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on Education |
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Issue of 2015‒01‒31
twenty-two papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Victor Lavy |
| Abstract: | Research in economics of education about the effectiveness of educational programs and interventions have centered primarily on standardized test scores as a measure of success. However, since the ultimate goal of education is to improve lifetime well-being, attention shifted recently to long term consequences at adulthood, for example post-secondary schooling. However, the type of educational interventions studied is still limited and much remained to be unraveled. In this paper I study the long term consequences of free school choice by taking advantage of an experiment conducted two decades ago in the city of Tel Aviv, Israel. This school choice program was very effective in improving high school attainment and cognitive achievements six years later (Lavy 2010) and now I examine whether these effects persist beyond high school. The results indicate that treated students experience significant gains in post-secondary enrollment and in completed years of education and also have higher earnings at age 30. These significant positive treatment effects reflect mainly an increase in academic education, through increased enrollment in three-years academic colleges but not in research universities, and some shift away from vocational education at adulthood. Additional gains are reductions in eligibility and recipiency of disability welfare allowances. |
| JEL: | J24 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20843&r=edu |
| By: | John P. Papay ; Richard J. Murnane ; John B. Willett |
| Abstract: | We report results from our long-standing research partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. We make two primary contributions. First, we illustrate the wide range of informative analyses that can be conducted using a state longitudinal data system and the advantages of examining evidence from multiple cohorts of students. Second, we document large income-based gaps in educational attainments, including high-school graduation rates and college-going. Importantly, we show that income-related gaps in both educational credentials and academic skill have narrowed substantially over the past several years in Massachusetts. |
| JEL: | I2 I21 I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20802&r=edu |
| By: | C. Kirabo Jackson ; Rucker C. Johnson ; Claudia Persico |
| Abstract: | Since Coleman (1966), many have questioned whether school spending affects student outcomes. The school finance reforms that began in the early 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s caused some of the most dramatic changes in the structure of K–12 education spending in US history. To study the effect of these school-finance-reform-induced changes in school spending on long-run adult outcomes, we link school spending and school finance reform data to detailed, nationally-representative data on children born between 1955 and 1985 and followed through 2011. We use the timing of the passage of court-mandated reforms, and their associated type of funding formula change, as an exogenous shifter of school spending and we compare the adult outcomes of cohorts that were differentially exposed to school finance reforms, depending on place and year of birth. Event-study and instrumental variable models reveal that a 10 percent increase in per-pupil spending each year for all twelve years of public school leads to 0.27 more completed years of education, 7.25 percent higher wages, and a 3.67 percentage-point reduction in the annual incidence of adult poverty; effects are much more pronounced for children from low-income families. Exogenous spending increases were associated with sizable improvements in measured school quality, including reductions in student-to-teacher ratios, increases in teacher salaries, and longer school years. |
| JEL: | H0 I20 I24 J00 J1 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20847&r=edu |
| By: | Görlitz, Katja ; Gravert, Christina |
| Abstract: | This paper evaluates the effects of a high school curriculum reform that was introduced in one German state on high school dropout. The reform increased the standards of the curriculum by reducing the freedom of choice in course selection (amongst other things) resulting in an increase in the level and the weekly teaching hours in the subjects German, a foreign language, mathematics and natural sciences. Using a quasi-experimental evaluation design exploiting variation across time and states, we identify the reform effect on students' probability to graduate from high school. The results show that high school dropout rates have increased for males and females alike. However, the effect for males vanishes two years after reform implementation, while it remains persistent for females even after three years. |
| Keywords: | high school curriculum reform,high school dropout,school performance |
| JEL: | D04 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:20151&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Almost one in three teachers across countries participating in the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) reports having more than 10% of potentially disruptive students with behaviour problems in their classes. Teachers with more than one in ten students with behaviour problems spend almost twice as much time keeping order in the classroom than their peers with less than 10% of such students in their class. Behaviour issues such as intimidation or verbal abuse among students are associated with student absenteeism. Schools that promote participation of students, teachers and parents in school decisions, combined with a culture of shared responsibility and mutual support, tend to have lower incidence of student misbehaviour. |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaah:9-en&r=edu |
| By: | Manasan, Rosario G. ; Parel, Danileen Kristel C. |
| Abstract: | The importance of tertiary education in promoting human development and improving the economy`s competitiveness has already been realized. However, state universities and colleges (SUCs) have always faced issues such as the quality of education, management and financial systems, and access, despite considerable funding support provided by the government. This study, which is an extension of a previous work to include all SUCs in the Philippines, aims to (i) review and assess the programs being offered by SUCs vis-a-vis their mandates, the courses being offered by other SUCs in the region, and the quality of graduates produced; and (ii) recommend courses of action to improve the relevance and quality of course offerings of the SUCs. A review of the mandates of the SUCs in the Philippines indicates that the mandates of a number of SUCs are fairly broad to start with. Beyond this, the charters of most SUCs allow them to offer programs outside of their core mandates. Given the broad mandates of SUCs, it is not surprising that there is substantial duplication in their program offerings relative to those of private higher education institutions (PHEIs) and other SUCs in the same region where they operate. Moreover, high rates of program duplication appeared to be associated by an increase in the number of programs offered by SUCs during the period. At the same time, the quality of instruction in Philippine higher education has remained stagnant at a low level over the years. Although SUCs perform better than PHEIs in over 84 percent of professional board examinations (PBEs), SUCs have been able to improve their advantage further relative to PHEIs in the last seven years in about 31 percent of the PBEs where SUCs have an edge over PHEIs, but the lead that SUCs used to enjoy in the early part of the period has been eroded in over 69 percent of these PBEs. More worrisome is the preponderance of SUCs/PHEIs with zero passing rates in many PBEs in 2004-2011. Furthermore, closer scrutiny of SUCs` passing rate in PBEs indicate that a good number of them post passing rates that are well below the national average passing rate year after year. Given these findings, it is recommended that (i) the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) enforces more vigorously its policy of closing existing programs of SUCs and PHEIs alike where these HEIs` performance is under par year after year; (ii) the CHED ensures that SUC program offerings comply with its policies, standards, and guidelines; (iii) the CHED weighs the advantages/disadvantages of centralization over decentralization with respect to the monitoring of SUCs; (iv) the CHED regional director becomes a regular member of the SUC Board; (v) the normative funding formula is adjusted so that SUCs do not get an additional subsidy from the national government for the additional enrollment resulting from their offering popular programs (i.e., SUCs may be allowed to offer popular programs provided they meet CHED standards and shoulder the full cost of doing so); and (vi) in order to uplift the overall quality of instruction, the more effective measures, such as faculty development and facilities upgrading, be considered. |
| Keywords: | Philippines, state universities and colleges (SUCs), private higher education institutions (PHEIs), program offerings, mandates, duplication, board exam, passing rates, quality, budget |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2014-29_(revised)&r=edu |
| By: | Anagnosti, Afroditi ; Zampetakis, Leonidas A. ; Rozakis, Stelios |
| Abstract: | There is a growing body of literature arguing that individuals who have taken entrepreneurship courses generally intend to start a business. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of relevant courses on the entrepreneurial intentions of students in agriculture, using Ajzen’s (1991) the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The results show that the entrepreneurship education program has affected the student’s perceived behavior control and anticipated positive and negative effect. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural University, Entrepreneurship Education, Entrepreneurial Intentions, Theory of Planned Behavior, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, |
| Date: | 2014–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:eaae14:183047&r=edu |
| By: | Caterina Calsamiglia ; Francisco Martínez-Mora ; Antonio Miralles |
| Abstract: | We study the effects that school choice mechanisms and school priorities have on the degree of sorting of students across schools and neighborhoods, when school quality is endogenously determined by the peer group. Using a model with income or ability heterogeneity, we compare the popular Deferred Acceptance (DA) and Boston (BM) mechanisms under several scenarios. With residential priori-ties, students and their households fully segregate into quality-ranked schools and neighborhoods under both mechanisms. With no residential priorities and a bad public school, DA does not generate sorting in general, while BM does so between a priori good public schools. With private schools, the best public school becomes more elitist under BM. |
| Keywords: | school choice, mechanism design, peer effects, local public goods. |
| JEL: | I21 H4 D78 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lec:leecon:15/01&r=edu |
| By: | Mariesa Herrmann ; Lisa Dragoset ; Susanne James-Burdumy |
| Abstract: | Infographic |
| Keywords: | SIG, School Improvement Grants, Low Performing Schools, Education |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2015–01–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:798977e6cf60449797121d49a80ad4c8&r=edu |
| By: | Caroline Hoxby ; Sarah Turner |
| Abstract: | Previous work (Hoxby and Avery 2014) shows that low-income higher achievers tend not to apply to selective colleges despite being extremely likely to be admitted with financial aid so generous that they would pay less than they do to attend the non-selective schools they usually attend. The Expanding College Opportunities project is a randomized controlled trial that provides such students with individualized information about the college application process and colleges' net prices. In other work (Hoxby and Turner 2013), we show that the informational intervention substantially raises students' probability of applying to, being admitted at, enrolling at, and progressing at selective colleges. In this study, we show that the intervention actually changes students' informedness on key topics such as the cost of college, the availability of the curricula and peers they seek, and the different types of colleges available to them. We highlight topics on which the control students, who experienced no intervention, are seriously misinformed. |
| JEL: | I2 I21 I22 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20861&r=edu |
| By: | Eraslan, Ismail |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes perspectives of primary, secondary and high school executives affiliated to Turkish Trabzon Directorate of National Education, on ideas of education philosophy. 100 school executives officiating in the province of Trabzon participated in the research. Data were collected through a scale involving a total of 40 principles related to philosophical movements of prennialism, essentialism, progressivisim and re-constructionism. The KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) value of the scale has been determined as 0,87 and the Cronbach alpha, 0,73. In addition, the data acquired from the research concluded the reliability coefficient of the scale as 0,78. The data were analyzed using the SPSS computer program and their frequencies and percentages were analyzed. It has been observed in the research results, that school executives held a positive attribute towards the philosophical movements of prennialism, essentialism, progressivisim and re-constructionism. |
| Keywords: | school executives' inclinations, prennialism, essentialism, progressivisim, re-constructionism |
| JEL: | M53 |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61471&r=edu |
| By: | Elert, Niklas (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ); Andersson, Fredrik (Örebro university ); Wennberg, Karl (The Ratio institute and Stockholm Scool of Economics ) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the long - term impact of entrepreneurship education and training in high school on entrepreneurial entry, performance, and survival. Using propensity score matching, we compare three Swedish cohorts from Junior Achievement Company Program (JACP) alumni with a matched sample of similar individuals and follow these for up to 16 years after graduation. We find that while JACP participation increases the long - term probability of starting a firm as well as entrepreneurial incomes, there is no e ffect on firm survival |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship Education; Quasi - experiment; Performance |
| JEL: | D22 L25 L26 |
| Date: | 2014–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0245&r=edu |
| By: | Swenson, David A. |
| Abstract: | This analysis measures the regional economic value of The University of Iowa. There are two dimensions evaluated: the overall worth of operating the university and the value of student spending in the area economy. This analysis incorporates a number of best practices for measuring the worth of universities to regional economies. |
| Keywords: | university; economic impacts; input-output |
| Date: | 2015–01–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:38337&r=edu |
| By: | Elena Mattana (Universite` Catholique de Louvain - CORE ); Juanna Joensen (Stockholm School of Economics ) |
| Abstract: | We provide a framework for quantifying the impacts of implicit incentives in study aid schemes. We specify and estimate a dynamic discrete choice model of simultaneous education, work, and student loan take-up decisions exploiting the 2001 Swedish Study Aid reform for identification. This enables ex-ante evaluation of various changes to financial aid schemes. We find that the grant-loan mix does not affect student behavior as long as there is more weight on loans. When there is substantially higher weight on grants, however, more students graduate but stay enrolled longer. Moving from an income contingent to an annuity based loan repayment scheme substantially decreases student debt accumulation and improves the effectiveness of academic capital accumulation. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed014:707&r=edu |
| By: | Catalina HERRERA ; David SAHN (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International ) |
| Abstract: | Female secondary school attendance has recently increased in Sub-Saharan Africa; however, the higher likelihood of attending school after puberty has put girls at risk of becoming pregnant while attending school. Using a panel survey designed to capture the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, we analyze whether teenage pregnancy contributes to lower school attainment and cognitive skills among young women in Madagascar. We address the endogeneity between fertility and education decisions by instrumenting early pregnancy with the young woman’s access to condoms at the community level, and her exposure to condoms since she was 15 years old. We control for an extensive set of community social infrastructure characteristics to deal with the endogeneity of program placement. Our instrumental variable results show that having a child increases by 42% the likelihood of dropping out of school and decreases the chances of completing lower secondary school by 44%. This school-pregnancy related dropout is associated with a reduction of 1.1 standard deviations in the Math and French test scores. These results are consistent with hazard model estimations: delaying the first birth by a year increases the probability of current enrollment by 5% and the Math and French test scores by 0.2 standard deviations. |
| JEL: | O15 J13 I25 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdi:wpaper:1642&r=edu |
| By: | Zuzanna Brzozowska |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the role of intergenerational social mobility in completed fertility of women born between 1948 and 1972 in Poland. It examines the hypothesis of acculturation, which implies that fertility of the mobiles will be in between that seen in their parents’ (origin) and their new (destination) stratum. Using a 2013 large-scale survey I employ diagonal mobility models and explore the interplay between completed fertility and woman’s education, her parents’ education, educational mobility and the sibship size. I compare birth cohorts whose reproductive careers took place before and after the collapse of communism. The results suggest that educational mobility was very stable over time, oscillating around 70%; nine out of ten mobiles moved up. Fertility exhibited a strictly negative educational gradient; fertility of the upward and downward movers tended to be lower and higher, respectively, than that of the non-movers. Except for daughters of at least one highly educated parent, the destination stratum played a much more important role in the achieved family size than the origin. |
| Keywords: | completed fertility, social mobility, educational mobility, intergenerational mobility, fertility and education, Poland |
| JEL: | J13 J62 I24 I21 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp012015&r=edu |
| By: | Lance Lochner ; Alexander Monge-Naranjo |
| Abstract: | Rising costs of and returns to college have led to sizeable increases in the demand for student loans in many countries. In the U.S., student loan default rates have also risen for recent cohorts as labor market uncertainty and debt levels have increased. We discuss these trends as well as recent evidence on the extent to which students are able to obtain enough credit for college and the extent to which they are able to repay their student debts after. We then discuss optimal student credit arrangements that balance three important objectives: (i) providing credit for students to access college and finance consumption while in school, (ii) providing insurance against uncertain adverse schooling or post-school labor market outcomes in the form of income-contingent repayments, and (iii) providing incentives for student borrowers to honor their loan obligations (in expectation) when information and commitment frictions are present. Specifically, we develop a two-period educational investment model with uncertainty and show how student loan contracts can be designed to optimally address incentive problems related to moral hazard, costly income verification, and limited commitment by the borrower. We also survey other research related to the optimal design of student loan contracts in imperfect markets. Finally, we characterize key features of efficient student loan programs that provide insurance while addressing information and commitment frictions in the market. |
| JEL: | D14 D82 H21 H52 I22 I24 J24 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20849&r=edu |
| By: | Aldo Geuna (Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti De Martiis, University of Torino BRICK, Collegio Carlo Alberto ); Sotaro Shibayama (Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo ) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the determinants of exit from academic research which occurs when academic researchers move into positions in academe which concentrate on non-research activities such as teaching or administration, or when researchers leave academia and move into industry. Drawing on career data for 13,500 Japanese PhD graduates in hard sciences (all scientific fields except social sciences and humanities), we develop a set of econometric models to test the determinants of exit from a career in academic research. We find that academics’ scientific productivity and academic network are negatively correlated with abandoning a university research career, and that female academics, and researchers in lessprestigious universities, tend to exit academic research more easily. Individual and institutional network effects play a role mainly for senior researchers. The results indicate also that the determinants of exit are contingent on scientific field and career stage. |
| Keywords: | Researcher mobility; academic career; academic labor market; exit |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sru:ssewps:2015-01&r=edu |
| By: | Hotchkiss, Julie L. (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ); Pitts, M. Melinda (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta ); Walker, Mary Beth (Georgia State University ) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses unique administrative data to expand the understanding of the role women's intermittency decisions play in the determination of their wages. We demonstrate that treating intermittency as exogenous significantly overstates its impact. The intermittency penalty also increases in the education level of the woman. The penalty for a woman with a high school degree with an average amount of intermittency during six years after giving birth to her first child is roughly half the penalty for a college graduate. We also demonstrate the value of using an index to capture multiple dimensions of the intermittency experience, and we illustrate the importance of firm dynamics in the determination of a woman's wage. |
| Keywords: | intermittency; administrative data; career interruptions; fertility; labor supply; wage differentials |
| JEL: | J13 J22 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedawp:2014-23&r=edu |
| By: | Harless, Patrick |
| Abstract: | School assignment procedures aim to improve student welfare, but must balance efficiency and equity goals and provide incentives for students to report their preferences truthfully. Debate centers largely on two rules: immediate acceptance (IA), the so-called Boston mechanism, and deferred acceptance (DA). IA's strength is efficiency, while DA is touted for its superior strategic properties. Thinking of these as extremes, we advocate a compromise rule, immediate-acceptance-with-skips (IA+), which slightly modifies IA to achieve better strategic properties while retaining efficiency. IA+ proceeds in rounds of applications and, like IA, �finalizes assignments in each round. However, unlike IA or DA, IA+ allows students to "skip" applications to schools with no remaining capacity. We show that IA+ is efficient and less manipulable than IA+. Unfortunately, IA+ violates solidarity properties that both IA and DA satisfy. Considering robustness, we �find that each of the three rules satisfies a different set of three natural invariance properties. |
| Keywords: | School choice; deferred acceptance; immediate acceptance; immediateacceptance-with-skips; Boston mechanism |
| JEL: | C78 D63 H75 I28 |
| Date: | 2014–06–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61417&r=edu |
| By: | Frauke H. Peter ; Pia S. Schober ; C. Katharina Spieß |
| Abstract: | In recent years, almost all children below school age in Western industrialized countries have some experience of attending day care institutions. However, the age at which children enter day care and therefore the overall time spent in day carevaries substantially. We investigate the potential impact of later day care entry on the social and emotional behaviour of children, one important aspect of non-cognitive skills. Based on the English sample of the Millennium Cohort Study, we analyse the effects on children’s development at the age of five and seven, using propensity score techniques. We find clear evidence of effects on children’s development at the age of seven: Later day care entry increases children’s peer-problems and reduces prosocial behaviour. We find that boys with low educated mothers and from families with a household income below the poverty line are most strongly affected. |
| Keywords: | Day care entrance, early start, socio-emotional behaviour, propensity score matching |
| JEL: | J13 I21 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1438&r=edu |