchen die einzelnen Fachdisziplinen aufgrund ihrer disziplinär verankerten Fragestellungen und Foki jeweils für sich unterschiedliche Aspekte des Forschungsgegenstandes. Nach nunmehr gut zehn Jahren mit einer weitestgehend disziplinären Beschäftigung mit PISA und ihren Folgen ist es notwendig, sich auf einer übergreifenden Ebene mit den Veränderungen in der Organisation und Produktion von Bildung nach und durch PISA zu befassen. Eine solche Meta-Perspektive auf den Wandel verspricht besonders erkenntnisfördernd zu sein, wenn sie interdisziplinär verschiedene sozialwissenschaftliche Perspektiven und Zugänge integriert. Gerade auf diese Weise lassen sich Zusammenhänge und Wechselwirkungen von Prozessen im Bildungsbereich rekonstruieren, die Konvergenzen befördern. Infolgedessen vermittelt ein interdisziplinärer Forschungsansatz ein umfassenderes und genaueres Bild der Folgen internationaler Schulleistungsstudien, als es aus einer isolierten Fachperspektive möglich wäre. -- International comparative studies of student achievement like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) or the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of participating countries' education systems. These comparative studies aim to create a measurement for the performance of education systems. Thus, they allow for the quantification and comparison of educational approaches in different countries, regions and types of schools or even individual schools. The present contribution argues for an interdisciplinary perspective on changes of education production induced by PISA and similar studies in order to analyze convergence processes and potential interdependencies in the educational sector. As will be shown, the particular disciplines will, due to their specialized foci, study the various aspects of the research topic in question. After having dealt with PISA and its ramifications for about ten years primarily from a single disciplinary viewpoint it has become necessary to conduct research on a more comprehensive level. Thus an interdisciplinary approach in studying PISA induced changes in education organization and production is essential. If different social-scientific perspectives are integrated, such meta-perspective on the transition processes promises to produce enhanced and deepened knowledge in the relevant research topic. This particular approach helps to reconstruct nexuses and interdependencies of processes fostering convergences in the educational field. Consequently an interdisciplinary assessment can uncover the impact of international comparative school performance studies in the field of education more comprehensively than an isolated disciplinary perspective. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:sfb597:175&r=edu |
| By: | Biniam E. Bedasso |
| Abstract: | This paper sets out to establish an empirical link between education and property rights. The analysis is based on a new index of property rights derived from a set of commonly used indicators. As expected, education has a generally positive impact on property rights. But the relationship is not linear. The effect also depends on level of income. More education might not always be good for property rights in lowincome countries. Instrumental variable estimation demonstrates that the schooling of the least educated 60 percent population is better identified to measure the impact of human capital on property rights than mean years of schooling. The dynamic panel estimation of the relationship reveals that it takes some time before an increase in the human capital of the least educated 60 percent population bears a positive impact on property right institutions. The independent influence of education on property rights is found to be stronger than that of income in most specifications. |
| Keywords: | Property rights, Education, composite index |
| JEL: | O10 P16 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rza:wpaper:380&r=edu |
| By: | Gray, David; Morin, Louis-Philippe |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze the workings of a small-scale program involving foundational learning that is targeted at unemployed workers in Surrey, BC by exploiting information contained in the administrative data set that was compiled through its execution. Although this data set contains huge gaps and has a structure that is far from ideal, it contains some information regarding outcomes for the participants and outputs generated by the operations of the program. We investigate three outcomes for the participants of this program, namely i) a return to work, ii) a return to school, and iii) an improvement in the score obtained from a diagnostic test that gauges literacy and essential skills. We also make recommendations in regards to developing a data set that would be suitable for designing and carrying out an evaluation of labour market interventions such as the one covered in this paper. |
| Keywords: | literacy and essential skills, foundational learning, program evaluation |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–09–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2013-41&r=edu |
| By: | Pugatch, Todd (Oregon State University); Schroeder, Elizabeth (Oregon State University) |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the impact of the Gambian hardship allowance, which provides a salary premium of 30-40% to primary school teachers in remote locations, on the distribution and characteristics of teachers across schools. A geographic discontinuity in the policy's implementation and the presence of common pre-treatment trends between hardship and non-hardship schools provide sources of identifying variation. We find that the hardship allowance increased the share of qualified (certified) teachers by 10 percentage points. The policy also reduced the pupil-qualified teacher ratio by 27, or 61% of the mean, in recipient schools close to the distance threshold. Further analysis suggests that these gains were not merely the result of teachers switching from non-hardship to hardship schools. With similar policies in place in more than two dozen other developing countries, our study provides an important piece of evidence on their effectiveness. |
| Keywords: | teacher labor markets, rural schools, Gambia, program evaluation, regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | I25 I28 J38 J45 J61 O12 O15 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7723&r=edu |
| By: | Nicaise, Ides; De Witte, Kristof; Lavrijsen, Jeroen; Lamote, Carl; Van Landeghem, Georges |
| Abstract: | The reduction of early school leaving (ESL) to less than 10% in all EU member states is one of the headline targets of the Europe 2020 agenda linking ‘smart’ with ‘inclusive’ growth. Following the priorities of the European Commission’s Action Plan against ESL, we will first examine how systemic reforms can help prevent ESL; next, in the sphere of remediation, the system-level determinants of participation in non-formal education as a ‘second chance’ are analysed. To do so, this article explores whether and how differences in ESL correlate with characteristics of the educational system and the general environment in the individual EU countries. Both strategies may contribute to preparing young people better for the knowledge economy. However, as we will demonstrate, the quantitative impact of this approach on social inclusion remains rather marginal in the short and medium term. Therefore, we advocate a large-scale campaign of compensatory adult education, which potentially has a much stronger impact on poverty reduction. |
| Date: | 2013–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/404638&r=edu |
| By: | Lisa Grazzini (Università degli Studi di Firenze); Alessandro Petretto (Università degli Studi di Firenze) |
| Abstract: | Even if both the health and the educational sector are under the state supervision in basically all countries, there are wide differences in the mix of their public/private provision and financing across them. The debate on the proper mix between the private and the public involvement has also been re-enlightened by the recent financial crisis which has stressed many countries’ public finances. The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it aims at presenting the incentive mechanisms both for the public and the private sector behind different types of mix between private and public involvement according to the industrial organization design of the health and the educational sector. On the other hand, the paper aims at presenting some recent case studies on Public Private Partnerships in both the health and the educational sector in countries such as the U.K., the U.S.A., and the Netehrlands. |
| Keywords: | Health, Education, Public-Private Provision. |
| JEL: | H44 H51 H52 H75 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2013_19.rdf&r=edu |
| By: | James Heckman (University of Chicago); Tim Kautz (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the recent literature on measuring and boosting cognitive and noncognitive skills. The literature establishes that achievement tests do not adequately capture character skills--personality traits, goals, motivations, and preferences--that are valued in the labor market, in school, and in many other domains. Their predictive power rivals that of cognitive skills. Reliable measures of character have been developed. All measures of character and cognition are measures of performance on some task. In order to reliably estimate skills from tasks, it is necessary to standardize for incentives, effort, and other skills when measuring any particular skill. Character is a skill, not a trait. At any age, character skills are stable across different tasks, but skills can change over the life cycle. Character is shaped by families, schools, and social environments. Skill development is a dynamic process, in which the early years lay the foundation for successful investment in later years. High-quality early childhood and elementary school programs improve character skills in a lasting and cost-effective way. Many of them beneficially affect later-life outcomes without improving cognition. There are fewer long-term evaluations of adolescent interventions, but workplace-based programs that teach character skills are promising. The common feature of successful interventions across all stages of the life cycle through adulthood is that they promote attachment and provide a secure base for exploration and learning for the child. Successful interventions emulate the mentoring environments offered by successful families. |
| Keywords: | Character, achievement tests, skill development, interventions |
| JEL: | D01 I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2013-019&r=edu |
| By: | Della Malva, Antonio; Lissoni, Francesco; Llerena, Patrick |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/322468&r=edu |
| By: | Kelchtermans, Stijn; Belderbos, Rene; Leten, Bart; Desair, Steven |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes under which conditions joint basic research with academic ‘star’ scientists improves firms’ technological performance. Using data on 61 of the most R&D intensive firms in the biopharmaceutical sector in 1991-2003, we find that collaboration with academic stars for basic research increases inequality in technological performance across firms, with only the upper tail of the performance distribution benefiting from such partnerships. Further, we find that joint basic research with top academic scientists is more beneficial if the firm and the star also do joint applied work. Finally, we find a dual effect of firms’ exclusive access to academic stars, with a positive impact on technological performance for exclusive access to ‘translational’ stars versus a negative effect for exclusive access to ‘ivory tower’ stars. |
| Keywords: | innovation; Pharmaceutical Industry; Industry-science links; Star scientists; |
| Date: | 2013–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:leuven:urn:hdl:123456789/408222&r=edu |