Trends in the payoff to academic and occupation-specific skills: the short and medium run returns to academic and vocational high school courses for non-college-bound students

Using data from three longitudinal surveys of American high school students, I show that vocational courses helped non-college-bound students to start their work life more successfully. A comparison of the returns to academic and vocational course work for non-college-bound students who graduated in 1972, 1980 and 1992 finds that the short and medium term payoffs to vocational courses rose substantially between 1972 and 1980 and remained high in 1992. Holding a host of variables constant, academic course work had much smaller labour market payoffs than vocational course work. These findings contradict the often repeated claim that employers now seek workers with a good general education and are happy to teach the occupation specific skills necessary to do the job. High school students who do not plan to attend college full-time would be well advised to start studying a well paying occupation before they complete high school. [JEL: I20, J23, J24]     

Overeducation in the labor market: a comment and re-analysis of a meta-analysis

Groot and Maassen van den Brink (International Journal of Manpower 21, 584, 2000a) provide a useful summary of the incidence of overeducation and undereducation. Unfortunately, by combining non-compatible estimates of the impact of surplus schooling (and under schooling) on earnings they potentially bias their estimates downward (upward). This paper bypasses this potential bias by examining only wage estimates that use the “standard” required-surplus-deficit education model of Duncan and Hoffman (1981). The paper also expands the meta-analysis by including approximately 50 additional wage estimates. On average, the literature finds that the premium paid for overeducation is approximately equal to the penalty for undereducation, but lower than the returns associated with an increase in required education. Overeducated individuals earn more than their properly educated co-workers, but less than others with their level of schooling. The paper also examines how different definitions of required education impact the returns from overeducation and undereducation.     

Fertility, relative wages, and labor market decisions: A case of female teachers

This paper examines the effects of fertility and relative wages on occupational choice (teaching versus non-teaching) and labor force participation decisions of female college graduates using selectivity-corrected panel estimations.We find that the presence of a new born baby is not particularly important to the choice of occupation, but significantly discourages female labor force participation, especially among teachers. Higher relative wages are found to effectively attract female college graduates into teaching. College major in education is one of the most relevant determinants for female college graduates to become teachers. Though investing educational expenditures on teachers’ salary seems to be a valid policy, providing incentives for female college students to major in education will be an alterative way to secure teacher supply.     

The impact of school choice and public policy on segregation: Evidence from Chile

Advocates argue that vouchers can make improved educational opportunity available to disadvantaged students. Critics contend that vouchers increase the risk of stratification. Researchers have found that Chile's voucher program has lead to increased socioeconomic school segregation. What has been overlooked, however, is segregation between schools within a sector and variation within private for-profit and non-profit school sectors. I find that public schools are more likely to serve disadvantaged students than private voucher schools. I also find that disadvantaged students are more segregated among private voucher schools than among public schools. While between and within sector segregation levels vary across private voucher school types, the differences are not always consistent with theory. The data also suggest that policies can either mitigate or exacerbate the stratifying effects of educational vouchers.     

预期收入、风险与教育选择——来自北京六所高校的经验证据

在教育经济学研究领域,传统的教育选择研究文献往往假定个体只考虑教育收益,忽视了投资风险的真实存在。已有文献对教育选择行为的预期假定存在较大差异,强加在个体身上的假定可能导致对教育选择行为的不正确推论,而使用个体主观预期数据替代这些假定能更准确地分析个体教育决策行为。采用2007年在北京六所高校所做的"研究生教育态度的调查",利用预期收入、风险数据对北京高校大学生的研究生教育选择问题进行的实证研究发现,预期收入对选择研究生教育有显著影响,而风险对教育选择的影响却不尽相同:收入风险对于教育选择的影响不明显,主观风险对选择研究生教育则有负效应。此外,还发现就业率是大学生决定是否进一步接受教育的重要因素,所学专业就业率越高,选择继续接受研究生教育的愿望越小。上述研究结果暗示,政府相关部门应定期公布劳动力市场数据,便于大学毕业生对收入和就业状况形成合理预期,从而对未来的教育作出理性选择,有效发挥人力资本的作用。     

The value of formal host-country education for the labour market position of refugees: Evidence from Austria

Refugees hosted in countries with advanced economies often work in low quality jobs, regardless of the education they obtained in their home countries. In this paper, I analyse the long-term impact of formal host-country education for refugees on labour market outcomes, using 22 years of microcensus data on Bosnians arriving in Austria during the 1992–1995 Bosnian war. I estimate local average treatment effects using age at the time of forced migration as an instrument for the probability of receiving education in Austria instead of Bosnia. I find that receiving a formal degree in Austria significantly reduced the probability of work below educational attainment and low-skill employment for two decades after arrival. There are visible income differences between holders of Austrian and Bosnian degrees beyond this period. Female refugees benefited significantly more from obtaining host-country education than males.     

Math skills and market and non-market outcomes: Evidence from an Amazonian society of forager-farmers

Research in industrial nations suggests that formal math skills are associated with improvements in market and non-market outcomes. But do these associations also hold in a highly autarkic setting with a limited formal labor market? We examined this question using observational annual panel data (2008 and 2009) from 1121 adults in a native Amazonian society of forager-farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane’). Formal math skills were associated with an increase in wealth in durable market goods and in total wealth between data collection rounds, and with improved indicators of own reported perceived stress and child health. These associations did not vary significantly by people's Spanish skills or proximity to town. We conclude that the positive association between math skills and market and non-market outcomes extends beyond industrial nations to even highly autarkic settings.     

Can’t get there from here: The decision to apply to a selective college

In an attempt to increase applications from low-income students, some selective 4-year colleges are developing programs to target and attract low-income students. However, relatively little research has looked at factors important in the college application process, and in particular, how these factors differ for low-income students. This paper uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) to analyze factors influencing students’ college application decisions, with a focus on the decision to apply to a selective 4-year college. We hypothesize that distance from a student's home to selective colleges may play a role in the application decision and differentially impact low-income students. Our results suggest that distance does matter, although the effects do not vary by family income level.     

Heterogeneous responses to school track choice: Evidence from the repeal of binding track recommendations

This paper studies how introducing free school track choice in Germany’s between-school tracking system through a repeal of binding track recommendations affects track decisions by socio-economic status (SES). While highest track enrollment increases for previously ineligible high-SES students relative to comparable low-SES students, the SES gap does not increase. This is because previously eligible low-SES student become more likely to enroll in the highest track. A key mechanism for this response appears to be lower preferences for the intermediate track due to concerns about the inflow of mostly low-achieving and low-SES students from the lowest track after the repeal.     

Does the expansion of higher education reduce gender gaps in the labor market? Evidence from a natural experiment

In 2005 Chilean congress approved a bill that established a new funding tool for higher education funding through a "private system" of student loans (named CAE). The system aimed to support higher education inclusion among students with academic merits overcoming the lack of resources for ensuring access. Politicians have referred to this reform in higher education funding as a critical factor for expanding higher education enrollment. By its immediate results, it is a great strategy to cope with inequality and social mobility issues. However, there is little empirical evidence about labor market variables' overall effects, such as gender discrimination. This work attempts to estimate the new instrument's impact on the three standard measures of gender labor discrimination: labor participation, the gender wage gap, and the glass ceiling. The empirical strategy uses a difference-in-difference approach to provide estimates. The results indicate that the CAE policy changed women's labor market participation and contributed to close the gender pay gap in the labor market. However, the glass ceiling increased in the entire labor market, but not in the white-collar job market in specific.     

Labour market effects of the polytechnic education reform: The Finnish experience

This paper evaluates the labour market effects of the introduction of the polytechnic education system in Finland. The polytechnic reform gradually transformed former vocational colleges into polytechnics. Since the timing of the reform differed across schools, we can compare the performance of polytechnic graduates to the performance of vocational college graduates controlling for both the year and the school effects. The results are somewhat sensitive to how the selectivity issues are treated but generally suggest that both the earnings and the employment levels of post-reform graduates are higher in the field of business and administration. The effects are much smaller and usually insignificant in other fields.     

Heterogeneous effects of comprehensive vs. single-track academic schools: Evidence from admission lotteries

We use admission lotteries to study how enrollment in a single-track academic school instead of a comprehensive school affects achievement of students in Amsterdam. The two types of schools score differently on measures of school quality and enrollment in a single-track school instead of a comprehensive school implies exposure to better and richer peers. Yet, school resources and the school curriculum are very similar. Different groups of students are differentially affected by this treatment. Girls from lower-income neighborhoods benefit whereas boys from these neighborhoods are harmed. For students from higher-income neighborhoods, it does not matter which type of school they attend.     

Can social integration in schools be mandated: Evidence from the Right to Education Act in India

Although Affirmative Action policies have been enforced in many countries, their consequences are highly understudied, especially in the context of developing economies. Section 12(1)(c) of the Right to Education (RTE) Act enforced in 2009 is the first attempt to introduce affirmative action in primary schools in India. The act requires all private schools to reserve at least twenty five percent seats for children from economically weaker sections. To understand the effect of the act on i) social integration and ii) academic outcomes, we asked 1500 children (grades one to three) from four schools to answer friendship surveys and short tests in Mathematics and English. The schools in our sample vary considerably in constitution and were intentionally chosen to understand the impact of the act in different school settings. The friendship surveys show strong homophily i.e. non-RTE students cite other non-RTE students as friends, while RTE students chose to be friends primarily with other RTE students. Trends in test scores reveal that students admitted under the RTE quota score significantly lower than non-RTE students. However, RTE students who have a higher share of non-RTE friends have better test scores, suggesting that affirmative action may have a positive influence on learning outcomes for RTE children. Further we note that commitment from the school authorities and systematic monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the act will go a long way in bringing out some of the benefits that this act was designed to achieve. Our findings have important policy implications with respect to ensuring proper implementation of the Section12(1)(c) of the RTE act in schools across the country.     

Winners and losers of school choice: Evidence from Rio de Janeiro,Brazil and Santiago,Chile

School choice is a controversial topic in the education debate. Proponents argue that choice would open up opportunities to disadvantaged families. Critics counter that choice may exacerbate inequities as advantaged parents are more likely to choose the best schools. Rio de Janeiro and Santiago provide unique institutional contexts in which to explore how choice may affect equity. We use datasets with information on home addresses to compare the choices of parents with different backgrounds. We find that disadvantaged parents in both cities are less likely to choose high achieving schools. The differences are more pronounced in Santiago than in Rio. These results suggest that choice policies will likely not reduce inequities and the design of the program influences behavior.     

Economic growth in developing countries: The role of human capital

The focus on human capital as a driver of economic growth for developing countries has led to undue attention on school attainment. Developing countries have made considerable progress in closing the gap with developed countries in terms of school attainment, but recent research has underscored the importance of cognitive skills for economic growth. This result shifts attention to issues of school quality and, in that area developing countries have been much less successful in closing the gaps with developed countries. Without improving school quality, developing countries will find it difficult to improve their long run economic performance.     

School competition and performance indicators: evidence from the creation of federal education institutions in Brazil

The expansion of the Federal Institute of Education is characterized as an exogenous source of competition in Brazil. This research studies the effect of the Federal Institutes’ creation on the performance of the other public schools in the benefited municipalities. The methodological approach is the Propensity Score Matching combined with the generalized difference in differences method. The results show a significant and negative impact on the pass rate of students who remain in the state public educational system and a positive impact in the fail rate. The policy of expansion of the Federal Institutes may lead to a cream skimming process.     

Career effects of occupation-related vocational education: Evidence from the military's internal labor market

Prior research on the labor market success of secondary vocational education has produced mixed results, with several studies finding wage gains only for individuals who work in training-related occupations. We contribute to this debate by focusing on a single occupation and organization and by comparing the careers of employees with and without occupation-related training in high school. We use longitudinal data on the careers of military recruits who completed high school Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC), a military science program that has features of a vocational training and school-to-work program. We find that the occupation-specific training received via JROTC reduces early turnover and improves long-run job stability for those who choose military jobs, suggesting that an important effect of vocational training is to improve job match quality. We also find that promotion rates for vocational graduates are similar to their peers, suggesting that vocational education in general works by improving occupational sorting.     

The Experiences of Low-Income Latina/o Families in an Urban Voucher,Parochial School

Catholic schools have become a popular choice for many low income families Latino/a families. Families enrollment in these schools are often faced with the mandate to participate. However, regardless of the mandate, some schools often experience low parental participation. The purpose of this study is to document the experiences of low income, Latino/a families around parental involvement in hopes of understanding the reasoning for participating (or not) in their child’s school. The researchers conclude that families do not participate for a number of reasons including lack of opportunities, and an unwelcoming environment. The implications for Latina/o urban education are discussed.