Post‐socialist transition and intergenerational educational mobility in Kyrgyzstan

We investigate long‐term trends in intergenerational educational mobility in a lower middle‐income transition economy. We draw on evidence from Kyrgyzstan using data from three household surveys collected in 1993, 1998 and 2011. We find that Kyrgyzstan, like Eastern European middle‐income transition economies, maintained high educational mobility, comparable to levels during the Soviet era. However, we find that the younger cohorts, exposed to the transition during their school years, experienced a rapid decline in educational mobility. We also document that gender differences in schooling and educational mobility, found among older‐aged individuals, disappeared in the younger cohorts.     

Early Tracking and the Misfortune of Being Young

Recent research suggests that the relative age of a student within a grade has a causal effect on educational achievement, and that this effect fades with the duration of schooling. In this study, we estimate the causal relative‐age effect on track choice in Austria, a country where students are first tracked in grade 5 (at the age of 10 years), and again in grade 9. We find a strong positive relative‐age effect on track choice in grades 5–8. The age effect persists beyond grade 8 for students from less‐favorable socioeconomic backgrounds and students in urban areas.     

International comparisons of rural-urban educational attainment: Data and determinants

We study cross-country differences in rural and urban educational attainment by using a data set comprising 56 countries. We focus on the determinants of rural-urban educational inequality, which is measured by the ratio of rural to urban average years of schooling within each country. We find that riskier human capital investment, less credit availability, a colonial heritage, a legal system of French origin and landlockedness of nations are all associated with relatively lower rural educational levels and greater rural-urban educational inequality. Conversely, larger formal labor markets, better infrastructure and a legal system of British origin are associated with relatively higher rural educational levels and lower rural-urban educational inequality. We also identify an interaction effect between economic development level and some of these factors. In particular, we find that as development level increases, the negative (positive) relationship between French (British) legal systems and rural-urban educational inequality is reversed and becomes positive (negative).     

The transferability of human capital: some empirical evidence for West Germany

One of the most important topics in the current debate on immigration policy is whether receiving countries should make immigration conditional upon the achievement of formal education by the would-be immigrant in the source country. The answer to this question depends, among other factors, on the transferability of schooling and professional education from the sending to the receiving region. The paper uses German household data of 1978, 1982 and 1989 to evaluate to what extent formal education acquired by the main immigrant groups (Italians, Yugoslavs, Turks) in their countries of origin leads to earnings advantages in Germany. Consistent with earlier research, an assimilation effect is found. The results also show that schooling and professional education lead to earnings advantages. However, income differences between the three immigrant groups can only partially be explained by differences in schooling and professional education. It is found that nonobservable characteristics such as motivation, talent and the dynamics of the migratory chain also play a major role. The results indicate that Germany and other European receiving countries could, in theory, increase their welfare by integrating qualitative restrictions along educational characteristics in their immigration policies. The size of the increase, however, would be limited because of the importance of nonobservable characteristics and declining transferability of human capital as the source composition of immigrants shifts towards less developed countries.     

Explaining educational attainment across countries and over time

Consider the following facts. In 1950, the richest countries attained an average of 8 years of schooling whereas the poorest countries 1.3 years, a large 6-fold difference. By 2005, the difference in schooling declined to 2-fold because schooling increased faster in poor than in rich countries. What explains educational attainment differences across countries and their evolution over time? We consider an otherwise standard model of schooling featuring non-homothetic preferences and a labor supply margin to assess the quantitative contribution of productivity and life expectancy in explaining educational attainment. A calibrated version of the model accounts for 90 percent of the difference in schooling levels in 1950 between rich and poor countries and 71 percent of the faster increase in schooling over time in poor relative to rich countries. These results suggest an alternative view of the determinants of low education in developing countries that is based on low productivity.     

Gender‐specific Human Capital,Openness and Growth: Exploring the Linkages for South Asia

Using data covering 1970–2008 for South Asia, this study investigates the influence of human capital disaggregated by gender, on economic growth. We use an extended version of the Solow growth model with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) a function of the key variables, viz. physical capital accumulation, human capital accumulation, trade openness and capital flows, fiscal policy and financial development. The key contribution of this study is to show that openness when interacted with the human capital stock disaggregated by gender, has differential impacts on economic growth. While the positive impact of male secondary schooling captures the direct skill effect relative to primary schooling, the marginal influence of female primary/secondary schooling fails to show a positive impact on growth at higher levels of openness. An implication stemming from this study is that educational opportunities for females at the secondary level should be increased for South Asia.     

THE ESTIMATED EFFECT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLING ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES USING PROPENSITY SCORE MATCHING

This paper examines the effect of attending a Catholic high school on educational outcomes. The statistical analysis is based on data obtained from the US National Educational Longitudinal Study. Using propensity score matching methods to control for selection bias, we find that Catholic schooling improves maths test scores, with stronger effects for males than for females, but appears to have little effect (if any) on reading scores. Catholic schooling also raises high school graduation rates and substantially increases the likelihood of enrolment in a 4‐year college. Use of the difference‐in‐difference method suggests that the effect of Catholic schooling on changes in maths scores is more muted, though still statistically significant.     

Is migration a good substitute for education subsidies?

Assuming a given educational policy, the recent brain drain literature reveals that skilled migration can boost the average level of schooling in developing countries. In this paper, we introduce educational subsidies determined by governments concerned by the number of skilled workers remaining in the country. Our theoretical analysis shows that developing countries can benefit from skilled emigration when educational subsidies entail high fiscal distortions. However when taxes are not too distortionary, it is desirable to impede emigration and subsidize education. We then investigate the empirical relationship between educational subsidies and migration prospects, obtaining a negative relationship for 105 countries. Based on this result, we revisit the country specific effects of skilled migration upon human capital. We show that the endogeneity of public subsidies reduces the number of winners and increases the magnitude of the losses.     

Intergenerational Mobility under Private vs. Public Education*

Intergenerational earnings mobility is analyzed in a model where human capital is produced using schooling and parental time. In steady states more mobile societies have less inequality, but in the short run higher mobility may result from an increase in inequality. Starting from the same inequality, mobility is higher under public than under private education. A rise in income shocks, for example due to increased returns to ability, or a switch from public to private schooling both increase inequality. However, increased shocks raise mobility in the short run and do not affect it in the long run, whereas an increased role for private schooling reduces mobility in both the short and long run. That these differences may help to identify the source of changes in inequality, and other real‐world implications, are illustrated in a brief discussion of time trends and cross‐country differences.     

The intergenerational transmission of education and equality of educational opportunity in East and West Germany

Socialist societies often emphasized the abolition of traditional social classes. To achieve this objective, educational opportunities were at times ‘actively managed’ and allocated to children of less educated parents. What happened to these patterns after the demise of socialist rule in Eastern Europe? We study the development of educational mobility after the fall of the iron curtain in East Germany and compare the relevance of parental educational background for secondary schooling in East and West Germany. Based on the data from the German Mikrozensus we find that educational mobility is lower in East than in West Germany and that it has been falling in East Germany after unification. While the educational advantage of girls declined over time, having many siblings presents a more substantial disadvantage in East than in West Germany.     

CRIME AND LOCAL LABOR MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR LOW‐SKILLED WORKERS: EVIDENCE USING JAPANESE PREFECTURAL PANEL DATA

This paper examines the link between crime and labor market opportunities in Japan. To consider this link, we estimate the crime supply function first introduced by Becker using panel data for Japanese prefectures. The main empirical results are as follows. First, we expect that increasing the number of police will reduce crime, regardless of its type (i.e. whether referring to total crime, violent crime or larceny). Second, crime rates are generally lower in prefectures where a low‐skilled individual can find a job more easily. Third, the effects of wages for low‐skilled workers on crime, especially larceny, are significantly negative, whereas average wages in a prefecture do not appear to affect crime. Fourth, the prefectures with lower educational standards are expected to suffer more crime than other prefectures. Finally, prefectures with higher Gini coefficients on schooling years are also expected to suffer more crime than other prefectures.     

Intergenerational Educational Mobility in Hong Kong: Are Immigrants More Mobile than Natives?

We characterize intergenerational educational mobility by the percentage of children who have more schooling than their parents, and the change in the relative probability of the children attending university across their parents’ schooling levels. In Hong Kong, immigrant children are very upward mobile; their percentage of upward mobility has caught up with that of the children of the Hong Kong‐born parents. Hong Kong‐born children of immigrant parents are also more mobile than the children of Hong Kong born parents. Even though parental educational background remains important for university attendance, immigrant children experience higher mobility than Hong Kong‐born children in terms of access to university education.     

Education and equal opportunities among Liberian children

This paper expands the analysis of equal opportunities by connecting traditional benefit incidence analysis of public spending with the human opportunity index, a distribution sensitive measure of access to public services. It also develops ex-ante micro-simulations to determine the cost of equalizing educational opportunities. This technique is applied to Liberia, a country devastated by civil war with serious educational enrollment gaps and policies highly dependent on international aid. Results from simulated increases in teachers’ salaries, elimination of fee and non-fee costs and targeted public educational spending on rural schools all point to very modest redistributive effects but distinctive patterns of winners and losers among Liberian children.     

Analyzing Educational Achievement Differences between Second‐Generation Immigrants: Comparing Germany and German‐Speaking Switzerland

In this study, I provide evidence that the educational achievement of second‐generation immigrants in German‐speaking Switzerland is greater than in Germany. The impact of the first‐generation immigrants' destination decision on their offspring's educational achievement seems to be much more important than has been recognized by the existing literature. I identify the test score gap between these students that cannot be explained by differences in individual and family characteristics. Moreover, I show how this gap evolves over the test score distribution and how the least favorably endowed students fare. My results suggest that the educational system of Switzerland, relative to the German system, enhances the performance of immigrants' children substantially. This disparity is largest when conditioning on the language spoken at home, and prevails even when comparing only students whose parents migrated from the same country of origin.     

A Model of Educational Investment,Social Concerns,and Inequality

We consider a model in which educational investments entail productivity gains, signaling power, and social status. The latter depends on the agent's relative achievement in one of three dimensions: innate skills, level of schooling, and income. We study the three scenarios separately and characterize the conditions under which social concerns increase or decrease educational and income inequality. Inequality increases (decreases) if education lowers the stigma suffered by low‐skilled workers less (more) than it boosts the prestige enjoyed by high‐skilled workers. We discuss the expected results of some policies in light of these findings.     

THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION: A MACROECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Between 1940 and 2000 there was a substantial increase in educational attainment in the United States. What caused this trend? We develop a model of human capital accumulation that features a nondegenerate distribution of educational attainment in the population. We use this framework to assess the quantitative contribution of technological progress and changes in life expectancy in explaining the evolution of educational attainment. The model implies an increase in average years of schooling of 24%, which is the increase observed in the data. We find that technological variables and in particular skill‐biased technical change represent the most important factors in accounting for the increase in educational attainment. The strong response of schooling to changes in income is informative about the potential role of educational policy and the impact of other trends affecting lifetime income.     

On the role of job assignment in a comparison of education systems

Abstract This paper re‐examines how differences in systems for financing education influence GDP by highlighting a neglected function of education policy: it affects the magnitude of gains from job assignment. When more productive jobs demand more skill, privately financed education can increase productivity gains from matching between jobs and skill by increasing the availability of highly educated people. This differs from the standard argument that publicly financed education increases the total amount of human capital by equalizing educational opportunities. It is shown that if job opportunities have large variations in productivity, education policy may face a serious efficiency–equity trade‐off.     

教育、人力资本与地区经济差异

本文在增长回归框架下,应用Arellano与Bond等人倡导的动态面板数据方法(system-GMM估计)和传统的固定效应估计考察了教育对地区收入差异的影响。实证分析发现,劳动力教育程度的提高对地区经济增长有显著积极的影响,并表现出一定程度的溢出效应。不过与资本投资相比,教育差异仍不是地区经济差异的主要因素。此外,本文的增长回归还表明,中国各省区的经济发展存在较快的条件收敛迹象。随后,我们分析了实证结果的可能原因。     

What factors drive individual misperceptions of the returns to schooling in Tanzania? Some lessons for education policy

Evidence on educational returns and the factors that determine the demand for schooling in developing countries is extremely scarce. Building on previous studies that show individuals underestimating the returns to schooling, we use two surveys from Tanzania to estimate both the actual and perceived schooling returns and subsequently examine what factors drive individual misperceptions regarding actual returns. Using OLS and instrumental variable methods, we find that each additional year of schooling in Tanzania increases earnings, on average, by 9 to 11%. We find that on average individuals underestimate returns to schooling by 74 to 79% and three factors are associated with these misperceptions: income, asset, poverty and educational attainment. Shedding light on what factors relate to individual beliefs about educational returns can inform policy on how to structure effective interventions in order to correct individual misperceptions.