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on Human Capital and Human Resource Management |
| By: | Al-Samarrai, Samer |
| Abstract: | This paper presents education finance trends for Bangladesh since 2000. It shows that while government spending on education as a proportion of national income has stagnated, it has increased in real terms. Real increases in education spending have resulted in substantial increases in per student spending in basic education. At primary, enrolment declines have reinforced these trends and in 2005 per student spending in government primary schools was 30% higher, in real terms than in 2001. Despite these increases, per student spending on education in Bangladesh remains low compared to other countries in the region and countries at similar levels of development. Levels of government funding also vary enormously across different providers of basic education although these differences do not appear to have a significant impact on education outcomes at the primary level. At secondary, there appears to be a closer correlation between levels of public funding and outcomes although the socio-economic status of student intakes also appears to play an important role. To achieve equitable access to basic education, it is important to narrow these public funding differences. However, given the comparatively low levels of funding across the basic education system it is perhaps more important to increase overall levels of funding if the quality and overall efficiency of the system is to be improved. |
| Keywords: | Education; education finance; Bangladesh; basic education |
| JEL: | I28 I22 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:1505&r=hrm |
| By: | Mohammad Niaz Asadullah (Reading University), Nazmul Chaudhury (World Bank) and Amit Dar (World Bank) |
| Abstract: | n this paper we present new evidence on the impact of school characteristics on secondary student achievement using a rich data set from rural Bangladesh. We deal with a potentially important selectivity issue in the South Asian context: the non-random sorting of children into madrasas (Islamic faith schools). We do so by employing a combination of fixed effects and instrumental variable estimation techniques. Our empirical results do not reveal any difference in test scores between religious and secular schools when selection into secondary school is taken into account. However, we document significant learning deficit by gender and primary school type: girls and graduates of primary madrasas have significantly lower test scores even after controlling for school and classroom-specific unobservable correlates of learning. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps140&r=hrm |
| By: | Kenn Ariga; Giorgio Brunello; Roki Iwahashi; Lorenzo Rocco |
| Abstract: | During the postwar period, many countries have de-tracked their secondary schools, based on the view that early tracking was unfair. What are the efficiency costs, if any, of de- tracking schools? To answer this question, we develop a two skills - two jobs model with a frictional labour market, where new school graduates need to actively search for their best match. We compute optimal tracking length and the output gain/loss associated to the gap between actual and optimal tracking length. Using a sample of 18 countries, we find that: a) actual tracking length is often longer than optimal, which might call for some efficient de-tracking; b) the output loss of having a tracking length longer or shorter than optimal is sizeable, and close to 2 percent of total net output. |
| Keywords: | mismatch, school tracking. |
| JEL: | I2 J6 |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:35&r=hrm |
| By: | Charles T. Clotfelter; Helen F. Ladd; Jacob L. Vigdor |
| Abstract: | Education researchers and policy makers agree that teachers differ in terms of quality and that quality matters for student achievement. Despite prodigious amounts of research, however, debate still persists about the causal relationship between specific teacher credentials and student achievement. In this paper, we use a rich administrative data set from North Carolina to explore a range of questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this research are not new - and, indeed, have been explored in many papers over the years within the rubric of the "education production function" - the availability of data on all teachers and students in North Carolina over a ten-year period allows us to explore them in more detail and with far more confidence than has been possible in previous studies. We conclude that a teacher's experience, test scores and regular licensure all have positive effects on student achievement, with larger effects for math than for reading. Taken together the various teacher credentials exhibit quite large effects on math achievement, whether compared to the effects of changes in class size or to the socio-economics characteristics of students, as measured, for example, by the education level of their parents. |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2007–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12828&r=hrm |
| By: | Sonia Oreffice (Clemson University); Brighita Bercea (Clemson University) |
| Abstract: | This paper further explores the role of sex ratios on spouses’ bargaining power, by focusing on educational attainment in order to capture the qualitative aspect of mate availability. Using Census and Current Population Survey data for U.S. metropolitan areas in year 2000, a quality sex ratio is constructed by education brackets to test the effect on the intra-household bargaining power of couples in the corresponding education bracket. We argue that a relative shortage of suitably educated women in the spouse’s potential marriage market increases wives’ bargaining power in the household while it lowers their husbands’. Additionally, we test the prediction that this bargaining power effect is greater as the assortative mating order by education increases. We consider a collective labor supply household model, in which each spouse’s labor supply is negatively related to their level of bargaining power. We find that higher relative shortage of comparably educated women in the couple’s metropolitan area reduces wives’ labor supply and increases their husbands’. Also, the labor supply impact is stronger for couples in higher education groups. No such effects are found for unmarried individuals, which is consistent with bargaining theory. |
| Keywords: | Education, Intra-Household Bargaining Power, Labor Supply |
| JEL: | D12 J12 |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fem:femwpa:2006.133&r=hrm |
| By: | Ximena Peña |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to explain the decrease and reversal of the education gap between males and females. Given a continuum of agents, the education decisions are modelled as an assignment game with endogenous types. In the first stage agents choose their education level and in the second they participate in the labor and marriage markets. Competition among potential matches ensures that the efficient education levels can always be sustained in equilibrium, but there may be inefficient equilibria. Combining asymmetries intrinsic to the modelled markets the model reproduces the observed education gap. |
| Keywords: | Assortative matching, efficiency, gender, education. Classification JEL: |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdr:borrec:427&r=hrm |
| By: | Acs, Zoltan (George Mason University, School of Public Policy); Audrestch, David (Indiana University, School of Environmental and Public Affairs); Braunerhjelm, Pontus (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology); Carlsson, Bo (Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Contemporary theories of entrepreneurship generally focus on the recognition of opportunities and the decision to exploit them. While the prevailing view in the entrepreneurship literature is that opportunities are exogenous, the most prevalent theory of economic growth suggests that opportunities are endogenous. This paper bridges the gap between the entrepreneurship and economic growth literatures by developing a knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship. Knowledge created endogenously results in knowledge spillovers that give rise to opportunities to be identified and exploited by entrepreneurs. |
| Keywords: | Opportunity; knowledge; entrepreneurship; knowledge filter |
| JEL: | J24 M13 O31 R10 |
| Date: | 2007–01–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0077&r=hrm |
| By: | Maria Otilia Orozco |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to examine the past and current developments of the higher education quality control system in Colombia. The extensive quality control reforms of recent years are discussed and conclusions are drawn as to their effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, comparisons are made between Colombia's situation and international examples of higher education systems in Chile, Brazil and the United States, countries also with high proportions of private enrollment and at varying stages of development. Drawing upon international observations and investigation of Colombia's system through research and in person interviews, recommendations are suggested to address major areas of weakness, such as: asymmetric information, an ineffective system of incentives, and the lack of a culture of evaluation among higher education institutions and government quality control programs and institutions. The objective of this study is to paint a clearer picture of the current higher education system and explore possibilities for even further reform in the future. |
| Date: | 2005–08–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:001022:002771&r=hrm |
| By: | Bas Straathof |
| Abstract: | During the last twenty years the share of researchers in the workforce has been rising in OECD countries. In the same period, the distribution of schooling has become more equal. This paper proposes that the rise in the proportion of researchers is caused by the decline in schooling inequality. In particular, comparative static analysis of a semi-endogenous growth model demonstrates that a rising proportion of researchers can be a steady state phenomenon when schooling inequality is declining over time. This outcome can be accompanied by a rise in the wages of high-skilled labor compared to low-skilled labor. |
| Keywords: | Schooling inequality; Economic growth; Skill premium |
| JEL: | O40 I20 J24 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpb:discus:74&r=hrm |
| By: | CASTRIOTA STEFANO |
| Abstract: | Previous empirical research has found a positive impact of education on happiness on regional and worldwide scale. In this paper I analyze the effect of absolute income on human happiness by education level. Using data from the World Bank’s World Value Survey on more than 118,000 individuals I find that the higher the education level is, the less relevant the absolute income level (GDP per capita measured in PPP constant 2000 international USD) for self-declared life-satisfaction. Higher income makes everybody happier but, everything else being equal, the marginal utility of additional income is higher for less educated people. This might partly explain the Easterlin paradox. Although the GDP level has been constantly rising from the end of World War II onwards, the average life-satisfaction in Western Europe and the United States has remained almost constant. Furthermore, average happiness levels in rich and poor countries are very similar. Since the average education level has risen a lot over time and is much higher in advanced countries, this might contribute to explain why higher absolute income level has not implied higher life-satisfaction across countries and over time. |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceiswp:246&r=hrm |