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on Education |
| By: | Sorrenti, Giuseppe (University of Amsterdam); Zölitz, Ulf (University of Zurich); Ribeaud, Denis (University of Zurich); Eisner, Manuel (University of Cambridge) |
| Abstract: | We study the long-term effects of a randomized intervention targeting children's socio-emotional skills. The classroom-based intervention for primary school children has positive impacts that persist for over a decade. Treated children become more likely to complete academic high school and enroll in university. Two mechanisms drive these results. Treated children show fewer ADHD symptoms: they are less impulsive and less disruptive. They also attain higher grades, but they do not score higher on standardized tests. The long-term effects on educational attainment thus appear to be driven by changes in socio-emotional skills rather than cognitive skills. |
| Keywords: | socio-emotional skills, randomized intervention, child development, school tracking |
| JEL: | C93 I21 I24 I26 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13087&r=all |
| By: | Bergman, Peter (Columbia University); Chan, Eric (Columbia University); Kapor, Adam (Princeton University) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that imperfect information about school quality causes low-income families to live in neighborhoods with lower-performing, more segregated schools. We randomized the addition of school quality information onto a nationwide website of housing listings for families with housing vouchers. We find that this information causes families to choose neighborhoods with schools that have 1.5 percentage point higher proficiency rate on state exams. We use data from the experiment to estimate a dynamic model of families' search for housing on and off the website, as well as their location decisions. The model incorporates imperfect information about school quality and characterizes the bias that would arise from estimating neighborhood preferences ignoring this information problem. Having data from both the treatment and control groups allows us to estimate families' prior beliefs about school quality and each group's apparent valuation of school quality. Families tend to underestimate school quality conditional on neighborhood characteristics. If we had ignored imperfect information, we would have estimated that the control group valued school quality relative to their commute downtown by less than half that of the treatment group. |
| Keywords: | housing, education, information, experiment, choice |
| JEL: | I24 |
| Date: | 2020–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13006&r=all |
| By: | Chang, Simon (University of Western Australia); Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. (University of Sydney); Salamanca, Nicolás (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research) |
| Abstract: | We identify the causal effect of teacher qualifications on parents' investments in their children. Exploiting a unique, high-stakes educational setting in which teachers are randomly assigned to classes, we show that parents react to more qualified teachers by increasing their financial investments in their children. The key mechanism is an increase in parents' belief that academic achievement is driven by student effort—for which financial investment is instrumental. However, higher teacher qualifications do not improve student test scores. This is likely due to a negative effect of teacher qualifications on students' belief in the importance of effort for academic achievement. Our findings uncover various family-wide behavioral reactions to teacher qualifications and highlight the intricacies in educational production within households. |
| Keywords: | teacher quality, student achievement, parental investment, beliefs, school effort |
| JEL: | D10 I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13065&r=all |
| By: | Gicheva, Dora (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Anand, Priyanka (George Mason University, Department of Health Administration and Policy) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines whether expanding Medicaid eligibility affects the employment patterns and academic progress of college students. To estimate causal relationships, we use the variation in eligibility due to the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions that occurred in a subset of U.S. states. We use data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to show that expanding Medicaid resulted in a decrease in employment intensity by students at community colleges, an increase in the number of transfers to four-year colleges, and higher graduation rates in four-year institutions, suggesting that expanding Medicaid led to an improvement in academic progress. |
| Keywords: | postsecondary persistence; enrollment intensity; labor supply in college; health insurance; Medicaid expansion; |
| JEL: | I13 I21 I22 I24 |
| Date: | 2020–04–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2020_003&r=all |
| By: | Donna K. Ginther; Janet Currie; Francine D. Blau; Rachel Croson |
| Abstract: | Women continue to be underrepresented in academic ranks in the economics profession. The Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession of the American Economics Association established the CeMENT mentoring workshop to support women in research careers. The program was designed as a randomized controlled trial. This study evaluates differences between the treatment and control groups in career outcomes. Results indicate that relative to women in the control group, treated women are more likely to stay in academia and more likely to have received tenure in an institution ranked in the top 30 or 50 in economics in the world. |
| JEL: | A11 J7 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26864&r=all |
| By: | AureÌ lien Abrassart; Stefan C. Wolter |
| Abstract: | Vocational education and training (VET) often suffers from a lack of social standing among students and their families. Parents have been shown to discard vocational education because of social status maintenance considerations. How adults perceive the social prestige of occupations might therefore be key in understanding the reasons of the image deficit of VET. While the existing literature on occupational prestige ranking stresses the role of the salience in science or the training intensiveness of occupations for the perception of their social prestige, it fails at accounting for the distinct types of knowledge involved and the variety of the skill content of occupations. More precisely, differences in the salience of physical tasks and cognitive skills should be particularly relevant. We contribute to the literature by analyzing a unique data set in Switzerland, a country characterized by a well-established and -functioning vocational education and system, based on a survey of adults' perception of the social prestige of occupations requiring academic or vocational education. Using several dimensions of the skill content of occupations, we find that the sophistication of skills performed within occupations, whether manual or intellectual, clearly improve the social prestige of the occupations investigated. However, the negative or positive effect of the previous dimensions of the skill content of occupations is small to inexistent at lower levels of educational requirements and becomes stronger as occupations become more training intensive. The desirability of occupations requiring vocational education depends therefore less on the skill content of occupations than on the level of education that is required. |
| Keywords: | Vocational education and training, Occupational prestige ranking, Academic vs. vocational knowledge, Skill content of occupations, Educational requirements |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iso:educat:0168&r=all |
| By: | Vanessa S. Tchamyou (Yaounde, Cameroon); Simplice A. Asongu (Yaoundé, Cameroon); Nicholas M. Odhiambo (Pretoria, South Africa) |
| Abstract: | This study assesses the role of ICT in modulating the impact of education and lifelong learning on income inequality and economic growth. It focuses on a sample of 48 African countries from 2004 to 2014. The empirical evidence is based on the generalised method of moments (GMM). The following findings are established. First, mobile phone and internet each interact with primary school education to decrease income inequality. Second, all ICT indicators interact with secondary school education to exert a negative impact on the Gini index. Third, fixed broadband distinctly interacts with primary school education and lifelong learning to have a positive effect on economic growth. Fourth, ICT indicators do not significantly influence inequality and economic growth through tertiary school education and lifelong learning. These main findings are further substantiated. Policy implications are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Education; Lifelong learning; ICT; Inequality; Africa |
| JEL: | I28 I20 I30 L96 O55 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abh:wpaper:19/054&r=all |
| By: | Luca De Benedictis; Silvia Leoni |
| Abstract: | The Erasmus Program (EuRopean community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students), the most important student exchange program in the world, financed by the European Union and started in 1987, is characterized by a strong gender bias. Girls participate to the program more than boys. This work quantifies the gender bias in the Erasmus program between 2008 and 2013, using novel data at the university level. It describes the structure of the program in great details, carrying out the analysis across fields of study, and identifies key universities as senders and receivers. In addition, it tests the difference in the degree distribution of the Erasmus network along time and between genders, giving evidence of a greater density in the female Erasmus network with respect to the one of the male Erasmus network. |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2003.09167&r=all |
| By: | García, Jorge Luis (Clemson University); Heckman, James J. (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | This paper forecasts the life-cycle treatment effects on health of a high-quality early childhood program. Our predictions combine microsimulation using non-experimental data with experimental data from a midlife long-term follow-up. The follow-up incorporated a full epidemiological exam. The program mainly benefits males and significantly reduces the prevalence of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and mortality across the life-cycle. For men, we estimate an average reduction of 3.8 disability-adjusted years (DALYs). The reduction in DALYs is relatively small for women. The gain in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) is almost enough to offset all of the costs associated with program implementation for males and half of program costs for women. |
| Keywords: | early childhood education, life-cycle health, long-term forecasts, program evaluation, randomized trials |
| JEL: | I10 J13 I28 C93 |
| Date: | 2020–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13064&r=all |