|
on Education |
| By: | Lee, Wang-Sheng (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the impact of single-sex versus coeducational schooling on students' decisions to pursue STEM fields at the university level. Using administrative data from eight undergraduate cohorts (2012-2019) at a prominent Australian university, we compare students with similar Australian Tertiary Admissions Ranks (ATARs) who could have feasibly enrolled in either school type of comparable quality under different circumstances. We control for individual characteristics and the academic quality of the high schools attended. Our primary outcomes are the proportion of students from each school type choosing a STEM major and their weighted average marks for each year of university studies. Contrary to expectations, we find no evidence that a single-sex high school background increases STEM participation among girls at the university level. Interestingly, students from single-sex high schools show a higher propensity to choose a business major. Additionally, we find that the linear correlation between ATAR scores and first-year university grades is approximately 0.4. However, our analysis suggests that this relationship is better characterized as nonlinear rather than linear. |
| Keywords: | single-sex schooling, coeducational, STEM, academic performance, Australia |
| JEL: | I21 I23 J24 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17084 |
| By: | Ribas, Rafael Perez (Boise State University); Sampaio, Breno (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco); Trevisan, Giuseppe (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco) |
| Abstract: | The ranking system within academic environments may impact future professional trajectories. Examining the influence of class rank on college students' managerial attainment is crucial for understanding some determinants of career advancement. This paper estimates the effect of a low rank in a highperforming class on the probability of college students attaining a managerial position in the future. Our data combine administrative records from a highly selective university in Brazil and employment registries. For most programs, this university divides first-year students into two classes based on their preferences and admission scores. In a regression discontinuity design, we control for students' preferences and inherent skills by comparing the last student admitted to the high-score class (the 'first class') with the first student excluded from this class, who joins the 'second class.' Results show that the last student in the first class is 10 percentage points less likely to attain a managerial position soon after graduating than a similar student in the second class. Although this effect is initially similar between genders, it diminishes for men over time while persisting for women. Overall, our study indicates that better-performing peers can hinder a student's managerial career by lowering their relative rank in the classroom. |
| Keywords: | leadership, relative performance, learning environment, peer effect, ranking effect |
| JEL: | D91 I23 J16 J24 M51 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17082 |
| By: | Andrea Ramazzotti (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | Do minimum wages influence post-compulsory school enrollment and educational choices? This paper studies the effect of sectorally-bargained minimum wages using a quasi-natural historical experiment from Italy around 1969, when labour unions obtained steep wage raises for manufacturing workers. Italy’s weakly-selective educational system—whereby students choose specialist educational curricula at age fourteen—allows to separately identify the impact on enrollment from that on educational choices. Absent microdata for the period under study, I present original estimates of education and labour-market variables at the province level with annual frequency between 1962 and 1982. Exploiting exogenous spatial variation in the intensity of the minimum wage hike between provinces with an instrumental variable approach and flexible Difference-in-Differences, I find a temporary increase in early school leaving and a permanent substitution away from vocational schools preparing for manufacturing jobs. The length of the adjustment might have caused a significant long-term loss for Italy’s human capital stock. |
| Keywords: | Wage Differentials, Education, Schooling, Economic History: Europe post-1913. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 N34 |
| Date: | 2024–06–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:717 |
| By: | Christopher S. Carpenter; Brandyn F. Churchill |
| Abstract: | We provide novel evidence on the role of social comparisons in shaping adolescent body misperception. Using an instrumental variables approach leveraging variation in relative age generated by school entry cutoff months and data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children study, we show that relatively older students are more likely to misperceive their weight harshly relative to their BMIs compared to their same-age counterparts who are relatively younger within their classrooms. Meanwhile, relatively younger students are more likely to misperceive their weight leniently relative to their BMIs. We then show that relatively older students are less likely to be overweight or obese, consume more low-calorie foods, and report higher levels of physical activity. Overall, our results suggest that relatively older students base their weight-related expectations and behaviors on their younger peers, while relatively younger students compare themselves to their older peers. |
| JEL: | I1 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32629 |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Andrew J. Morgan; Steven G. Rivkin; Jeffrey C. Schiman; Ayman Shakeel; Lauren Sartain |
| Abstract: | Using rich Texas administrative data, we estimate the impact of middle school principals on post-secondary schooling, employment, and criminal justice outcomes. The results highlight the importance of school leadership, though striking differences emerge in the relative importance of different skill dimensions to different outcomes. The estimates reveal large and highly significant effects of principal value-added to cognitive skills on the productive activities of schooling and work but much weaker effects of value-added to noncognitive skills on these outcomes. In contrast, there is little or no evidence that middle school principals affect the probability a male is arrested and has a guilty disposition by raising cognitive skills but strong evidence that they affect these outcomes through their impacts on noncognitive skills, especially those related to the probability of an out-of-school suspension. In addition, the principal effects on the probability of engagement in the criminal justice system are much larger for Black than for nonBlack males, corresponding to race differences in engagement with the criminal justice system. |
| JEL: | I20 J45 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32642 |