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on Education |
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Issue of 2018‒01‒01
seventeen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Olegs Krasnopjorovs (Bank of Latvia) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at identifying the school characteristics consistently associated with better performance of pupils on state exams. First, we find that exam scores are positively related to school size (the number of pupils in the respective school) and teacher salaries, but negatively – with teacher age. Meanwhile, quantitative inputs like the number of teachers and computers per pupil are not robust determinants of education performance. Second, we show that pupils in urban and rural schools would perform similarly if characteristics of these schools were the same. The Oaxaca–Ransom decomposition fully explains the urban-rural exam score gap by a greater number of pupils and higher teacher salaries in urban schools as well as by different pupil structure; in turn, pupils' ethnic origin plays in favour of rural schools. Finally, Stochastic Frontier Analysis models show that school size is a robust efficiency determinant, while school location in the Riga region or in another big city is not. The bottom line is that structural reforms involving school mergers and a rise in teacher salaries might bring non-negligible dividends in terms of education quality. |
| Keywords: | education performance, school size, rural schools, Oaxaca–Ransom decomposition, Stochastic Frontier Analysis |
| JEL: | I21 C1 |
| Date: | 2017–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ltv:wpaper:201703&r=edu |
| By: | Stefan Speckesser; Sophie Hedges |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether the educational choices that young people make after the completion of their GCSEs (at age 16) are influenced by their peers. More specifically, it takes advantage of the variation in peer groups that arises when students move from primary to secondary school in order to isolate the impact of secondary school peers on the choice of educational trajectory. These trajectories are broadly classified as academic, vocational, a combination of the two, or no education at all. In order to overcome the common problems associated with the identification of peer effects, the ability of the primary school peers of secondary school peers, who are not going to the same secondary school, is used as an instrument for secondary school peer group quality. These ‘peers of peers’ did not go to the same primary or secondary school as the individual of interest and so cannot have had any direct impact on them. Our results show that higher ability peers reduce the likelihood that an individual will choose a vocational course at age 16 after controlling for the individual’s own ability. We also find a very strong effect of household income on education choices, showing that the more deprived a student’s background is, the more likely they are to opt for a vocational trajectory over an academic one. |
| Date: | 2017–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nsr:niesrd:483&r=edu |
| By: | Tim Maloney (School of Economics, Auckland University of Technology); Kamakshi Singh |
| Abstract: | Administrative data from a New Zealand university are used to validate the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Rank Score used in university admissions and scholarship decisions. We find no statistical evidence to corroborate the specific weighting scheme used in this index. For example, our regression analysis suggests that too much weight is attached to the lowest category of credits in predicting both successful completion outcomes and letter grades. To show the potential importance of this validated measure of high school achievement, we run several simulations on these first-year student outcomes at this university. We show that the use of an alternative, empirically-validated measure of NCEA results to select students would lead to only slight improvements in course completion rates and letter grades. These higher entry standards would lead to declines in the proportions of Pacifica students, but minimal impacts on the proportion of Māori students enrolled at this university. |
| Keywords: | Academic at-risk students, Academic performance, Academic success, Economics of education |
| Date: | 2017–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:201710&r=edu |
| By: | Tamm, Marcus |
| Abstract: | An active participation in work-related training supports career development and reduces the risk of job loss. A pioneering RWI study demonstrates that the duration of schooling and vocational education has a causal impact on how an employee acquires training throughout adulthood. Consequently, public investments in school and college education may have a significant impact on lifelong learning. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwiimp:171353&r=edu |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Across OECD countries, more and more individuals have attained tertiary education and the share of those with less education has declined. Although there are more tertiary-educated individuals than ever before, they still achieve good labour market outcomes. This confirms that labour market demand is generally keeping pace with rising educational attainment. Only in about one-quarter of OECD countries, the employment advantage of tertiary-educated adults over adults with upper-secondary or post-secondary education has declined over the past two decades, which may be a sign that demand for tertiary-educated people is slowing down. Countries also need to address the situation of young men and women who have not completed upper secondary school and who face low employment prospects.Across OECD countries, more and more individuals have attained tertiary education and the share of those with less education has declined. Although there are more tertiary-educated individuals than ever before, they still achieve good labour market outcomes. This confirms that labour market demand is generally keeping pace with rising educational attainment. Only in about one-quarter of OECD countries, the employment advantage of tertiary-educated adults over adults with upper-secondary or post-secondary education has declined over the past two decades, which may be a sign that demand for tertiary-educated people is slowing down. Countries also need to address the situation of young men and women who have not completed upper secondary school and who face low employment prospects. |
| Date: | 2017–12–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:eduaaf:57-en&r=edu |
| By: | François-Charles Wolff (LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - UN - Université de Nantes, INED - Institut national d'études démographiques) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates one causal mechanism by which a student’s job can affect academic success. Students devoting time to paid work are expected to face more difficulties attending courses and to have less time to spend on homework. Our empirical analysis, which is based on five cross-sectional data sets collected in France from 1997 to 2010, examines the joint decision of work and time study of around 80,000 students enrolled from the first to the fifth year after the Baccalaureate. We turn to selection on unobservables and on observables models to account for the endogeneity of in-school work. We find that students with a paid job spend significantly less time both on attending courses and on homework. The negative impact on time devoted to studies is much higher for students working at least half-time. |
| Abstract: | Cet article étudie un mécanisme causal par l’intermédiaire duquel le travail d'un étudiant peut influencer la réussite aux examens. Les étudiants qui ont une activité rémunérée vont a priori faire face à des difficultés accrues pour assister aux cours et pour leur travail personnel. L’analyse empirique, qui s’appuie sur cinq enquêtes transversales réalisées en France de 1997 à 2010, examine la décision conjointe de travail et des temps consacrés aux études pour près de 80000 étudiants inscrits de la première à la cinquième année après le baccalauréat. Nous nous tournons vers l’estimation de modèles de sélection sur inobservables et sur observables pour tenir compte de l'endogénéité de l’activité rémunérée. Nous trouvons que les étudiants ayant un emploi rémunéré consacrent moins de temps à la fois à assister aux cours et en travail personnel. L’impact négatif sur les temps d’études apparaît beaucoup plus élevé pour ceux qui ont une activité rémunérée au moins à mi-temps. |
| Keywords: | étudiants,activité rémunérée,travail personnel |
| Date: | 2017–11–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01649453&r=edu |
| By: | Shreyasee Das; Nayana Bose |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the intergenerational effects following the positive changes in women's inheritance rights. The amendment to the Hindu Succession Act, the law governing inheritance for Hindus, empowered unmarried daughters at the time of the reform to have equal rights to inherit ancestral property as their brothers. We employ a difference-in-differences strategy and exploit the state level variation in a woman's exposure to the reform. Using the Indian Human Development Survey data for rural India, we find that the property rights reform significantly increased women's education. We find a significant decrease in her sons' education, the effect is magnified in households where fathers are less educated than mothers. We further explore the role of birth order and the gender composition of children to assess the intergenerational impact of this more gender equal inheritance law. Regardless of the child's gender, our results show a significant decrease in educational attainment for younger children. |
| JEL: | D13 I25 J16 K36 O12 |
| Date: | 2017–12–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jmp:jm2017:pda789&r=edu |
| By: | Argaw, Bethlehem A.; Puhani, Patrick A. |
| Abstract: | We use administrative panel data on about a quarter of a million students in the German state of Hesse to estimate the causal effect of class size on school tracking outcomes after elementary school. Our identification strategy relies on the quasi-random assignment of students to different class sizes based on maximum class size rules. In Germany, students are tracked into more or less academic middle school types at about age ten based, to a large extent, on academic achievement in elementary school. We mostly find no or small effects of class size in elementary school on receiving a recommendation or on the actual choice to attend the more academic middle school type. For male students, we find that an increase in class size by 10 students would reduce their chance of attending the higher school track - which more than 40 percent of students attend - by 3 percentage points. |
| Keywords: | Class size, panel, administrative data, education production |
| JEL: | I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2017:21&r=edu |
| By: | Dudley, William (Federal Reserve Bank of New York) |
| Abstract: | Remarks at the Conference on Higher Education Financing and Costs and Returns of Higher Education, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York City. |
| Keywords: | return on investment; income inequality; economic mobility; college preparedness; higher education financing; student borrowers |
| Date: | 2017–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fednsp:266&r=edu |
| By: | Josselin Thuilliez (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Hippolyte D'Albis (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics); Hamidou Niangaly (MRTC - Malaria Research and Training Center - Faculté de Médecine de Bamako); Ogobara Doumbo (DEAP - Département d'épidémiologie des affections parasitaires - Université de Bamako - Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC) - Facultés de Médecine, de Pharmacie et d'Odonto-Stomatologie - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the influence of malaria on human capital accumulation in the village of Diankabou in Mali. To account for malaria endogeneity and its interaction with unobservable risk factors, we exploit natural variations in malaria immunity across individuals of several sympatric ethnic groups—the Fulani and the non-Fulani—who differ in their susceptibility to malaria. The Fulani are known to be less susceptible to malaria infections, despite living with a similar malaria transmission intensity to those seen among other ethnic groups. We also use natural variation of malaria intensity in the area (during and after the malaria transmission season) and utilise this seasonal change as a treatment. We found that malaria has an impact on cognitive and educational outcomes in this village. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01599672&r=edu |
| By: | Puhani, Patrick A. |
| Abstract: | With girls having overtaken boys in many education indicators, the “feminization” of elementary school teaching is causing debates about disadvantages for male students. Using administrative panel data on the universe of students, teachers and schools for a German state, I exploit within school and within teacher variation to determine teacher characteristics’ effects on students’ tracking outcomes. Germany tracks students at age 10 into more or less academic school types. I find hardly any effects of teacher’s gender, age, pay level, qualifications, or working hours on boys’ or girls’ school track recommendations or school choice. Even when following students into middle school, no effects of elementary-school teacher gender on school type change or grade repetition can be detected. |
| Keywords: | Education, gender, identification, fixed effects, teacher quality |
| JEL: | I21 J45 J71 J78 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usg:econwp:2017:20&r=edu |
| By: | Richard Blundell (Institute for Fiscal Studies and IFS and UCL); Jack Britton (Institute for Fiscal Studies); Monica Costa Dias (Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies); Eric French (Institute for Fiscal Studies and IFS and UCL) |
| Abstract: | Estimates of the effect of health on employment differ signi cantly from study to study due to differences in method, data, institutional background and health measure. We assess the importance of these differences using a unifi ed framework to interpret and contrast estimates of the impact of health on employment based on various measures of health and estimation procedures. This is done for the US and England. We fi nd that subjective and objective health measures, as well as subjective measures instrumented by objective measures produce similar estimates if a sufficiently large number of objective measures is used. Reducing the number of objective measures used compromises their ability to capture work capacity and biases estimates downwards. Failure to account for initial conditions leads to an overstatement of the effect of health on employment. We also find that a carefully constructed single index of subjective health yields estimates that are very similar to those obtained with multiple measures. Overall, declines in health can explain between 3% and 15% of the decline in employment between ages 50 and 70. These effects are larger among high-school dropouts and tend to drop with education; they are also larger in the US than in England. Finally, cognition has little added explanatory power once we also control for health, suggesting that cognition is not a key driver of employment at these ages. |
| Keywords: | Health, cognition, labor supply, retirement |
| JEL: | I10 J26 E24 |
| Date: | 2017–08–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:17/18&r=edu |
| By: | Vincent Vandenberghe; Lilas Demmou; Manav Frohde |
| Abstract: | A highly educated and skilled workforce has been an important driver of productivity performance and prosperity in Belgium. This paper examines skills policies that could help improve productivity and inclusiveness. An increased focus on lifelong learning, improved and more flexible working conditions for older workers, and a more efficient allocation of students and skills would benefit productivity growth. Improving inclusiveness requires increasing access and participation in tertiary education, especially for students with disadvantaged backgrounds. Digitalisation holds the promise of large gains in labour productivity, but is disrupting the nature of employment relationships. It calls for measures that encourage information and communication technology (ICT) upskilling and for adapting tax and benefit systems to the rise of on-demand jobs linked to the use of e-platforms. |
| Keywords: | Belgium, digitalisation, equity in education, human capital, integration policies, labour market participation of seniors, lifelong learning, on-demand jobs, tertiary education |
| JEL: | I2 J24 J26 J40 |
| Date: | 2017–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1452-en&r=edu |
| By: | Hiep-Hung Pham; Sue Ling Lai; Quan-Hoang Vuong |
| Abstract: | Relationships with international students can be beneficial to higher education in terms of financial and human resources. For this reason, establishing and maintaining such relationships are usually pre-eminent concerns. In this study, we extended the application of the disconfirmation expectation model by incorporating components from subjective task value to predict the loyalty of international students toward their host countries. On a sample of 410 Vietnamese students enrolled in establishments of higher education in over 15 countries across the globe, we employed structural equation model to construct the conceptual model. Our empirical findings revealed that while the roles of satisfaction and disconfirmation are still important as direct and indirect antecedents of international student loyalty, its most powerful predictors are the three components of subjective task value: attainment, utility and intrinsic. These insights result in a number of implications for actors on the higher ducation scene, such as heads of institutions and policy makers. |
| Keywords: | international student; loyalty; value; disconfirmation; satisfaction |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2017–12–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/262356&r=edu |
| By: | Tansel, Aysit; Keskin, Halil Ibrahim |
| Abstract: | The strong relationship between various health indicators and education is widely documented. However, the studies that investigate the nature of causality between these variables became available only recently and provide evidence mostly from developed countries. We add to this literature by studying the causal effect of education on days hospitalized and days out of work for health reasons. We consider two educational reforms. One is the educational expansion of the early 1960s and the other is the 1997 increase in compulsory level of schooling from five to eight years. However, due to the possibility of weak instruments we do not further pursue this avenue. We focus on individuals in two cohorts namely, 1945-1965 which is an older cohort and 1980-1980 which is a younger cohort. We estimate Tobit models as well as Double Hurdle models. The results suggest that an increase in years of education causes to reduce the number of days hospitalized for both men and women unambiguously and the number of days out of work only for men while an increase in education increases the number of days out of work for a randomly selected women. |
| JEL: | I15 J16 J18 C34 C36 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:156&r=edu |
| By: | Haucap, Justus; Thomas, Tobias; Wohlrabe, Klaus |
| Abstract: | In broad parts of the scientific community the position in publication performance rankings, based on journal quality ratings is seen as highly reputational for the scientist. This contribution provides evidence that, at least in economics, such publication performance measures can not always be reconciled with measures for academic influence such as citation-based measures. We analyze data from the Scopus database as well as from the prestigious German-based Handelsblatt ranking for 100 renowned economists (lifetime achievement). Scholarly influence is proxied by various bibliometric indicators such as the number of citations, the h-index, the citations of the most cited paper as well as the hardly honorable Pi-Beta-score ("Publications Ignored, By Even The Author(s)"). We argue that publication performance measures based on journal ratings, such as the Handelsblatt rankings, are not good proxies for an economist's impact within the scientific community. From this perspective the value of publication performance rankings based on journal quality ratings is questionable. |
| Keywords: | economics,academic reputation,academic rankings,influence,citations,Scopus,Handelsblatt ranking,academic journals |
| JEL: | A12 A14 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:dicedp:277&r=edu |
| By: | Britta Hoyer (Paderborn University); Nadja Stroh-Maraun (Paderborn University) |
| Abstract: | In actual school choice applications the theoretical underpinnings of the Boston School Choice Mechanism (BM) (complete information and rationality of the agents) are often not given. We analyze the actual behavior of agents in such a matching mechanism, using data from the matching mechanism currently used in a clearinghouse at a faculty of Business Administration and Economics at a German university, where a variant of the BM is used, and supplement this data with data generated in a survey among students who participated in the clearinghouse. We find that under the current mechanism over 70% of students act strategically. Controlling for students' limited information, we find that they do act rationally in their decision to act strategically. While students thus seem to react to the incentives to act strategically under the BM, they do not seem to be able to use this to their own advantage. However, those students acting in line with their beliefs manage a significantly better personal outcome than those who do not. We also run simulations by using a variant of the deferred acceptance algorithm, adapted to our situation, to show that the use of a different algorithm may be to the students' advantage. |
| Keywords: | Matching, Application of the Boston Mechanism, School Choice, Strategic Behavior, Incomplete Information |
| JEL: | C78 D82 |
| Date: | 2017–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:ciepap:110&r=edu |