Prediction of Graduate Performance in Economics

Professor Hansen's paper describes an effort to predict the success of graduate students in economics at The University of Wisconsin. Undergraduate grade point average, GRE scores, and the quality of the undergraduate schools were used as independent variables in a linear multiple regression model. Graduate grade point average was the dependent variable. The value of the independent variables as predictors is analyzed both jointly and in isolation. Among the important conclusions reached by Hansen is that heavy reliance upon a single predictor such as the undergraduate grade point average is unwise, that the GRE quantitative score takes on greater significance as the graduate student advances into the second year of his program, and that school quality must be taken into account.     

Students' Characteristics and Performance in Economic Statistics

The vast majority of studies in college economics have dealt with the introductory principles course. In one of the rare research projects dealing with other courses, Professor Cohn attempts to identify factors affecting student performance in economic statistics. He considers such variables as grade point average, graduate vs. undergraduate status, major field, sex and credits in economics, mathematics and statistics. There are a few recognized limitations to his model, but the reader will find some of his results to be surprising indeed.     

行为经济学视角下的就业问题分析——以大学生就业为例

大学毕业生就业难是带有普遍性的问题,其中的原因可归结为两个方面,一方面是就业市场需求等外部因素;另一方面是大学生对待就业和择业的非理性行为等自身因素,这是对大学生就业影响更大但通常被忽视的一个方面.从行为经济学视角分析,这种非理性行为产生的原因在于行为人在不确定条件下决策时的各种认知偏差,其后果是降低就业成功率,加大就业风险.为此,提出防范大学毕业生非理性行为及减小就业风险的一系列对策.     

Does grade retention affect students’ achievement? Some evidence from Spain

Grade retention practices are at the forefront of the educational debate. In this article, we measure the effect of grade retention on Spanish students’ achievement by using data from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We find that grade retention has a negative impact on educational outcomes, but we confirm the importance of endogenous selection which makes observed differences between repeaters and nonrepeaters appear about 14% lower than they actually are. The effect on scores of repeating is much smaller (–10% of nonrepeaters’ average) than the counterfactual reduction that nonrepeaters would suffer had they been retained as repeaters (–24% of their average). Furthermore, those who repeated a grade during primary education suffered more than those who repeated a grade in secondary school, although the effect of repeating at both times is, as expected, larger.     

Welfare use and children’s longer-term achievement

We investigate the effects of mothers’ welfare use on children’s longer-term performance. To address issues of improper comparison groups and the endogenous nature of welfare participation, we focus on less-educated single mothers and adopt a correction function approach. Data are drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 – Children and Young Adult from 1994 to 2010. Estimation results confirm the positive longer-term effects of mothers’ welfare use. On average, a child whose mother used welfare in all 20 quarters after childbirth experiences a 0.56-point increase in their yearly high school grade point average, is 12% more likely to graduate from high school and earns $1112.76 more in the first-observed income than a child whose mother does not.     

教师实施市场营销案例教学的过程比较研究——基于本科教学和高职教学比较的视角

案例教学方法是在本科和高职的市场营销课程中比较常用的方法,在运用的过程中应考虑不同层次学生的特点,从案例自身的类型与识别、案例的作用、选取适合的教学案例以及案例教学的科学组织和实施三个方面分析,提出有针对性的案例教学方法和模式,从而在本科教学和高职教学中充分发挥各类可用案例的作用,提升教师的教学水平和学生的理解能力。     

Corruption and culture: An experimental analysis

Why do some people choose corruption over honesty and others not? Do the social norms and values prevailing in the societies in which they grew up affect their decisions? In 2005, we conducted a bribery experiment and found that, among undergraduates, we could predict who would act corruptly with reference to the level of corruption in their home country. Among graduate students we could not. In 2007, we replicated our result and also found that time spent in the UK was associated with a decline in the propensity to bribe, although this does not explain our inability to predict graduate behaviour. We conclude that, while corruption may, in part, be a cultural phenomenon, individuals should not be prejudged with reference to their country of origin.     

On the peer effects of star students

We estimate the effect that star students have on their siblings’ learning outcomes, measured by their high school grade point average (GPA) and their math grades. To this end, we couple administrative school data on grades with an unusual natural experiment in Peru that generates exogenous variation in the presence of star students at home. We find that star students increase their siblings’ GPA by 0.33 SDs and their math grades by 0.22 SDs. The effect size is inversely related to number of siblings, suggesting that the remaining siblings act as substitutes for the star student.     

Public overspending in higher education

We study the trade-off between governmental investments in pretertiary and tertiary education from an efficiency point of view. We develop a model comprising agents with different incomes and abilities, public and private schools, and public universities that select applicants based on an admission exam. Reallocating governmental resources from tertiary to pretertiary education may positively affect aggregate production and human capital if some conditions are satisfied. For instance, in an economy with a high proportion of credit-constrained students, a reallocation of expenditure toward public schools benefits many students, compensating for the negative effect of a decrease in public university investments. We also quantitatively investigate the optimal allocation of public investment between pretertiary and tertiary education, and we find that a 10% increase in productivity of public investments in pretertiary education could increase the optimal GDP between 2.1% and 3%.     

Real option,human capital investment returns and higher educational policy

This paper incorporates the concept of real option into a modified Harris–Todaro model to investigate the relationship between higher education and unemployment rates. We found that the real option value of waiting to invest in graduate school education will decrease when the expected wage rate of labors with an undergraduate degree becomes relatively lower than that with a graduate degree. As a result, more undergraduate students will decide to go to graduate schools immediately after graduation. As the supply of labors with a graduate degree increases and the job creations fail to meet the increasing demand, those who cannot get a graduate-level job will be willing to accept job offers lower than their education level. Our modified Harris–Todaro model shows that it will lead to an increase in the number of unemployed and underemployed higher educated labors. This explains why the unemployment rates for higher educated labor are relatively high in some developed countries.