Do tuition fees affect enrollment behavior? Evidence from a ‘natural experiment’ in Germany

This paper uses the introduction of tuition fees in seven of the sixteen German states in 2007 as a natural experiment to identify the effects of tuition prices on enrollment probabilities. Based on information on enrollment decisions of the entire population of high-school graduates between 2002 and 2008, I find a negative effect of tuition fees on enrollment behavior. The effect is larger than in existing studies for European countries, but of a similar magnitude as effects identified with U.S. data. A potential spill-over effect of the policy intervention to the comparison group is accounted for by using the estimation results to calibrate a structural model of the enrollment decision.     

Adolescent drug use and the deterrent effect of school-imposed penalties

Estimates of the effect of school-imposed penalties for drug use on a student's consumption of marijuana are biased if both are determined by unobservable school or individual attributes. Reverse causality is also a potential challenge to retrieving estimates of the causal relationship, as the severity of school sanctions may simply reflect the need for more-severe sanctions. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I offer an instrumental-variables approach to retrieving an estimate of the causal response of marijuana use to sanctions and thereby demonstrate the efficacy of school-imposed penalties as a deterrent to adolescent drug use. This suggests that school sanctions may have important long-run benefits.     

Math skills and labor-market outcomes: Evidence from a resume-based field experiment

We examine the link between math skills and labor-market outcomes using a resume-based field experiment. Specifically, we send fictitious resumes in response to online job postings, randomly assigning some resumes to indicate stronger math skills, and measure employer responses. The resumes that are randomly assigned to indicate stronger math skills receive more interest from employers than the comparison resumes. Our findings add to the body of evidence showing that stronger math skills positively affect labor-market outcomes.     

Diversifying the faculty across gender lines: Do trustees and administrators matter?

Our paper focuses on the role that the gender composition of the leaders of American colleges and universities - trustees, presidents, and provosts - play in influencing the rate at which academic institutions diversify their faculty across gender lines. Our analyses make use of institutional level panel data that we have collected for a large sample of American academic institutions.     

The role of educational quality and quantity in the process of economic development

We develop a theory of human capital investment to study the effects of school quality on student choices of education, and to understand its effect on economic growth. In a dynamic general equilibrium closed economy, primary education is mandatory but there is an opportunity to continue to secondary education and beyond. High-quality education increases the returns to schooling, and hence the incentives to accumulate human capital. This is caused by two different channels: higher quality makes education accessible to more people (extensive margin), and once individuals decide to participate in higher education, higher-quality increases the investment made per individual (intensive margin). Furthermore, educational quality determines human capital composition and growth. Cross-country data evidence shows that the proposed channels are quantitatively important and that the effect of the quality and quantity of education on growth depends on the stage of development.     

The influence of price on school enrollment under Uganda's policy of free primary education

This study uses household survey data to estimate determinants of schooling in Uganda, with a model that includes the price of school. Uganda's universal education policy offered free tuition, fees, and supplies to up to four children per family, including two daughters. The empirical method includes an estimation of a child-specific price of schooling. Despite widespread subsidies, the cost of primary school remained an obstacle under this policy, but the effects of price were similar for boys and girls. Regressions by wealth quintile estimate nonlinear effects of wealth and price, suggesting that there are opportunities to expand education through targeted cash transfer and subsidy policies.     

Inequality of opportunity for educational achievement in Latin America: Evidence from PISA 2006–2009

We evaluate how far away six Latin American countries stand from a normative goal of equality of opportunity for educational achievement in PISA 2006–2009. We work with alternative characterizations of types: gender, school type (public or private), parental education, and their combinations. Following Checchi–Peragine's (2010) non-parametric method, we find that inequality of opportunity for educational achievement in Latin America ranges from less than 1% to up to 25%, depending on the year, the country, the subject and the specification of circumstances. These magnitudes are substantial with respect to what is found in comparator countries. Parental education and school type prove to be important sources of inequality of opportunity, contrary to gender. By means of sensitivity analyses, while most results show small to moderate variation in terms of magnitudes, in ordinal terms (rankings) they remain quite stable. Brazil stands out as the most opportunity-unequal country of the sample.     

管理类本科毕业论文质量的保障机制

在本科教学的各个环节中,毕业论文教学环节的目的在于总结、消化学生在校期间的学习成果,让学生通过科学研究的基本训练提高综合运用所学知识分析问题和解决问题的能力,培养学生创造性综合思维能力及文字综合表达能力。但当下毕业论文指导表现出形式化的倾向,因此不少毕业生抄袭、剽窃、拼凑论文蒙混过关,毕业论文质量堪忧。在此背景下,构建以学校的制度、导师的智力、企业的接口和学生的意向协调统一的＂4I＂板凳模型保障机制无疑对提高和保证学生毕业论文具有指导意义。     

伊丽莎白一世政治性格成因探析

封建时代,君主个人的政治性格往往决定着一国政治措施的制定与实施,一定程度上影响国家的稳定与发展。伊丽莎白一世的政治性格受其个性心理与所处环境的互动影响,使其能够适应当时国内外形势的需要,采取一系列切实有效的统治政策,最终促进了英国的稳定与发展。女王政治性格的形成是其自身遗传、教育、执政环境等因素共同作用的结果,深入探究女王的政治性格及其成因,有助于把握其政治统治和英国发展的深层次关系。     

姜黄素神经保护作用研究进展

姜黄素（curcumin）是从姜科姜黄属植物的根茎中提取出来的一种黄色植物多酚,具有抗炎、抗氧化等多种药理作用,可以改善癌症、糖尿病和脑外伤等多种疾病症状。近年来随着对姜黄素的深入研究,发现其在神经系统疾病中也有较好的效果,如阿尔茨海默病、帕金森病、神经疼痛和神经系统肿瘤等。该文综述了姜黄素神经保护效应及其机制。