Immigrant self-employment in Sweden - its variation and some possible determinants

This paper examines self-employment among immigrants in Sweden. There are differences in the self-employment rate between immigrants and the native population and between different immigrant groups, both in the raw data and after controlling for variables such as age, gender, education and civil status. The study shows that non-Nordic immigrants in Sweden who arrived at an early date have higher self-employment rates than the native population. It seems as if self-employment among immigrants is to some extent positively correlated with time elapsed after arrival in the country. A number of possible explanations for the observed differences in self-employment between immigrants and natives and between different immigrant groups are presented in the study. Plausible explanations for the observed differences in self-employment rates are differences in traditions from the home country, differences in the labour market situation, and often a lack of knowledge among immigrants about the practical and formal matters an individual encounters when trying to establish a business.     

Immigrants` Entrepreneurial Networks and Export: A Comparative Study

The aim of this study is to examine the differential impacts of networking in the public and private spheres on the export performance of first- and second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs, as well as native-born entrepreneurs. We apply transnational and ethnic theories to elaborate hypotheses using data collected by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor on 26,591 native-born entrepreneurs, first-generation immigrant entrepreneurs, and second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs. In examining this fairly global representation of entrepreneurs, we found that such networking had a significant impact on the exporting of second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs. More specifically, we show that although they benefited the least from private-sphere networking, compared to first-generation immigrant and native-born entrepreneurs, they derived more benefits from public-sphere networking than the other two groups. This study contributes to the theory in this field by accounting for the skewness of dual-embeddedness among immigrant entrepreneurs and its effect upon networking and export performance.

     

Latent Class approach to analyze children’s nutritional trajectory and school dropout. A longitudinal population-based application

The study of the nutritional status is relevant during the entire life course, but in children it is relevant as malnutrition may be a marker of underlying functional and mental health deficits. Evidence of the association between malnutrition and school dropout is not conclusive. Our aim was to analyze children’s nutritional trajectory measured using their Body Mass Index (BMI) of a Uruguayan cohort and its association with school dropout. With this purpose, Latent Class and Joint Latent Class Mixed Models were fitted to children’s cohort study (N?=?1392 girls and 1492 boys) in sex-stratified analyses adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. We identified latent classes of boys and girls with similar BMI trajectories during school years and differences in relevant socioeconomic and anthropometric characteristics. Results indicated that boys dropped out at younger ages than girls. No association between age of school dropout and nutritional trajectory classes was found. None of the classes exhibited a deficit or decrease in BMI trajectories during school ages, although the obesity and overweight classes could be of concern. Results suggested no significant association between obesity or overweight and age of school dropout for children up to 14 years old. Future research on other samples may inform about trajectories in higher educational levels.

     

Immigrant wage profiles within and between establishments

Life cycle wages of immigrants from developing countries fall short of catching up with wages of natives. Using linked employer–employee data, we show that 40% of the native–immigrant wage gap is explained by differential sorting across establishments. We find that returns to experience and seniority are similar for immigrant and native workers, but that differences in job mobility and intermittent spells of unemployment are major sources of disparity in lifetime wage growth. The inferior wage growth of immigrants primarily results from failure to advance to higher paying establishments over time. These empirical patterns are consistent with signaling disadvantages of immigrant job seekers, but not with the explanation that low wage growth follows from inferior information about employers and job opportunities.     

The influence of entrepreneurs’ immigrant status and time on the perceived likelihood of exporting

We contribute in this paper to the scant literature on the factors and conditions influencing the development of different perceptions of potential international opportunities for immigrant and native entrepreneurs in the pre-internationalization phase. Specifically, we investigate what factors influence the perceived likelihood entrepreneurs have of exporting. Building on entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity-based entrepreneurial processes, we propose a cognitive account of perceived likelihood of exporting based on entrepreneurs’ perceptions of the desirability and feasibility of export opportunities. We investigate how the immigrant status (i.e., individual characteristics) and time (i.e., contextual factors) influence the relationship between the desirability and feasibility of exporting, and entrepreneurs’ perceived likelihood of exporting. We employ an experimental design on a matched-pair sample of 108 native and immigrant entrepreneurs in domestic technology-based firms. The results are a unique account of the cognitive antecedents of the perceived likelihood of exporting under different temporal conditions, comparing immigrant and native entrepreneurs. We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

     

Public school availability for two-year olds and mothers' labour supply

French children start public school either the year they turn two or the year they turn three. We evaluate the impact of this unique schooling policy on maternal labour supply. Using a Regression–Discontinuity design, we show that early school availability has a significant employment effect on lone mothers, but no effect on two-parent families. Also we show that the effect grows larger as the child grows older and as the family loses eligibility for child benefits. Finally, we provide some new evidence that school enrolment at the age of two has no adverse effect on children's subsequent educational outcomes.     

The historical background of tolerance education for blind learners in Cyprus

Tolerance, in its broadest sense, can be understood as accepting all the differences in the society. Some people in society have limitations on certain parts of their bodies or their organs, which can lead to impairment on their physical functioning. Some of these people in society who have disabilities are those who have sight impairments. In order for blind people to be able to function in society in the same manner as other individuals it is possible that they can receive a private education in a similar manner to other people with disabilities. In Cyprus, the first school for the sight impaired was established under the British administration. The institution was opened in Nicosia in 1929 under the initiative of the wife of the Governor Ronald Storss as the St. Barnabas School for Blind Children, where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots had the opportunity to be educated together. By the end of 1963, the Turkish Cypriot sight impaired children from various regions of the island were educated at St. Barnabas School for the Blind. At the school, English, Greek and Turkish teachers worked together. The main aim of the school was to educate the blind children and reintegrate them into the society. In the present study, information obtained from Blue Book and Cyprus Gazette has been supported by the information compiled from domestic and foreign publications as well as verbal sources. Consequently, it is understood that children in society who became blind for various reasons were educated at the St Barnabas School for Blind Children.

     

A graphically based machine learning approach to predict secondary schools performance in Tunisia

The main purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors that impact schools' academic performance and to explore their relationships through a two-stage analysis based on a sample of Tunisian secondary schools. In the first stage, we use the Directional Distance Function approach (DDF) to deal with undesirable outputs. The DDF is estimated using Data Envelopment Analysis method (DEA). In the second stage we apply machine-learning approaches (regression trees and random forests) to identify and visualize variables that are associated with a high school performance. The data is extracted from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 survey. The first stage analysis shows that almost 22% of Tunisian schools are efficient and that they could improve their students’ educational performance by 15.6% while using the same level of resources. Regression trees findings indicate that the most important factors associated with higher performance are school size, competition, class size, parental pressure and proportion of girls. Only, school location appears with no impact on school efficiency. Random forests algorithm outcomes display that proportion of girls at school and school size have the most powerful impact on the predictive accuracy of our model and hence could more influence school efficiency. The findings disclose also the high non-linearity of the relationships between these key factors and school performance and reveal the importance of modeling their interactions in influencing efficiency scores.     

Homeownership in the immigrant population

This paper analyzes the determinants of homeownership in immigrant households over the 1980–2000 period. The study finds that immigrants have lower homeownership rates than natives and that the homeownership gap widened significantly during that period. The differential location decisions of immigrant and native households, as well as the changing national origin mix of the immigrant population, helps explain much of the homeownership gap. The evidence also indicates that the growth of ethnic enclaves in major American cities could become an important factor in increasing immigrant demand for owner-occupied housing in many metropolitan areas.     

Incentives to work? The impact of a ‘Cash-for-Care’ benefit for immigrant and native mothers labour market participation

To what extent is labour market participation of mothers sensitive to economic incentives? We answer this question by studying the effect on labour market participation of a Norwegian family policy programme that clearly has affected the incentives to participate in the labour market of mothers with small children. From January 1999, all parents with one- and two-year-old children who did not use publicly subsidised day-care became entitled to a benefit, ‘Cash-for-Care’ (‘CFC’). The CFC reform has increased the price of publicly subsidised day-care relative to the price of own care. Economic theory of labour market participation postulates that the CFC reform would have a negative effect on labour market participation for the person most involved in childcare. The results show that the CFC reform has affected mothers' labour market participation negatively. The effects are much stronger for non-western immigrant mothers' than for native mothers. The results support the hypothesis that non-western immigrant mothers do react to changes in the relative prices of childcare and suggests that non-western female immigrants are quite responsive to changes in economic incentives.     

Can the theory of planned behaviour explain walking to and from school among Australian children? A social marketing formative research study

Evidence indicates that lower levels of obesity among school‐age children can be achieved through active travel to school. This research aimed to investigate the explanatory potential of constructs in the theory of planned behaviour for carers' decisions about their children's walking to and from school. The data from two online surveys of 1,076 carers in 2 Australian states showed that the theory of planned behaviour explained 35.7% of the variance in walking to and from school. The results indicate that higher perceived behavioural control, social norms, and intentions among carers are associated with higher incidence of walking to and from school by children in Australia. Limitations of the current study and future research directions are outlined.     

Immigrants’ Wage Growth and Selective Out‐Migration

This paper examines immigrant wage growth taking selective out‐migration into account using administrative data from the Netherlands. Addressing a limitation in the previous literature, we address the potential endogeneity of immigrants’ labour supply and out‐migration decisions on their earning profiles using a correlated competing risk model. We distinguish between labour and family migrants, given their different labour market and out‐migration behaviours. Our findings show that accounting for selective labour supply is as important as accounting for selective out‐migration. Controlling only for out‐migration selectivity would underestimate immigrants’ wage growth, whilst controlling only for labour market selectivity would overestimate their wage growth. This shows that different selections are important for different types of migrants.     

Houses and schools: Valuation of school quality through the housing market

This paper offers a critical appraisal of the now sizable empirical literature that values school quality and performance through housing valuations. This literature consistently finds housing valuations to be significantly higher in places where measured school quality is higher, implying a strong parental willingness to pay to get their children educated in better performing schools. This conclusion emerges from studies undertaken in a number of countries, using a variety of identification strategies, and at different parts of the education sequence that children follow.     

Measuring efficiency in education: The influence of imprecision and variability in data on DEA estimates

Many studies devoted to efficiency performance evaluation in the education sector are based on measures of central tendency at school level as, for example, the average values of students belonging to the same school. Although this is a common and accepted way of summarizing data from the original observations (students), it is not less true that this approach neglects the existing dispersion of data, which may become a serious problem if variability across schools is high. Additionally, imprecision may arise when experts on each evaluated subject select the battery of questions, with different levels of difficulty, which will be the base for the final questionnaires completed by students. This paper uses data from US students and schools participating in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2015 to illustrate that schools' efficiency measures based on aggregate data and imprecision may reflect an inaccurate picture of their performance if they are compared to measures estimated accounting for broader information provided by all students of the same school. In order to operationalize our approach, we resort to Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis. This methodology allows us to deal with the notion of fuzziness in some variables such as the socio-economic status of students or test scores. Our results indicate that the estimated measures of performance obtained with the fuzzy DEA approach are highly correlated with those calculated with traditional DEA models. However, we find some relevant divergences in the identification of efficient units when we account for data dispersion and vagueness.     

Immigrant earnings profiles in the presence of human capital investment: Measuring cohort and macro effects

We argue that when immigrant earnings are considered in the context of post-arrival human capital investment: cohort quality should be defined in terms of the present value of the whole earnings profile; and, an appropriate definition of “macro” effects is obtained using the earnings profile of the native born cohort entering the labor market at the same time as an immigrant cohort. We illustrate this by using Canadian immigrant earnings, where there were large cross-cohort earnings declines in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. We find that changes affecting all new entrants play an important role in understanding immigrant earnings. In contrast, earlier approaches imply that “macro” events explain little of immigrant earnings patterns.     

The Effect of School Size on Exam Performance in Secondary Schools

This paper investigates the relationship between school size and the exam performance of school pupils in their final year of compulsory education. Previous studies of this relationship have been seriously constrained by lack of appropriate data, but the publication of the School Performance Tables for all publicly-funded schools in England since 1992 permits the construction and testing of a multivariate model which includes school size as one of the explanatory variables. After controlling for factors such as type of school, teaching inputs and eligibility for free school meals, the partial effects of school size on exam performance are estimated. The primary result is that there is a non-linear relationship (in the form of an inverted-U) between school size that maximizes the exam performance of schools is estimated to be about 1,200 for 11–16 schools and 1,500 for 11–18 schools. These estimates are considerably higher than the current mean size of schools.     

Maximum likelihood estimation of seemingly unrelated stochastic frontier regressions

This paper explores the changes in value added (VA) of a sample of schools for cohorts of students finishing secondary education between 2005 and 2008. VA estimates are based on distance measures obtained from DEA models. These measures are computed for each pupil in each school, and evaluate the distance between the school frontier in a given year and a pooled frontier comprising all schools analysed. The school VA is then computed by aggregating the VA scores for the cohort of pupils attending that school in a given year. The ratio between VA estimates for two consecutive cohorts, that attended the school in different years, is taken as the index of VA change. However, the evolution of school performance over time should consider not only the movements of the school frontier, but should also take into account other effects, such as the proximity of the students to the best-practices, represented by the school frontier, observed over time. For that purpose we developed an enhanced Malmquist index to evaluate the evolution of school performance over time. One of the components of the Malmquist index proposed measures VA change, and the other measures the ability of all school students to move closer to their own school best practices over time. The approach developed is applied to a sample of Portuguese secondary schools.     

学生家长对子女参加课余训练的态度调查

通过对陕西杨凌区部分中学学生家长进行的问卷调查,揭示了目前家长对子女参加课余训练的态度以及影响其态度的具体原因,并针对家长的不同态度采取相应措施使更多家长支持子女参加课余训练,从而促进课余训练的发展,研究显示家长对子女参加的运动情况了解程度普遍较高,家长对子女参加课余训练的支持与家长的职业和对运动的了解程度有关。     

Exploring the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and academic performance: A multilevel analysis for Spain

With the world becoming increasingly digitalized, determining the relationship between the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and educational outcomes takes on special relevance for guiding educational policy decisions in a reasoned way. The objective of this research is to explore the relationship between different types of ICT use at school and at home, students' attitudes towards ICT, and academic performance, as well as to see if these associations differ according to the level of performance of the students. For this purpose, we apply multilevel regression models and quantile regression models with data from the Programme for International Student assessment survey (PISA) 2015. The results show differences in the sign of the association according to the ICT variable analysed. The positive association between ICT use and academic performance is related with its use for entertainment at home, the students’ interest in ICT and an earlier starting age for using ICT. Results also show that higher availability of computers per student in the schools is associated with higher levels of academic performance. However, the use of ICT for schoolwork at home, the use of ICT by students in schools and the importance of ICT as a topic in social interaction for students, are factors negatively associated with academic performance. Finally, our quantile regressions by ability levels suggest that certain types of ICT use appear to be particularly associated with the academic performance of students in the lowest percentiles of performance. These results highlight the need to consider and include ICT as an input into the educational production function. Moreover, public policies should consider the interaction between ICT and the educational performance of underperforming students.