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on Education |
| By: | Joana Cardim; Teresa Molina-Millán; Pedro C. Vicente |
| Abstract: | Primary school coverage has been increasing in most developing countries. Yet, it has not been accompanied by significant improvements in learning indicators. We implemented a randomized experiment in Angola around the introduction of ProFuturo, a worldwide educational program. The program includes a Computer-assisted Learning (CAL) software directed at improving the regular classroom experience. One year after the program started, we find higher familiarity with technology. Teachers miss fewer days of classes and implement better teaching practices. Students become more interested in learning and pro-social. Finally, the program improves students’ test scores in the most popular subject in the CAL platform. |
| Keywords: | Primary education, computer-assisted learning, CAL, field experiment, RCT, Africa, Angola |
| JEL: | O12 I21 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unl:novafr:wp2101&r=all |
| By: | Abatemarco, Antonio; Cavallo, Mariagrazia; Marino, Immacolata; Russo, Giuseppe |
| Abstract: | A double disadvantage occurs when the interaction of two disadvantages generates an additional disadvantage. We show that second-generation immigrant children in the Italian primary school experience a double disadvantage that, relative to the average native, reduces scores in Italian by 17% and in Math by 20%. The double disadvantage stems from the interaction of the immigration background with age effects (namely, Absolute Age Effect and Relative Age Effect). In a policy perspective, we show that controlling for age effects in class composition criteria pursues integration because it delivers extra benefits to second-generation immigrant children. Besides, we point out the possibility of exploiting the larger impact of the relative age on second-generation children in order to support their performance and reduce the large penalization associated to the immigration background. |
| Keywords: | second-generation immigrants,education,age effects,double disadvantage |
| JEL: | I21 J01 J13 Z13 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:761&r=all |
| By: | C. Kirabo Jackson; Shanette C. Porter; John Q. Easton; Sebastián Kiguel |
| Abstract: | We estimate the longer-run effects of attending an effective high school (one that improves a combination of test scores, survey measures of socio-emotional development and behaviours in 9th-grade) for students who are more versus less educationally advantaged (i.e., likely to attain more years of education based on 8th-grade characteristics). All students benefit from attending effective schools. However, the least advantaged students experience the largest improvements in high-school graduation, college-going, and school-based arrests. These patterns are driven by the least advantaged students benefiting the most from school impacts on the non-test-score dimensions of school quality. However, while there is considerable overlap in the effectiveness of schools attended by more and less advantaged students, it is the most advantaged students that are most likely to attend highly effective schools. These patterns underscore the importance of quality schools, and the non-test score components of quality schools, for improving the longer-run outcomes for less advantaged students. |
| JEL: | H0 I20 J0 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28194&r=all |
| By: | Asta Breinholt; Dalton Conley |
| Abstract: | A growing literature points to children’s influence on parents’ behavior, including parental investments in children. Further, previous research has shown differential parental response by socioeconomic status to children's birth weight, cognitive ability, and school outcomes – all early life predictors of later socioeconomic success. This study considers an even earlier, more exogenous predictor of parental investments: offspring genotype. Specifically, we analyze (1) whether children’s genetic propensity towards educational success affects parenting during early childhood; and (2) whether parenting in response to children’s genetic propensity towards educational success is socially stratified. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Survey of Parents and Children (N=7,738), we construct polygenic scores for educational attainment and regress cognitively stimulating parenting behavior during early childhood on these polygenic scores. We use a range of modeling strategies to address the concern that child’s genotype may be proxying unmeasured parent characteristics. Results show that parents provide more cognitive stimulation to children with higher education polygenic scores. This pattern varies by socioeconomic status with college-educated parents responding less to children’s genetic propensity towards educational success than non-college-educated parents do. |
| JEL: | D13 I14 I24 J13 |
| Date: | 2020–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28217&r=all |
| By: | Cavalieri, Marina; Finocchiaro Castro, Massimo; Guccio, Calogero |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the relationship between the presence of organised crime in local institutions and the educational outcomes in Southern Italy. To this purpose, we have built a contemporary index of Mafia institutional infiltration that proxies the (scale of) values that parents transmit to their children and that are likely to impact on their educational achievements. Furthermore, combining contemporary individual-level educational outcomes with historical data on mafia infiltration, we control for endogeneity concerns through an IV strategy. We find that a standard deviation increase in our indicator of Mafia institutional infiltration leads to a decrease of about 2 percentage points in the outcomes achieved by primary school students undertaking the INVALSI test for literacy in Southern Italy. Our results are robust to the use of different measures of organised crime, to the inclusion of different sets of controls, different subsamples and to relaxing the exclusion restriction in the IV strategy. |
| Keywords: | Organised crime,Mafia-type organisations,Education outcomes,INVALSI,Investments in education,Italy |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:228976&r=all |
| By: | Aditya Alta (Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia (LPEM FEB UI)) |
| Abstract: | In recent years, academic productivity as defined by number of papers published has been the preoccupation of Indonesian research policymakers. A number of policies have been introduced, the most prominent of which is assigning score to number of publications and citations through SINTA. These initiatives, however, have often ignored the complex and heavily bureaucratized Indonesian research and higher education sector. Recently, SINTA score has also perversely incentivized some researchers to illegally increase their Scopus score. This paper is a preliminary attempt at assessing policy alternatives to address the issue of low number of academic publications, asking if there are viable or even better policies than the current point system. Incorporating Indonesia’s academic demography into our analysis, we find that giving monetary rewards for every published paper is the best policy option for lower-rank academics to “push” them into research. On the other hand, point rewards are most effective for upper-rank academics since they only need to be “nudged” into research activities. We also offer several recommendations about other policy alternatives (reforming research grants regime, providing international scholarships, and research collaboration) and the importance of detection and monitoring system to prevent the alternatives from becoming perverse incentives. |
| Keywords: | academic productivity — academic publication — research policy — SINTA — Scopus |
| JEL: | I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lpe:wpaper:202051&r=all |
| By: | Ina Ganguli (University of Massachusetts - Amherst); Patrick Gaule (University of Bath); Danijela Vuletic Cugalj (CERGE-EI) |
| Abstract: | We investigate whether excessively optimistic beliefs play a role in the persistent demand for doctoral and postdoctoral training in science. We elicit the beliefs and career preferences of doctoral students through a novel survey and randomize the provision of structured information on the true state of the academic market and information through role models on nonacademic careers. One year later, both treatments lead students to update their beliefs about the academic market and impact career preferences. However, we do not find an effect on actual career outcomes two years postintervention. |
| Keywords: | higher education, information, biased beliefs, career preferences, science |
| JEL: | I23 D80 D84 J24 |
| Date: | 2020–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:20-334&r=all |
| By: | Carol Graham (The Brookings Institution); Julia Ruiz Pozuelo (University of Oxford) |
| Abstract: | Using a novel panel survey of relatively poor urban Peruvian adolescents, we explore the link between three type of aspirations (educational, occupational, and aspirations to migrate) and individual’s propensity to invest in the future. We found remarkably high education aspirations, even among relatively poor individuals and adolescents that were exposed to negative shocks in the past, suggesting high levels of resilience among our sample. We also find that aspirations are quite stable over time, and positively associated with personality traits such as self-efficacy, life satisfaction, and locus of control, which helps explain their persistence over time. Finally, we find that high aspirations are strongly associated with positive future outcomes such as higher investments in education and less engagement in risky behaviors such as unsafe sex and binge drinking. |
| Keywords: | adolescents, aspirations, human capital outcomes, risky behavior, Peru |
| JEL: | I24 I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hka:wpaper:2021-004&r=all |
| By: | Bernardus Bayu Ryanto Prakoso Putro (Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia); Christine Tjen (Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia) |
| Abstract: | This study consists of qualitative research and quantitative research. This study conducts qualitative research namely interviews with Directorate General of Taxation (DGT) related to the tax inclusion programs and perceptions of DGT regarding public tax knowledge and public tax education. According to DGT, public tax knowledge is still lacking. In terms of tax education, it said that tax education is still not structured. To overcome this problem, DGT implements a tax inclusion program for the next 30-45 years. In addition to qualitative research, this study also conducts quantitative research, by using questionnaire survey methods on students in Indonesia with the aim of knowing whether or not there is a significant difference related to the level of tax knowledge, student perceptions regarding the importance of tax education, and student perceptions regarding the need for tax education among students who have received tax education and students who have not received tax education. The result shows that there is a significant difference between students who have received tax education and students who have not received tax education in terms of the level of tax knowledge. Related to the perception regarding the need for tax education, there is a significant difference between students who have received tax education and have not received tax education. |
| Keywords: | tax education — tax knowledge — tax perceptions — tax inclusion |
| JEL: | A22 H20 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lpe:wpaper:202044&r=all |
| By: | Guido Neidhoefer (ZEW Mannheim); Nora Lustig (Tulane University); Mariano Tommasi (Universidad de San Andres) |
| Abstract: | The shock on human capital caused by COVID-19 is likely to have long lasting consequences, especially for children of low-educated families. Applying a counterfactual exercise we project the effects of school closures and other lockdown policies on the intergenerational persistence of education in 17 Latin American countries. First, we retrieve detailed information on school lockdowns and on the policies enacted to support education from home in each country. Then, we use this information to estimate the potential impact of the pandemic on schooling, high school completion, and intergenerational associations. In addition, we account for educational disruptions related to household income shocks. Our findings show that, despite that mitigation policies were able to partly reduce instructional losses in some countries, the educational attainment of the most vulnerable could be seriously affected. In particular, the likelihood of children from low educated families to attain a secondary schooling degree could fall substantially. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, lockdowns, human capital, school closures, intergenerational persistence, education, inequality, Latin America. |
| JEL: | I24 I38 J62 |
| Date: | 2021–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2021-571&r=all |
| By: | Müller, Dagmar (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | Relying on Swedish linked employer-employee data over a 30-year period, I study the importance of work during high school for graduates’ school-to-work transition and labor market outcomes. I show that employer links established through work during school provide students with an important job-search channel, accounting for 30 percent of direct transitions into regular employment. I use the fact that some graduates are deprived of this channel due to establishment closures just prior to graduation and labor market entry. I compare classmates from the same vocational high school tracks to identify the effects of the closures and show that the closure of a previous in-school establishment leads to an immediate and sizable negative effect on employment after graduation. The lost employer connections have also persistent, but diminishing negative effects on employment and earnings for up to 10 years. Parts of the negative effect are driven by the loss of employers links that offer job opportunities in industries related to graduates’ specialization in vocational school. I find evidence supporting that students who lose such relevant links shift towards jobs in less- relevant industries. |
| Keywords: | Social contacts; Young workers; Labor market entry; Establishment closures |
| JEL: | J01 J64 |
| Date: | 2021–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1381&r=all |