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on Education |
| By: | Kuan-Ming Chen; Janet Currie; Hui Ding; Wei-Lun Lo |
| Abstract: | This study uses administrative health insurance records in Taiwan to examine changes in child mental health treatment around four school milestones including: Primary and middle school entry, high stakes testing for high school, and high stakes testing for college entry. Leveraging age cutoffs for school entry in Taiwan, we compare August-born children to children born in September of the same year. The former hit all the milestones one year earlier than the latter, enabling us to identify each milestone’s effect. We find that entry into both primary school and middle schools is associated with increases in mental health prescribing, not only for ADHD but also for depression. Middle school entry is also associated with increases in the prescribing of anti-anxiety and antipsychotic medications. Perhaps surprisingly, there is no run-up in the use of psychiatric medications prior to high-stakes tests. But the use of psychiatric medications falls sharply following the tests. These effects are stronger in counties where both parents and children have higher educational aspirations. Hence, the use of psychiatric drugs increases at junctures when educational stresses increase and falls when these stresses are relieved. |
| JEL: | I1 I12 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32842 |
| By: | Ferreira, João R. (Nova School of Business and Economics); Sandholtz, Wayne Aaron (Nova School of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data to measure sibling spillovers on academic performance before and after Tanzania's introduction of Free Secondary Education (FSE). Prior to FSE, students whose older siblings narrowly passed the secondary school entrance exam were less likely to go to secondary school themselves; with FSE, the effect became positive. Negative spillovers in the pre-reform period were concentrated in poorer regions; positive spillovers in the post-reform period were largest for lower-performing younger siblings. This suggests that FSE alleviated financial constraints, allowing families to distribute educational investments more equitably rather than concentrating resources on high-performing children. |
| Keywords: | sibling spillovers, educational achievement, resource constraints, high-stakes exams |
| JEL: | D10 I20 I25 J13 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17228 |
| By: | Sreevidya Ayyar; Uta Bolt; Eric French; Cormac O'Dea |
| Abstract: | Using thousands of essays written by 11-year-olds in 1969, we construct an index measuring girls’ conformity to gender norms then prevalent in Britain. We link this index to outcomes over the life-cycle. Conditional on age-11 covariates, a one standard deviation increase in our index predicts a 3.5% decline in lifetime earnings, due to lower wages and fewer hours worked. Education, occupation and family formation mediate half of this decline. Holding skills constant, girls who conform less to gender norms live in regions with higher female employment and university attendance, highlighting the role of the environment in which girls grow up. |
| JEL: | J13 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32789 |
| By: | Moritz Mendel |
| Abstract: | Individuals from low-income backgrounds perform worse than their higher income peers in school. If individuals from low-income backgrounds enter university, they are more likely to do so after dropping out of high school or finishing vocational training. I refer to trajectories that involve vocational training or high school dropout before entering university as alternative paths to university. This paper asks whether alternative paths to university promote social mobility. To reach this goal, I specify a dynamic model of education that follows individuals from low-income backgrounds in the Netherlands during adolescence and early adulthood. The model shows that despite initial achievement gaps, many individuals from low-income backgrounds have high returns from finishing a bachelor’s degree later. They face substantial dropout risk, however, when entering higher education. Alternative paths to university substantially increase university graduation rates and wages among individuals from low-income backgrounds. The main explanation for this result is that many individuals from low-income backgrounds face substantial uncertainty when deciding about their future education at sixteen. Imposing flexibility between different educational careers consequently improves outcomes significantly. |
| Keywords: | Inequality, Education, Vocational Training |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2024_592 |
| By: | Dimico, Arcangelo |
| Abstract: | I evaluate the impact of abortion policies in sub-Saharan Africa to understand possible consequences from a reduced international support for women's rights following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. I find that decriminalizing abortion reduces fertility through two complementary channels. For households at the top of the wealth distribution, the effect manifests as a reduction in excess fertility, which is more pronounced among lower-educated women due to their lower likelihood of using contraception. For households at the bottom of the wealth distribution, the impact runs through a decline in the number of children with a low survival probability. This latter effect is more pronounced among highly educated women, who are more likely to control their own health-related decisions and view abortion as a viable option. I also find that while women's education levels rise after decriminalization, this does not lead to better labor market opportunities. However, children born afterward tend to achieve higher levels of education. |
| Keywords: | Abortion, fertility, child mortality, human capital |
| JEL: | O15 J13 J16 K38 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qmsrps:202406 |
| By: | Nocito, Samuel (Sapienza University of Rome); Venturini, Alessandra (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the effect of a financial education program on migrants, emphasizing the importance of inter-institutional cooperation. The Italian case study, the "Welcome-ED" project—a partnership between the Municipality of Turin and the Turin Museum of Savings (MoS)—aimed to provide tailored financial education to diverse migrant groups, relying on cooperation with various local migration center entities: cooperatives, non-profit associations, and provincial centers for adult education. Our evaluation reveals a significant positive increase in migrants' financial literacy after participating in the project. Furthermore, when we redefine the MoS evaluation criteria employing a model from Item Response Theory (IRT), we document that the post-course migrants' greatest improvement was in the topic identified as most difficult by the IRT model. The study documents variations in the project's results, with migrants from cooperatives and non-profit associations benefiting more than those from provincial centers for adult education, primarily due to the different compositions of the migrant groups served. Our findings also highlight the significance of financial education for African migrants, a substantial part of migrants in Europe. The program evaluation underscores the essential role of cooperation between public and private institutions, cooperatives, and non-profit associations in expanding the reach and effectiveness of financial education projects for migrants. We finally emphasize the strengths and limitations of the program, providing recommendations for future enhancement of similar initiatives. |
| Keywords: | migrants, institutions, cooperatives, non-profit, financial literacy |
| JEL: | D14 L30 J15 P13 |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17214 |