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on Education |
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Issue of 2017‒11‒26
fourteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Rebecca Cassells (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin University); Alan S Duncan (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin University); Grace Gao (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin Business School); Richard Seymour (Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin Business School) |
| Abstract: | When we think of a ‘good society’ – a society that is fair and just – one of the defining characteristics is likely to be that all individuals have equal opportunity to realise their potential, irrespective of the circumstances into which they are born. This is ingrained in the Australian ethos of ‘a fair go’. Access to education plays a critical role in determining whether or not individuals are given this opportunity. This fifth report in the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre’s Focus on the States series addresses an issue of central importance to Australia in maintaining economic growth, its sense of social justice and fairness and in creating as equal an opportunity as possible for all Australian children – education. There are many indicators that can be used to measure education access, participation and outcomes, but no one indicator can show the full picture. Through the new BCEC Educational Disadvantage Index, we pull together data from a wide range of sources, to deliver a comprehensive analysis of education inequality across Australia. We profile those areas of the country that aren’t providing fair access to educational opportunity for our youngest Australians, and see how this potentially exacerbates participation in education in the later stages of high school and into tertiary education. We take you through the education journeys of our young Australians, picking out those crucial points where the current system works, and where it falls behind. |
| Keywords: | Western Australia, WA economy, educational disadvantage, access to education, indigenous wellbeing, regional disadvantage |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ozl:bcecrs:fs05&r=edu |
| By: | Uri Gneezy; John A. List; Jeffrey A. Livingston; Sally Sadoff; Xiangdong Qin; Yang Xu |
| Abstract: | Tests measuring and comparing educational achievement are an important policy tool. We experimentally show that offering students extrinsic incentives to put forth effort on such achievement tests has differential effects across cultures. Offering incentives to U.S. students, who generally perform poorly on assessments, improved performance substantially. In contrast, Shanghai students, who are top performers on assessments, were not affected by incentives. Our findings suggest that in the absence of extrinsic incentives, ranking countries based on low-stakes assessments is problematic because test scores reflect differences in intrinsic motivation to perform well on the test itself, and not just differences in ability. |
| JEL: | C93 I24 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24004&r=edu |
| By: | Addison, John T. (University of South Carolina); Chen, Liwen (University of South Carolina); Ozturk, Orgul Demet (University of South Carolina) |
| Abstract: | Job mobility, especially early in a career, is an important source of wage growth. This effect is typically attributed to heterogeneity in the quality of employee-employer matches, with individuals learning of their abilities and discovering the tasks at which they are most productive through job search. That is, job mobility enables better matches, and individuals move to better their labor market prospects and settle once they find a satisfactory match. In this paper, we show that there are gender differences in match quality and changes in match quality over the course of careers. In particular, we find that females are mismatched more than males. This is true even for females with the best early-career matches. However, the direction of the gender effect differs significantly by education. Only females among the college educated are more mismatched and are more likely to be over-qualified then their male counterparts. These results are seemingly driven by life events, such as child birth. For their part, college-educated males of the younger cohort are worse off in terms of match quality compared to the older cohort, while the new generation of women is doing better on average. |
| Keywords: | multidimensional skills, occupational mismatch, match quality, wages, gender wage gap, fertility, fertility timing |
| JEL: | J3 J16 J22 J24 J31 J33 N3 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11114&r=edu |
| By: | Noriko Fukuda (Hyogo University of Health Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this study is to investigate English education for pharmacy students in Japan. This study focuses on the first year first semester in the Japanese university.Though the world is becoming more and more internationalized, there are a large number of Japanese people who find it hard to speak English. Also at the dispensing pharmacies, there are a lot of pharmacists who have anxiety when they speak English to patients from abroad. The author is planning to investigate English education for pharmacy students in order for future pharmacists to communicate successfully with the growing number of foreigners entering Japan.In Japan, studies of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) have discussed what to teach for pharmacy students in English classes. ESP studies encourage teachers to improve students? English reading comprehension, and to provide students with knowledge regarding technical terms. However, it is true that many students don?t have positive attitude to learn English. Therefore, the author tries to seek its background and solution.The results of the questionnaire show that the students had little opportunity to learn pronunciation when they were in junior and senior high school. This is one of the reasons why they hesitate to speak English.The author makes new lesson plans for students on the first year first semester. These lesson plans focus on English pronunciation and presentation, giving students many opportunities for their utterance.According to the questionnaire after the first semester, students recognize that these lessons help them to overcome their hesitation to speak English. The results also indicate that this content and method can increase students? positive attitude toward improving their English abilities.Reference:1. Judy Noguchi, Yoko Kozaki, English for specific purposes for pharmaceutical sciences: The effectiveness of an ESP approach. Bull. Mukogawa Women?s Univ. Nat. Sci.. (2000), 48, p105-111.2. Tomoko Yamashita Smith, Japanese Pharmaceutical Students? Attitudes toward English Learning: Survey Results from One University. Bulletin of Osaka University of Pharmaceutical Sciences. (2012), 6, p41-47.3. Megumi Yamada, Revising Syllabus for Pharmacy Students Based on ESP Methods. ESP Hokkaido Journal. (2013), 2, p40-45. |
| Keywords: | English Education, Pharmacy Student, Japanese University |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:5807543&r=edu |
| By: | Bryan Stuart (George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the long-run effects of the 1980-1982 recession on education and income. Using confidential Census data, I estimate difference-in-differences regressions that exploit variation across counties in recession severity and across cohorts in age at the time of the recession. For individuals age 0-10 in 1979, a 10 percent decrease in earnings per capita in their county of birth reduces four-year college degree attainment by 9 percent and income in adulthood by 3 percent. Simple calculations suggest that, in aggregate, the 1980-1982 recession led to 1-3 million fewer college graduates and $64-$145 billion less earned income per year. |
| Keywords: | human capital, education, income, recessions |
| JEL: | E32 I20 I30 J13 J24 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2017-25&r=edu |
| By: | Jan Eeckhout (University College London and Barcelona); Hector Chade (Arizona State University) |
| Abstract: | Inequality in household earnings has increased enormously in the last decades. The variance of joint male and female earnings has gone up eightfold since 1960. This has often been attributed to marital sorting, the fact that married partners tend to have more similar levels of education. In this paper we investigate how this contrasts with stochastic sorting, the fact that earnings have become more volatile. We characterize conditions for stochastic sorting and propose a measure for marital sorting (or mismatch). Contrary to popular belief, we find that marital sorting has not changed once we account for the changing distributions of education: the distribution of educational attainment has shifted to the right (and more so for the females than for the males). The lion share of the increase in the variance in household earnings stems from the fact that over time: 1. the variance of earnings has increased; and 2. that now there are many more highly educated earners whose variance is substantially higher the that of the low educated. Marital sorting on education contributes nearly nothing. There is a modest increase in the correlation of earnings (from slightly negative to 11%), which could be attributed to marital sorting based on (unobserved) characteristics other than education. But that does not take away from the fact that 80% of the increase in the variance of household income is due to stochastic sorting. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:976&r=edu |
| By: | Juan Saavedra; Dario Maldonado; Lucrecia Santibanez; Luis Omar Herrera Prada |
| Abstract: | It is unclear whether public sector teachers are under or overpaid relative to other occupations due to lack of knowledge about teachers’ outside labor market options and other unobserved attributes related to compensation. We estimate causal labor market returns to novice public teachers in Colombia. Our approach takes advantage of a national, standardized, teacher-screening exam, scores on which determine eligibility for public teaching jobs. We use four nationwide administrative data sources in a regression discontinuity approach to show that applicants who marginally pass the teacher screening test have greater annual earnings during the first three years of tenure than applicants below the passing cutoff. The total earnings effect is a combination of higher daily wages and greater labor supply, part of which is in outside, predominantly non-teaching jobs for a substantial fraction of public teachers. For infra-marginal high-scoring applicants, we show that being a public teacher in Colombia is as attractive, if not more, as for those at the margin. On the whole, rather than a penalty, public teachers in Colombia across all ability levels earn a substantial labor market premium early in their careers. |
| JEL: | J22 J24 O15 O38 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24012&r=edu |
| By: | Thomas Awazu Pereira da Silva |
| Abstract: | This paper sheds light on the increasing and persistent skilled unemployment in Morocco over the past decade – oscillating around 20% of total unemployment. It identifies and estimates the role and significance of a skill mismatch between Morocco’s education system and its labor market, illustrated by the ratio between technical and general university degrees produced by the education system. The paper finds supporting evidence that a skill mismatch does play a significant role in explaining Morocco’s increasing skilled unemployment in a context of on-going structural reforms. |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:rpaper:rp-1704&r=edu |
| By: | Delaney, Judith (Economic and Social Research Institute, Dublin); Devereux, Paul J. (University College Dublin) |
| Abstract: | Much evidence suggests that having more education leads to higher earnings in the labor market. However, there is little evidence about whether having more education causes employees to experience lower earnings volatility or shelters them from the adverse effects of recessions. We use a large British administrative panel data set to study the impact of the 1972 increase in compulsory schooling on earnings volatility over the life cycle. Our estimates suggest that men exposed to the law change subsequently had lower earnings variability and less pro-cyclical earnings. However, there is little evidence that education affects earnings volatility of older men. |
| Keywords: | return to education, earnings volatility |
| JEL: | J01 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11107&r=edu |
| By: | Dickson, Lisa (University of Maryland, Baltimore County); Gindling, T. H. (University of Maryland, Baltimore County); Kitchin, James (University of Maryland) |
| Abstract: | Many undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. as children. Undocumented immigrant children have a legal right to attend free public primary and secondary schools. However, in most states undocumented immigrants are treated as out-of-state students in public colleges and universities, and are therefore required to pay substantially higher tuition than other state residents. Since 2001, 21 of 50 U.S. states have implemented policies that allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state resident tuition (ISRT) at public colleges and universities. In 12 of these states undocumented immigrants are also eligible for financial aid. In this study we present strong evidence that both ISRT policies and access to financial aid significantly increase the college enrollment and graduation rates of undocumented immigrants but have no impact on the college enrollment or graduation rates of U.S.-born youth. Another important change in immigration policy that affects many undocumented immigrant children is the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA allows undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children to obtain legal employment. The potential of being able to work legally in the United States could represent a significant increase in earnings as well as a substantial increase in the perceived benefits of higher education. Our findings present evidence that DACA led to an increase in youth employment and a decrease in college enrollment rates. Further, we find no evidence that the introduction of DACA reduced or increased the positive impact of ISRT and financial aid policies. |
| Keywords: | higher education, undocumented immigrants, tuition policies at public universities |
| JEL: | I23 J61 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11109&r=edu |
| By: | Guido Neidhöfer (Freie Universität Berlin); Joaquín Serrano (CEDLAS-FCE-UNLP & CONICET); Leonardo Gasparini (CEDLAS-FCE-UNLP & CONICET) |
| Abstract: | The causes and consequences of the intergenerational persistence of inequality are a topic of great interest among various fields in economics. However, until now, issues of data availability have restricted a broader and cross-national perspective on the topic. Based on rich sets of harmonized household survey data, we contribute to filling this gap computing time series for several indexes of relative and absolute intergenerational education mobility for 18 Latin American countries over 50 years, and making them publicly available. We find that intergenerational mobility has been rising in Latin America, on average. This pattern seems to be driven by the high upward mobility of children from low-educated families; at the same time, there is substantial immobility at the top of the distribution. Significant cross-country differences are observed and are associated with income inequality, poverty, economic growth, public educational expenditures and assortative mating. |
| JEL: | D63 I24 J62 O15 |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dls:wpaper:0215&r=edu |
| By: | Parisa Mahboubi (C.D. Howe Institute) |
| Abstract: | Canada’s workforce has experienced a troubling slide in literacy and numeracy skills, despite higher levels of education and improvements in learning technology, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation: More Educated, But Less Skilled Canadians,” author Parisa Mahboubi compares results of international surveys from 2003 and 2012 and finds Canadians’ skill levels declining across all age cohorts studied. |
| Keywords: | Education, Skills and Labour Market |
| JEL: | I25 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdh:ebrief:267&r=edu |
| By: | Nikhil Jha (ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Famlies over the Life Course); Chris Ryan (Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne) |
| Abstract: | This study uses longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to provide a descriptive analysis of teacher careers in Australia, looking at transitions in and out of teaching, the length of spells spent teaching, remuneration and job satisfaction in both government and non-government school sectors. Each year, approximately 14 per cent of teachers leave teaching (becoming a principal is not counted as leaving teaching). Most who leave return to teaching at some stage, commonly after a gap of just one or two years. This absence from teaching is typically associated with starting a family. Overall, teachers are just as satisfied with their jobs as other professionals, and express aboveaverage levels of job satisfaction in relation to job security, but below average satisfaction in relation to job flexibility (i.e. work/life balance). Those who left teaching recorded substantially lower job satisfaction on all aspects of their job while teaching, which su gests they were no longer well suited to teaching. The starting wages of full-time teachers are similar to those of other full-time professions, but their wages grow much more slowly with experience than other professions, for both males and females. |
| Keywords: | Teacher careers, teacher job satisfaction, teacher remuneration |
| JEL: | J22 J28 J44 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2017n30&r=edu |
| By: | Ransom, Michael R. (Brigham Young University); Ransom, Tyler (University of Oklahoma) |
| Abstract: | We examine the extent to which participation in high school athletics has beneficial effects on future education, labor market, and health outcomes. Due to the absence of plausible instruments in observational data, we use recently developed methods that relate selection on observables with selection on unobservables to estimate bounds on the causal effect of athletics participation. We analyze these effects in the US separately for men and women using three different nationally representative longitudinal data sets that each link high school athletics participation with later-life outcomes. We do not find consistent evidence of individual benefits reported in many previous studies – once we have accounted for selection, high school athletes are no more likely to attend college, earn higher wages, or participate in the labor force. However, we do find that men (but not women) who participated in high school athletics are more likely to exercise regularly as adults. Nevertheless, athletes are no less likely to be obese. |
| Keywords: | human capital, high school sports |
| JEL: | I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11110&r=edu |