Teacher sorting, teacher quality, and student composition

Using panel data for Norwegian schools, we establish a two-equation supply and demand model for teachers with approved education. Taking into account nationally determined teacher pay and a strict teacher appointment rule, the data enable us to separately estimate supply and demand functions for certified teachers. The results clearly indicate that the student body composition, and in particular students belonging to ethnic minorities, influences both teacher supply and teacher demand. The implied negative relationship between excess demand for certified teachers and the share of minority students is likely to be important for teacher quality.     

THE IMPACT OF OIL PRICE SHOCKS ON THE U.S. STOCK MARKET*

It is shown that the reaction of U.S. real stock returns to an oil price shock differs greatly depending on whether the change in the price of oil is driven by demand or supply shocks in the oil market. The demand and supply shocks driving the global crude oil market jointly account for 22% of the long‐run variation in U.S. real stock returns. The responses of industry‐specific U.S. stock returns to demand and supply shocks in the crude oil market are consistent with accounts of the transmission of oil price shocks that emphasize the reduction in domestic final demand.     

Cohort crowding: How resources affect collegiate attainment

Analyses of college attainment typically focus on factors affecting enrollment demand, including the financial attractiveness of a college education and the availability of financial aid, while implicitly assuming that resources available per student on the supply-side of the market are elastically supplied. The higher education market in the United States is dominated by public and non-profit production, and colleges and universities receive considerable subsidies from state, federal, and private sources. Because consumers pay only a fraction of the cost of production, changes in demand are unlikely to be accommodated fully by colleges and universities without commensurate increases in non-tuition revenue. For this reason, public investment in higher education plays a crucial role in determining the degrees produced and the supply of college-educated workers to the labor market. Using data covering the last half of the twentieth century, we find strong evidence that large cohorts within states have relatively low undergraduate degree attainment, reflecting less than perfect elasticity of supply in the higher education market. That large cohorts receive lower public subsidies per student in higher education explains this result, indicating that resources have large effects on degree production. Our results suggest that reduced resources per student following from rising cohort size and lower state expenditures are likely to have significant negative effects on the supply of college-educated workers entering the labor market.     

Easy grading practices and supply–demand factors: evidence from Italy

In this article, we investigate how heterogeneity in grading standards across university degree courses is related to supply and demand factors. Using a sample of almost 26,000 students enrolled at an Italian University, we document how grades vary significantly across degrees. After controlling for student characteristics, class-size, classmate quality and degree fixed effects, it emerges that students obtain better grades and are less likely to drop-out when their degree course experiences an excess of supply. We adopt an instrumental variable strategy to account for endogeneity problems and instrument the excess of supply using the total number of universities offering each degree course. Our two-stage least squares (TSLS) estimates confirm that the teaching staff on degree courses facing low demand tend to set lower academic standards with the result that their students obtain better grades and have a lower probability of dropping out than they might otherwise. Similar results are obtained using a control function approach.     

The Shrinking Earnings Premium for University Graduates in Hong Kong: The Effect of Quantity or Quality?

In 1989, the Hong Kong government embarked on a program to increase the provision of first-year first-degree places. The expansion of tertiary education represents a large and exogenous increase in the supply of university graduates to the territory. This article measures the labor market effects of the expansion program by studying the changes in earnings premium for university graduates. Two alternative hypotheses—crowding and quality effects—are identified to explain why the earnings premium shrank. The results support the view that the declining quality of university graduates is the prime candidate for the declining earnings premium. (JEL J31 , I28 , J18 )     

Enrollment expansion and quality differentiation across higher education systems

While the impact of a higher college wage premium on enrollment expansion is well understood, the link between university quality differentiation and student outcomes in this context has received less attention. To address this issue, we model different higher education systems. Academic standards decline in a differentiated, U.S.-type education system - as a low-quality segment emerges - but also in a system in which a uniform standard is politically determined, as in most European countries, since the interests of marginal students matter for the chosen standard. In the absence of full information about graduates' skills, employers put more weight on university reputation than on individual human capital signal. Thus, higher differentiation can decrease the effort and skill of medium-ability students. Obtaining the preferred academic standard is particularly important for high-and low-ability students, hence the trend toward more unequal societies raises political support for strongly differentiated systems.     

Student Assistance Schemes and the Supply of Highly Skilled Manpower: The Australian Experience*

In most countries national higher education systems provide the major source of supply of highly skilled manpower. Whilst supply from this source is a function of the demand for higher education places, their supply, and the internal efficiency and flexibility of higher education institutions, comparatively little is known of the relative importance of these determinants, what in turn determines them, and how they interreact. Any generalized answers to these questions will be strongly mitigated by institutional, demographic and socio-economic variations over time and between countries. This paper analyzes the influence of immediate financial variables, as important elements in the price of higher education, as they applied in the era of Commonwealth Scholarship Schemes in Australia.     

Changing wage structure and education in Vietnam, 1992–98

This paper examines the changes in relative earnings of workers with different education levels in Vietnam. Using a simple demand‐and‐supply framework developed by Katz and Murphy (1992 ), it was found that an increase in the relative demand for better‐educated male workers in particular appears to play an important role in explaining the earnings differentials between workers of different education groups. Education reform to better suit the needs of the post‐reform emerging market, on‐the‐job training for workers and equal access to education are some policy options that hold the key to reducing wage inequality between different education groups.     

RISK AVERSION AND FIELD OF STUDY CHOICE: THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL ABILITY

Does the choice of field of study depend on individual risk aversion? The direction of the relationship between individual risk attitudes and type of university degree chosen is potentially ambiguous. On the one hand, risk averse individuals may prefer degree courses which allow high returns in the labour market; on the other hand, if these degrees expose students to a higher probability of dropping out, those who are more risk averse may be induced to choose less challenging fields. Using data from a sample of students enrolled at a middle‐sized Italian public university in 2009, we find that, controlling for a large number of individual characteristics, more risk averse students are more likely to choose any other field (Humanities, Engineering, and Sciences) rather than Social Sciences. We interpret this result bearing in mind that some of these fields, such as Humanities, involve a reduction in the risk of dropping out, while others (such as Engineering and Sciences) involve a lower risk in the labour market. It also emerges that the effect of risk aversion on degree choice is related to student ability. Risk averse students characterized by high abilities tend to prefer Engineering, while the propensity of risk averse students to enrol in Humanities decreases when ability increases, suggesting that the attention paid to labour market risks and drop‐out risk varies according to student skills.     

新疆普通高校大学生就业的市场需求结构分析

以市场需求结构为切入点,运用职位匹配理论及相关数据对新疆普通高校大学生的就业问题进行分析。随着新疆经济发展与产业结构调整,劳动力市场需求与大学生就业之间产生了结构性错位,从而使新疆高校大学生的就业效率降低。因此,社会、高校、毕业生本人都有必要采取措施以增加就业。     

How Would One Extra Year of High School Affect Academic Performance in University? Evidence from an Educational Policy Change

This paper uses a unique policy change in Ontario, Canada, to provide direct evidence on how reducing the length of high school would impact student performance in university. After a five‐year educational program was eliminated from Ontario high schools and replaced with a four‐year program, two graduating cohorts with different amounts of high school education simultaneously entered university. The results demonstrate that students who receive one less year of high school education perform significantly worse than their counterparts in all subjects, even after the age difference between the cohorts is accounted for.     

Teaching Economic Principles Interactively: A Cannibal's Dinner Party

The author describes techniques that he uses to interactively teach economics principles. He describes an experiment on market entry and gives examples of applications of classroom clickers. Clicker applications include (a) collecting data about student preferences that can be used to construct demand curves and supply curves, (b) checking students’ knowledge of central concepts, and (c) playing interactive games that illustrate economic concepts.     

Responses of Economic Activity to Global Oil Market Shocks: A Comparative Analysis of Major Net Oil‐Producing and ‐Consuming Countries

We argue that four channels drive oil price shocks during 1986M5–2013M1, namely the oil supply, aggregate demand, oil‐specific demand and real exchange rates. Our findings are that oil price shocks driven by oil supply positively affect net oil‐consumer countries faster than net oil‐producer countries. Oil price shocks driven by aggregate demand are largely country‐specific. Oil shocks driven by other demands influence net oil‐producers faster than net oil‐consumers negatively, and persistently mostly among net oil‐producers. Other shocks have large negative effects on the industrial production of all countries, with responses appearing very quickly and persisting for at least a year.     

Encouraging Tutorial Attendance at University Did Not Improve Performance

When tertiary education is subsidised the cost of poor student performance in university subjects falls not only on the individual student but also on society in general. Society therefore has an interest in promoting student performance. There is evidence in the literature that absenteeism from university classes is widespread and that absenteeism adversely affects student performance. In this paper I describe an incentive scheme that increased attendance of business and economics students in an introductory statistics subject at a typical Australian university. Like other authors I find a strong positive association between attendance and academic performance, both in the presence and absence of the scheme. However, there is no evidence that the incentive scheme caused student performance to improve. Although students attended more classes they did not perform better than students in the previous year's class who had the same observable characteristics and attendance levels but who were not exposed to the scheme.     

Increasing dispersion of skills and rising earnings inequality

In recent decades many countries have simultaneously liberalized their trading regimes and expanded their education systems. The theoretical effect of these regime shifts on the wage differential between skilled and unskilled workers is ambiguous. On the one hand, openness to trade causes demand shifts in the labor market which may widen or narrow the differential. This result depends on whether the unskilled wage is depressed, as in the case of importing countries, or raised, as in the case of exporting countries. On the other hand, an increased supply of more educated workers reduces their wages and narrows the skill wage gap. In this study of the labor market of Hong Kong, we document that recent changes in response to the trade liberalization of Mainland China and expanded access to education have increased the earnings differential between skilled and unskilled workers. Using detailed census data, we argue that the main reason for this outcome is the widened dispersion of skills across the earnings distribution, resulting from demand and supply shifts in the labor market caused by trade openness and expanded access to higher education.     

论知识经济背景下大学生创意教育模式的构建

知识经济时代背景下,我国现有的高校教育体系不仅缺乏对大学生创意思维和技能的培养,而且创意教育受重视程度也很低。对此,我国高校大学生创意教育模式的建立可以从创建合理的创意教育体系和培养创意教育师资队伍两方面进行努力。     

基于劳动经济学的大学生就业问题调查分析

大学生就业难题显现出职业指导机制的不足。教育的信号作用失真、企业与大学生之间的寻找成本与交易成本过高、劳动力市场的失信现象与人才结构性困境,都使得学生的求职需求与社会产业需要不一致、人才的流动意向与社会人才结构布局相违背。在大学生、高校进行更加科学规划的同时,社会服务体系的介入也成为趋势。     

大学草根创业教育的经济学分析

“什么知识最有价值？一致的答案是科学”，“为了那个叫作谋生的间接保全自己，有最大价值的知识是科学。” 在我国就业形势日趋严重的形势下，以斯宾塞的谋生最大价值的知识是科学的思想为指引，在大学教育中重点开设符合学生创业的课程，开展有科学性、针对性、实用性的创业教育。服务当地经济社会发展与贴近当地经济开展实用教育是草根创业教育的原生力，培养大学生的企业家精神是草根创业教育的创新力，促进经济发展是草根创业的经济力。由此可见，改变大学生就业观念，培养学生创业精神，掌握草根创业的科学知识和技能，鼓励大学生草根创业，摸索一条符合中国国情的大学生创业之路，不仅有利于大学毕业生自身的成长与发展，使我国宝贵的人力资源发挥自身的优势，创造宝贵的财富；又能促进地区经济的发展，提升区域生产力水平和经济的知识含量。     

大学生宿舍文化建设及其实践——以怀化学院物信系宿舍管理阳光台为例

大学生宿舍文化建设是大学生思想道德建设的重要组成部分,倡导和加强＂宿舍文化建设＂是加强有效管理、提高大学生思想道德水平的必要组成和重要手段,利用实证法认真开展宿舍管理责任示范区暨阳光台工作,发挥学生党员、干部在环境育人中的后续示范作用,提出了明确的宿舍文化建设考核目标,以抓宿舍管理推进学风建设,从而提高大学生教育教学质量。     

School Performance in Australia: Is There a Role for Quasi‐Markets?

Recent changes to the organisation of Australia's education system have raised the possibility of implementing wide‐ranging market reforms. In this article we discuss the scope for introducing reforms similar to the United Kingdom's ‘quasi‐market’ model. We discuss the role of school league tables in providing signals and incentives in a quasi‐market. Specifically, we compare a range of unadjusted and model‐based league tables of primary school performance in Queensland's public education system. These comparisons indicate that model‐based tables which account for socio‐economic status and student intake quality vary significantly from the unadjusted tables.