The effect of teacher's concurrent administrative position on students' academic outcomes: Evidence and mechanisms

Teacher's holding an administrative position (AP) while teaching is common in schools in China. Does it harm the students' academic performance? This paper uses a representative survey of middle school students in China to answer the question. Using a causal identification based on schools with random class assignments, we find that the effect of a headteacher's holding an AP is negative and significant. In contrast, the effect of a subject teacher's holding an AP may be positive. The results are robust to various robustness checks. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the negative effect is driven by 9th grade students and is larger for boys, rural students, those whose parents migrate out to work, and those whose mothers have lower levels of education. Mechanism analysis suggests that head teachers with an AP devote lower levels of teaching effort, measured by time spent on grading and frequency of adopting supplementary teaching tools.     

Estimating the earnings returns to exam-measured unobserved ability in China's urban labor market: Evidence for 2002–2013

China's education system uses exams to measure students' ability. How does the labor market reward the ability that raises exam scores? This paper uses proxies to estimate the labor market returns to ‘exam ability’ in China. The estimated returns to one standard deviation of the ‘exam ability’ are 8% in 2002, 12% in 2007, and 7% in 2013 for the urban population with local hukou and high school and above education. The exam ability explains more wage variation than years of schooling or the level of education degree. There is still a significant amount of unexplained wage variation. It is possible that there are more important labor market skills that are not captured by schooling and exam scores.     

异质信念研究述评与展望

通过对国内外已有研究的梳理和述评,对异质信念的理论内涵与实证影响进行了具体阐释,在区分外部投资者之间以及内外部人之间这两种不同异质信念的基础上,分别重点解析了外部投资者异质信念如何影响资产价格、内外部人之间异质信念如何影响企业投融资决策的理论机理和实证异同。研究表明,无论是在理性框架下,还是在非理性框架下,由于信息或个体的异质性,异质信念可能普遍并持续存在,而结合具体的市场环境、投资者结构、公司治理结构等进行更为深入的异质信念研究探讨将是未来进一步的研究方向。     

产品市场势力能降低股票市场的异质信念吗——基于A股市场的实证研究

基于2001年至2009年A股市场的数据,本文检验了Peress(2010)提出的产品市场势力降低股票市场异质信念水平的推断,并分析了Miller(1977)提出的影响股票市场异质信念的因素。我们发现产品市场势力不仅不能降低反而可能会提高股票市场异质信念的水平。在将异质信念分解为异质先验导致的异质信念,渐进信息流动、有限注意导致的异质信念后,这种提高主要表现在对后者的提高上。该结果意味着产品市场势力可能因为提高了异质信念水平而促进了股票市场的交易,从而为交易异象的解释提供了新的思路。此外,实证结果显示上市公司的业务集中度、机构持股可以降低异质信念水平,而上市公司的已上市时间、市场中股票数量对于异质信念的影响与已有的理论分析并不完全一致。     

Do peer effects influence the academic performance of rural students at private migrant schools in China?

This paper examines peer effects on the academic performance of rural migrant students at both the class level and the individual level. The dataset is from a survey of more than 3000 students from all of the 87 migrant schools in Shanghai and Suzhou, China. The two-stage least squares method with an instrumental variable is employed to control for the endogeneity of peer performance variables. We found that peer effects exist among the migrant students at both class and individual levels. A one-point increase in the average of standardized math grade (SMG) of his/her classmates is associated with an increase of 0.5 points in the SMG of an individual (1.01 standard deviation). A one-point increase in a learning companion's SMG can result in an increase of 0.046 points in the student's SMG. The findings reveal that private migrant schools can improve rural migrant students' academic performance by optimizing students' class allocation and building study groups, providing an additional boost to the input-output efficiency of the human-capital education of the children of migrant workers in China, but the effects of these measures are limited.     

Learning to import from neighbors

This study examines the impact of learning from neighboring firms on new importers' behaviors. We first develop a learning model in which firms update their beliefs concerning import prices in foreign markets. These beliefs are based on the number of neighboring firms that import from that market and the level and heterogeneity of import prices. The updating proceeds according to the Bayesian rule. The model predicts that a positive signal regarding import prices revealed by neighboring importers encourages importing entry from the same country. Such signals play a stronger role when revealed by a greater number of neighbors. In addition, the model predicts that a positive signal increases firm-level initial imports and survival rates, but decreases post-entry import growth. Using a transaction-level dataset of Chinese importers during 2000–2006, we find supporting evidence for the model's predictions. Furthermore, importer learning displays heterogeneous effects on different firms and exhibits a spatial decay structure. Our robustness checks include controlling for various fixed effects, employing an alternative entry definition, and using subsamples comprising ordinary trade firms and direct importers.     

Who are better teachers? The effects of tenure-track and part-time faculty on student achievement

Using a random assignment of students to mandatory courses in a Chinese university, we estimated the short- and long-term teacher effects on undergraduate academic performance, with a particular focus on part-time instructors. The findings show that both short- and long-term teacher effects existed. Among four groups of instructors, part-time instructors had the largest positive impact on short- and long-term student academic achievement. In addition, associate professors improved students' achievement the most in the long-term, while graduate student instructors raised student test scores the most in the short-term. Assistant professors were the least effective for both short- and long-term outcomes. This study also compared the value-added results to students' subjective evaluations of teaching quality, and found similar patterns except that students rated associate professors higher than part-time instructors.     

Gender identity,preference, and relative income within households

In this paper, we empirically study the impact of gender identity on wives' relative income within households in China and find that a husband's and a wife's traditional gender identity statistically significantly and negatively affect the wife's relative income in the household. The heterogeneous effects of gender identity for different residence types, education levels, and age groups are also studied. Supporting empirical evidence is explored for the preference mechanism that couples with traditional gender identities are more averse to having a wife who earns more than her husband. We also find that a husband earns less if the husband or the wife has a traditional gender identity.     

Private Information Production,Public Disclosure,and the Cost of Capital: Theory and Implications*

Both private information production by market traders and public disclosure by firms contribute to dissemination of financial information in the capital market. However, the motives and economic consequences of the two are quite different. In general, private information production is intended by investors to increase their trading profit, which has the effect of widening the information gap between informed and uninformed investors and increasing the firm's cost of capital. On the other hand, public disclosure can be used to narrow this information gap and to lower the cost of capital. This paper provides a theoretical model to examine the economic incentives behind these two forms of information dissemination and their consequences on the cost of capital. By simultaneously considering the firm's and the information traders' decisions, the paper derives an equilibrium in which the amount of private information production, the level of public disclosure, and the cost of capital are all linked to specific characteristics of the firm, of information traders, and of the market. In contrast to conventional beliefs, the paper predicts that, across firms, the cost of capital can be either positively or negatively related to the firm's disclosure level, depending on the specific factors that cause the variation within a particular sample. Similarly, the extent to which investors follow a firm and the firm's disclosure level can be either positively or negatively related to each other. Implications for empirical research are discussed.     

When do stable matching mechanisms fail? The role of standardized tests in Chinese college admissions

In this paper, we investigate matching problems where priorities and preferences are misaligned. In the case of centralized Chinese college admissions, students are matched based on their test scores in standardized tests, a noisy realization of their aptitudes due to measurement errors. We show that in this case any matching mechanism that is stable with respect to score is not stable with respect to aptitude. The resulting instability leads to colleges' incentive to participate in early admissions (zizhu zhaosheng), a form of market unraveling. However, a manipulable mechanism such as the Immediate Acceptance mechanism, combined with limited information about priorities, may succeed in mending this market failure. We then design and conduct a laboratory experiment where we compare the performance of two mechanisms (the Immediate Acceptance mechanism and the Deferred Acceptance mechanism), under two timing conditions of the submission of students' rank-ordered lists of colleges (before the exam and after the exam), using a two-stage matching market design with the possibility of early offers. In the experiment, a significant level of market unraveling occurred under mechanisms that are not stable with respect to aptitude, confirming theoretical predictions. We also find that the Immediate Acceptance mechanism under pre-exam submission condition significantly reduces such unraveling.     

Does school shutdown increase inequality in academic performance? Evidence from COVID-19 pandemic in China

The school shutdown due to the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can lead to an increase in educational inequality through disproportionately affecting disadvantaged children. We use data from a unique survey of 7202 junior high school students and their parents from Shaanxi province to explore whether the school shutdown enlarged the educational gap between students with different parental socioeconomic statuses (SES) during the pandemic. We find that students with more highly educated parents experienced an increase in relative test rankings after the shutdown period. A 1-year increase in parents' education led to a relative 0.18-percentile increase in students' rankings of total test scores. We also identify the mechanisms behind the enlarged gap by means of heterogeneity analyses. We show that parents' education mainly affected children's academic performance through parents' engagement in their children's homeschooling, mitigating the negative impacts of Internet addiction on students, and serving as substitutes for teachers who were unable to teach well online.     

Managing Perceptions of Technical Competence: How Well Do Auditors Know How Others View Them?*

We investigate factors that influence an auditor's accuracy in knowing how subordinates, peers, and superiors view his or her own technical competence (metaperception). Extant literature on reputation management in auditing contexts depicts preparers of audit workpapers as strategic agents (subordinates) who stylize workpapers and engage in behaviors that enhance their reputations with reviewers (superiors). These superiors, in turn, are represented as strategically engaging in coping behaviors in response to such stylization attempts. One of the necessary conditions for auditors to enhance their reputations on a sustainable basis is accurate metaperception. We report the results of an experiment that investigates determinants of auditors' metaperception accuracy. Our participants comprise teams of audit partners, managers, and seniors who work together in the field. Each auditor performs two tasks of varying complexity and then predicts whether other team members can accurately perform the task and how other team members assess his or her performance on the tasks. Results show that accuracy in knowing what others think of one's technical proficiency (metaperception) is generally high, particularly when the predictor auditors are partners and managers; however, metaperception accuracy is asymmetric and varies depending on the predictor auditor, the target auditor being predicted, and task complexity. Implications are discussed.     

独立学院学分制下学习质量监控措施的初探——以水利水电工程专业为例

教学质量是独立学院生存与发展的生命线。本文以水利水电工程专业为例,根据其培养方案的制订和选课制度的确立,结合独立学院教学运行规律,从学分制和导师负责制两方面就如何提升独立学院质量给出自己初步探讨的措施。     

Independence in Appearance and in Fact: An Experimental Investigation*

In this study, we use experimental markets to assess the effect of the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) new independence rule on investors' perceptions of independence, investors' payoff distributions, and market prices. The new rule requires client firms to disclose in their annual proxy statements the amount of nonaudit fees paid to their auditors. The new disclosure is intended to inform investors of auditors' incentives to compromise their independence. Our experimental design is a 2 3 between‐subjects design, where we control the presence (unbiased reports) or absence of auditor independence in fact (biased reports). While independence in fact was not immediately observable to investors, we controlled for independence in appearance by varying the public disclosure of the extent of nonaudit services provided by the auditor to the client. In one market setting, investors were not given any information about whether the auditor provided such nonaudit services; in a second setting, investors were explicitly informed that the auditor did not provide any non‐audit services; and in a third setting, investors were told that the auditor provided nonaudit services that could be perceived to have an adverse effect on independence in fact. We found that disclosures of nonaudit services reduced the accuracy of investors' beliefs of auditors' independence in fact when independence in appearance was inconsistent with independence in fact. This then caused prices of assets to deviate more from their economic predictions (lower market efficiency) in the inconsistent settings relative to the no‐disclosure and consistent settings. Thus, disclosures of fees for nonaudit services could reduce the efficiency of capital markets if such disclosures result in investors forming inaccurate beliefs of auditor independence in fact ‐ that is, auditors appear independent but they are not independent in fact, or vice versa. The latter is the maintained position of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), which argued against the new rule. Further research is needed to assess the degree of correspondence between independence in fact and independence in appearance.     

For goodwill or resources? The rationale behind firms' corporate philanthropy in an environment with high economic policy uncertainty

This paper investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the corporate philanthropy (CP) behaviors of firms using a dataset from Chinese A-share listed firms. We find that, on average, firms decrease their CP significantly when economic policy uncertainty increases, but the response is heterogeneous for firms with different ownership types. Compared with their counterparts, private firms are willing to contribute more donations in an environment with high economic policy uncertainty. Further analysis shows that private firms take on more other types of corporate social responsibility at the same time, and private firms' additional CP in a high EPU environment is rewarded with more subsidies, indicating that altruistic and political motives may play important roles in driving the CP behaviors of private firms. There is no evidence that private firms selling products directly to consumers are more likely to engage in additional CP. Our findings indicate that the main motivation behind Chinese private firms' additional CP under high economic policy uncertainty is seeking more government resources, instead of keeping consumers loyal by maintaining good reputations during hard periods.     

Project Termination Decisions,Underinvestment and Overinvestment*

In this article, I use the principal‐agent framework to examine the incentives of risk‐and work‐averse agents to work on projects that are long‐term, multistage, and subject to abandonment. Periodic applications of effort by the agent are required. The agent also obtains private information as the project evolves, and he decides whether the project should be abandoned or continued. The principal not only seeks to provide incentives to induce the agent to take up such risky investments and work hard at them, but also seeks to provide incentives for the agent to abandon the project if the profit prospect is low. We show that the agent's decision to continue is not always aligned with the principal's desire. The result provides an economic rationale for the sunk cost phenomenon. There also exist conditions under which the agent chooses to prematurely abandon the project.     

Labor Unions and Management’s Incentive to Signal a Negative Outlook*

Evidence suggests that the negotiated wage for a unionized employee group is an increasing function of the firm’s prior profitability. As a result, managers may have an incentive to strategically signal a negative outlook to their unionized workers in order to improve the firm’s bargaining position. I assess the strategy of missing mean consensus analysts’ earnings estimates as a way for managers to signal a negative outlook to their unionized employees. I find that unionized firms are more likely to miss estimates than their nonunionized counterparts. Additionally, this propensity to miss estimates is increasing in both the firm’s percentage of unionized employees and multiunionism, but is unaffected by the timing of the signal relative to contract renewal. Finally, the increased propensity to miss estimates appears to be driven by both differences in expectations management and earnings management across the two groups. Specifically, managers of unionized firms take less action than their nonunionized counterparts to guide forecasts downward when estimates are too high, and they take more action to deflate earnings when expectations are too low. Taken together, the findings suggest that managers do seek to project a negative outlook to their unions, and that this tendency is increasing in the union’s negotiation strength.     

教务实验选课系统

本系统为学校教务课选课系统,它提供了授课教师和选修本课程的学生之间的一个交流平台。通过本平台,学生可以进行课程信息查询、班级选择等操作;教师可以进行课程信息输入、班级调整等操作。     

Restless minds: South African students and the brain drain

This article reports the results of a 2002 survey of emigration potential among a representative sample of 4784 postgraduate and final-year undergraduate students at South Africa's tertiary educational institutions. The authors created a valid and reliable index of emigration potential and found slightly higher levels than those measured by identical questions in previous surveys of skilled adult South Africans. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the factors that most increase emigration potential among South Africa's future skills base are logistical ones, including family encouragement and financial resources. Next in importance are students' prospects of a better life for themselves and their families in their target countries than in South Africa. Finally, the study showed that patriotism and strong national identity decrease emigration potential while previous travel abroad and access to information about life abroad increase it. It also found that a range of possible government attempts to make emigration more difficult would only increase students' probability of leaving the country.     

An Alternative Development Model: A Socio-Cultural Analysis of the Existential Conditions for Growth with Equity and Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract: An analytical framework is used to review the socio-cultural experiences of African societies with an emphasis on their organizations, interaction and action toward development as well as their demographic experiences. In this framework, the socio-cultural setting which influences the way of life— values, beliefs systems, norms, ideas and idealogies—evolved in response to the people's existential experiences. This variable influences both the demographic experiences and the social organization (family and kinship) of a society as well as its value system. These, as intermediate variables, in turn influence the appropriate strategy to be adopted for the development of society. Résumé: S'inspirant d'un cadre analytique, les auteurs examinent les expériences socio-culturelles des sociétés africaines en privilégiant l'organisation de ces sociétés, leur interaction, leur action de développement ainsi que leur expérience démographique. Vu sous cet angle, le cadre socio-culturel determinant le mode de vie—valeurs, systèmes de croyances, normes, idées et idéologies—a évolué en réponse à l'expérience existentielle des populations. Cette variable influence tant l'expérience démographique et l'organisation sociale (famille et parenté) que le système de valeurs de la société. Et en tant que variables intermédiaries, ces variables influencent à leur tour la stratégie à adopter pour le développement de la société.