The importance of school quality as a determinant of earnings in a developing country: evidence from Honduras

Educational expansion is a prominent feature of the economic development strategies of many developing countries. While the potential benefits of greater schooling attainment for subsequent labor market earnings are acknowledged, the potential role played by school quality has largely been neglected for developing countries. This paper combines detailed household survey data with unique data on school quality for Honduras to investigate the importance of school quality for earnings. We employ a structural equations model that treats school quality as a latent variable. Our objective measures of school quality capture teacher training, school infrastructure, and two measures of school crowding. We find strong positive effects of school quality on earnings across a variety of model specifications. In addition, we find that teacher training and school infrastructure are the most important indicators of school quality.     

国际资本流入对发展中国家经济增长的影响--兼对中国与印度的实证分析

资本流入与发展中国家经济增长的关系是发展经济学中的一个重要命题，本在阐述国际资本流入发展中国家趋势及构成变化的基础上，占有了大量的数据，结合中国与印度的经验，对资本流入在发展中国家经济增长的作用进行了定性与定量分析，着重论述了不同资本流入形式对经济增长的不同影响。     

Modelling the macroeconomic impact of future trajectories of educational development in Least Developed Countries

The distribution of educated populations across age groups and the relative shares of population with different levels of attainment appears to be an important factor when it comes to explaining and predicting economic growth patterns both across developing countries and over time. A series of studies unveil the key role that complementing primary education with secondary schooling plays as a determinant of economic development. Here, we model the macroeconomic impact of the playing out of three different education-specific policy/investment scenarios (interacting with population dynamics). The model suggests that the Least Developed Countries would derive great economic benefits from increased investment in education, especially post-primary, as they move towards a post-MDG agenda.     

Quality of education and economic growth

This paper assesses the impact of school quality on student outcomes, particularly job performance, and subsequently on economic growth. It begins by showing that ‘investment in human capital’ has evolved from being viewed as simply an investment of student time to including interactions between time and monetary resources which may serve to improve school quality. Evidence is provided from studies of both elementary/secondary schooling and post-secondary education, and from studies of developed and less developed nations. It appears that school quality has substantially greater impact on changes in students' cognitive and behavioral outcomes in less developed than advanced countries. Yet school quality seems to effect lifetime earnings of all students regardless of the level of development of their nations. The paper explains why. in some cases, more years and money spent for schooling may not necessarily appear to reflect higher earnings. Explanations are provided for differences in the impact of school quality on student changes. A major one is the fact that there are significantly diminishing returns to expenditures on schooling, along with the fact that expenditure levels are so much lower in the poorer countries. Reasons are provided as to why, if institutional differences do not account for changes in students in wealthier nations, these differences should still account for differences in earnings. Factors such as measurement problems and institutional arrangements come into play in this regard. The paper concludes that improvement in the quality of schooling provided in developing countries may be more important tor the future economic prospects of these nations in the long run than will expanded access to poor quality education.     

Problems of accreditation and quality assurance of engineering education in developing countries

The relationships between funding, management and quality assurance of engineering education in developing countries are discussed in this paper. It is proposed to raise the debate on engineering education up to the global economic level and to examine some of the issues facing developing and poorer countries in managing and improving the quality of engineering education in their countries. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world is now divided in two realigned blocks: one of developed (rich or advanced) countries that have a social security safety net for their population and another of developing (or poor) countries that have no such luxuries for their population. For the general public in the developing countries, any engineering degree is a passport to lifelong well-being of an individual and his/her extended family.Therefore, the demand for such qualifications is very high and it is almost a rat race amongst school graduates to get into engineering/technical colleges. In view of this booming demand, there are hundreds of privately funded engineering/technical colleges in countries like the Philippines, India, Thailand, etc. besides state-funded ones. It is extremely difficult to ensure good quality in this mushrooming scenario. There are also many very small poorresource developing countries where there is only one engineering school and/or two to three technical colleges. Products of these schools/colleges work only in their own country and educational globalization has little or no meaning for them. Besides highlighting the aforementioned general issues, the paper also presents a few case studies on problems of accreditation and quality assessment in larger developing countries such as India and the Philippines and also in very small developing countries such as Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Arab countries.     

Assimilation of immigrants: Does earlier school exposure matter?

This paper studies the effect of migration age on school performance. We exploit that siblings have different migration age, but share the same family background to identify the effect of migration age on educational attainment in lower secondary education in Norway. We estimate a separate effect for migrants from countries with low access to a high quality school system.We find negative effects of migration age on exam results, and larger effects for migrants from countries with low school access. Language intensive subjects are substantially affected for all migrants, while there are differences according to school access for mathematics performance.     

论经济全球化对世界经济格局的影响

经济全球化是国际经济发展中的一种趋势，它对世界经济格局产生巨大的影响，它巩固发达国家在世界经济格局的主角地位和作用，加快了发展中国家的分化，加剧了世界经济的不平衡。     

To what extent does Hong Kong primary school students’ Chinese reading comprehension benefit from after-school private tuition?

The reading attainment of the 3,875 primary 4 Hong Kong primary school students participating in the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study ranked first among 49 countries and regions surveyed worldwide. Analysis of the association between (a) participating students’ reading attainment and (b) responses to questionnaires completed by the students and their parents revealed that classroom teaching, the school curriculum, the reader’s social and economic background and support from home had all helped shape reading performance. It is not unusual for school students in many Asian countries to receive after-school tuition in various areas of the curriculum to boost performance in impending examinations. The study reported here focussed (1) on the Chinese language reading attainment of students who had attended private tutoring classes after school in this subject against the scores of fellow students who had not and (2) asking whether such after-school tutoring had been of any notable benefit to their reading. Although a majority of the parents questioned said they paid for extra tuition for their children after school, analyses of the data found there was a statistically significant difference between the scores of students who received extra tuition and those who did not, the score of the latter group being superior. It is suggested that the Hong Kong education authorities reassure parents about the quality of teaching in primary schools and publicly pronounce on the potential value of after-school private tutoring.     

教育:过去、现在与未来的全球挑战

1990年以来全球教育发展缓慢,且各国发展速度不同。普及基础教育仍是发展中国家政府与国际组织亟待实现的目标。这与近年来经济学关于人力资本对于经济增长以及社会发展的催化作用的研究发现形成鲜明对照。本研究基于一个新构建的教育数据库与1950—2010年的国民账户数据,采用不同的方法与若干国家案例,估计与人力资本积累缓慢相关的收入损失及其对公平的影响。研究还基于各国过去与未来加速人力资本积累的假设,推算了1900—1950年与2010—2050年的情况。研究发现,以人均收入表示的福利损失至少为7～10个百分点。此外,提高人均受教育年限对于减少收入不平等也有影响。     

School closures and educational attainment in Ethiopia: Can extra classes help children to catch up?

School closures impact children's attainment adversely, but understanding the effects of closures on children's attainment in lower-income countries is still limited. Addressing this deficit, this study examines how past school closures have impacted children's educational attainment in Ethiopia. The study uses individual student-level data from the Young Lives School Survey and standardised test scores in mathematics and language recorded at the start and end of the school year to model children's attainment. Multiple regression with propensity score matching is used to analyse how attainment over the school year is impacted by school closures for a matched sub-sample of 4842 students. The effectiveness of additional classes to make up for lost learning is also evaluated. Past school closures have had a detrimental effect on attainment in mathematics, but not literacy. Extra classes, specifically those that families do not pay for, have helped children in the past to recuperate lost learning and could serve this function post-Covid-19. Inequalities in learning outcomes, measured by Gini coefficients in educational attainment, are widened by school closures. Applying these results to the extensive school closures under Covid-19 furthers our understanding of the likely effects on academic attainment and can inform policy to mitigate the impact.     

Educational targeting in the fight against poverty: limits,omissions and opportunities

Educational targeting has become one of the hegemonic mechanisms in the fight against poverty. Both international organisms and developing countries support targeting as one of the best strategies in order to simultaneously guarantee poverty reduction and economic growth, and consequently to tackle the challenges generated by globalisation. The main objective of the article is to point out some of the limits, omissions and opportunities of educational targeting as a priority strategy to fight against poverty. In doing so, it analyses the World Bank’s proposals in education, poverty and targeting and it presents one of the targeting pioneering programmes implemented in Latin America: the Bolsa Escola programme (BE). An analysis of the impacts of the programme is also included. This analysis is based on the results of an intensive qualitiative fieldwork containing more than 80 interviews with mothers and students who benefit from the programme as well as with teaching staff. The analysis demonstrates that although targeting could be a necessary and useful strategy, it is not sufficient either for ensuring school attainment or for reducing poverty.     

从依附理论思考南北关系

对于南北之间不合理的政治经济关系的源泉、发展以及如何改善南北之间的不平等关系、建立新的国际经济秩序,依附学派的学者对此做出了思考和贡献。该理论指出的南方发展中国家在国际经济体系中的发展缺陷和发展前景,也是我们在同发达国家合作中应当极其关注的问题。人们应积极寻求从新的视角思考和解决南北差距,改善南北关系。国际社会必须长期努力,调动各种积极因素,共同致力于建立新型的合作伙伴关系和国际政治经济新秩序,缓和矛盾,共同发展。     

美国发展职业技术教育的历史经验及其启示

美国在长期发展职业技术教育过程中的经验主要表现在：联邦政府注重运用立法和拨款相结合的手段干预各州职业技术教育的发展；积极主动地学习先进国家的经验，并与具体实际相结合；各州注意以公立学校和高等院校为依托，大力发展各州的职业技术教育；各级职业教育机构能够根据经济建设和社会发展的要求自主办学。     

Gender Differences and High Attainment

Recent emphasis on raising attainment has focused attention onto the ‘gender gap’ in school attainment levels. Using data from the Scottish School Leavers Survey, the article examines factors related to high attainment and asks whether these differ for males and females. A strong relationship is established between social advantage and high attainment within each gender. There is no evidence of differential progression rates for males and females between the ages of 16 and 18. The only factor which offers any explanation for gender differences in attainment is the evidence that girls took school more seriously than boys. This supports theories that girls and boys experience different peer pressures which influence their school attainment. Other factors have also been shown to influence gender differences in performance in the research literature. Factors affecting gender differences were found equally in all schools, suggesting that wider cultural factors are also influential in creating gender differences.     

“九五”与“十五”时期广东经济增长方式转变情况的定量分析

近十年来,广东省的经济增长方式总体取得了较好的正向转变,但是其中部分年份有波动甚至下滑。集约型经济、市场主导型经济、消费拉动型经济和发展型经济增长方式都已经跨入"中度偏高"的行列。这说明,广东省经济增长方式转变已经取得了较好的成绩,集约程度得到了较大的提高,增长的质量也相应提升,市场主导经济的能力也得到了较大的增强,但是由于部分指标的制约,经济增长方式转变的总体水平均未能实现本质性突进。     

Late Entrants Leave School Earlier: Evidence from Mozambique

Late school entry prevails in many developing countries, and a brief international comparison suggests it has a general negative impact on school retention rates. Yet this widespread phenomenon has received little attention. This essay investigates late school entry in one of the larger countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Mozambique, for which data were available that allowed a detailed investigation. It demonstrates that in Mozambique pupils who enter school late have substantially higher drop-out rates than young entrants and may have, in addition, higher repetition rates. The essay also shows that many pupils in first grade are probably older than reported by the schools. The data necessary for the calculations include school attendance statistics from the Ministry of Education and from the 1997 Population Census.     

Investing in skills to overcome the crisis? Low-skilled workers in Italy: European strategies,policies and structural weaknesses

A skilled workforce is a prerequisite for productivity and a stepping stone for innovation. This is the reason why education and investment in skills have been made the foundations of Europe 2020, Europe’s strategy to overcome the economic crisis and boost growth. The propensity for developing skills is consistently present in European countries and concerns all educational levels. However, differences between countries are often considerable, in particular with regard to skills and educational attainment. There are countries, such as Italy, which have not been successful thus far at decreasing the number of low-skilled workers. This article aims to describe the situation of low-educated and low-skilled workers in Italy and the impact of the economic crisis on this particularly vulnerable group. The work is based on official data issued by national and international institutions, as well as on results from a narrative analysis of 15 biographical interviews with low-skilled adults in Italy conducted within a Cedefop project. Drawing on both types of sources, the article will offer a perspective on the relationship between structural constraints in regard to access to and participation in lifelong learning in Italy, specifically for low-skilled workers, and individual strategies adopted to cope with these constraints.     

Globalisation,Qualifications and Livelihoods: The case of Zimbabwe

This article explores how globalisation has impacted on the demand and nature of qualifications and livelihoods in Zimbabwe. It argues that while economic globalisation has had an influence on the labour market, particularly through economic reforms such as the Economic Structural Adjustment Programmes, colonial legacies continue to influence education and training in Zimbabwe. The article observes that although access to education has increased phenomenally since the attainment of political independence, this has not significantly solved unemployment and the reduction of poverty as new challenges have surfaced. The information and communications technology revolution that characterises globalisation has changed the skill and knowledge requirements for most jobs, leading to the need for continuous retraining and the improvement of one's qualifications. Yet qualifications have no impact on the availability of employment opportunities since these depend on the prevailing economic situation. The article comes to the conclusion that while globalisation has created new opportunities through liberalised economic systems, it has mainly benefited industrialised countries with more stable economies. For developing countries such as Zimbabwe, it has had a negative impact since it has led to retrenchments, weakening of the informal sector, increased consumer prices and a general decline in living standards.     

Achieving ethnic minority students' inclusion: a Flemish school's discursive practices countering the quasi‐market pressure to exclude

The purpose of this paper is to identify how ethnically diverse schools can discursively maintain a good reputation. Reputation allows attracting the mixed student population necessary to achieve inclusion or closing the gap between the attainment of ethnic majority and minority students. In semi‐market educational systems where students are free to attend the school of their choice yet education has no market price, the share of ethnic minority students functions as one of the main indicators of a school's educational quality. Ethnically diverse schools are thus perceived as offering lower quality education. Based on the case of a highly ethnically diverse, inclusive secondary school in the exclusive Flemish secondary educational semi‐market, we found that a positive reputation could be achieved through three related discursive practices: affirming the high‐quality education of the school, redefining the relation between students' ethnic diversity and educational quality and reconstructing ethnic diversity as an educational resource.     

Race,Choice and Richmond Public Schools: New Possibilities and Ongoing Challenges for Diversity in Urban Districts

Several contemporary demographic trends suggest that school systems in America’s central cities, typically characterized by high levels of racial and economic isolation, are being presented with new opportunities to create quality, diverse schools. Still, numerous obstacles linger. Using multiple sources of data and innovative mapping tools, this case study explores an urban district experiencing population growth and change and several different manifestations of school choice. Analyses indicate that levels of black-white elementary school segregation have risen rapidly over the past two decades, and now surpass residential segregation levels. The increase in school segregation has occurred alongside a district policy emphasis on both choice and neighborhood schools. While the current elementary school zones present a number of opportunities for further racial and economic diversity, high shares of students transferring out of their zone—either to another setting in the district or to a private school—undermine those possibilities. The example of Richmond, Virginia has important policy implications for countless other urban districts grappling with demographic shifts and the growth and popularity of school choice. Both trends offer crucial possibilities for central city school systems, but without careful attention to policy, will likely result in further stratification.