Choice of friends and performance at school

Yves Zenou interviewed by Romesh Vaitilingam, 15 Aug 2008

Yves Zenou talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research on the sources of differences in school performance between students of different races, which uses data on friendship groups among American teenagers. He finds that having a higher percentage of same-race friends has a positive effect on white teenagers’ test scores but a negative effect on black teenagers’ test scores.

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CEPR DP5607 Racial Identity and Education

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Topics: Education
Tags: education, friends

  • 5192 reads

Many children left behind? Textbooks and test scores in Kenya

Paul Glewwe, Michael Kremer, Sylvie Moulin , 20 August 2008

Many students may be left behind in societies with curricula that cater to the elite.

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Education is often seen as critical to economic development. In recent years, more and more children have been going to school. The challenge moving forward is arguably to improve school quality.

Topics: Education
Tags: education, Kenya

The legacy: Beyond nukes

Arvind Subramanian, 6 August 2008

Manmohan Singh has political capital and needs a legacy. This column suggests that the prime minister focus his energies on reforming higher education – a badly lagging sector that needs deregulation, liberalisation, and globalisation.

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The typical window of opportunity for reform is early in a government’s tenure. Having squandered the “honeymoon” period and beyond, the Indian coalition government and the Indian Prime Minister, Dr.

Topics: Education
Tags: education, India, reform

Education and the timing of fertility

Karin Monstad, Carol Propper, Kjell G. Salvanes, 6 May 2008

Low fertility has become an issue of public concern as low population growth and higher dependency ratios due to aging populations threaten to strangle economic growth. The authors of CEPR DP6816 use an educational reform in Norway as an instrument to establish whether the relationship between female education and fertility decisions is causal.

Low fertility has become an issue of public concern as low population growth and higher dependency ratios due to aging populations threaten to strangle economic growth. While numerous studies have found evidence for a correlation between female education and fertility decisions, few have examined factors likely to influence these decisions.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=6816.asp
Topics: Education
Tags: causal effect, education, female fertility

The declining American high school graduation rate: Evidence, sources, and consequences

James J. Heckman, Paul A. LaFontaine, 13 February 2008

Official statistics for US high school graduation rates mask a growing educational divide. This column presents research showing that a record number of Americans are going to university – while an increasing number are dropping out of high school. This poses major social challenges for the United States.

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The high school graduation rate is a barometer of the health of American society and the skill level of its future workforce. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, each new cohort of Americans was more likely to graduate high school than the preceding one.

Topics: Education, Labour markets
Tags: education, educational inequality, high school graduation, USA

New technology in schools: is there a payoff?

Stephen Machin, Sandra McNally, Olmo Silva , 14 December 2007

Do computers in schools help? Economists have long been sceptical, but new research finds that technology does have a positive effect on pupils’ performance.

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The view that information and communication technologies (ICT) are a useful tool for raising educational standards dates back to the 1950s and the findings of Harvard psychologist BF Skinner.1 More recently, support for the effectiveness of ICT as a teaching and learning device has come from the educational and psychological literature (recently reviewed by Heathe

Topics: Education
Tags: education, ICT, schools

Parents’ education plays key role in performance of their children

Pedro Carneiro, Costas Meghir, Matthias Parey, 8 October 2007

In the last 50 years, there has been a striking increase in inequality in children’s home environments across families where mothers have different levels of education. Given that the tendency is rooted in the experience of each family, it is difficult for the welfare system to import change and direct interventions require the invasion of family autonomy and privacy. The authors of CEPR DP6505 assess an alternative potential policy, which targets future parents while still in their youth by affecting their education before they start forming a family.

In the last 50 years, there has been a striking increase in inequality in children’s home environments across families where mothers have different levels of education. Given that the tendency is rooted in the experience of each family, it is difficult for the welfare system to import change and direct interventions require the invasion of family autonomy and privacy.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=6505.asp
Topics: Education, Labour markets
Tags: Child Development, education, family economics, Intergenerational Mobility

Cannabis use and educational attainment

Jan van Ours, Jenny Williams, 18 September 2007

Parents are right to worry about their children's early use of cannabis, at least with respect to educational attainment. Early initiation into cannabis reduces educational attainment considerably.

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One of parents' greatest fears is that their child will become involved with drugs. Underlying this fear is the belief that drug use could lead to poor educational attainment, subsequent failure in the labour market, and without a good job to anchor their lives, an unhappy future. Viewed within a human capital framework, this scenario may find resonance.

Topics: Education
Tags: cannabis, education

The other invisible hand: delivering public services through choice and competition

Julian Le Grand, 24 August 2007

Properly designed public services whose delivery includes elements of choice and competition deliver higher quality and more efficient services, and are both more equitable and more responsive

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Ask people what they want from the public money that is spent on health care and education, and the answer will be simple: a good service. Sometimes they will add that they would like this service on their doorstep: a good, local service. A high quality local school; a caring, responsive, family doctor; a top-class district hospital.

Topics: Welfare state and social Europe
Tags: education, Health care, public services

Publicity can be a powerful deterrent to corruption

Ritva Reinikka, Jakob Svensson , 2 July 2007

The Millennium Development Goals call for universal primary school enrolment but still the available literature on schooling provides little guidance on what governments in developing countries should prioritize to raise educational attainment. Innovations in governance of social services may yield the highest return since social services delivery in developing countries is often plagued by inefficiencies and corruption. The authors of DP6363 exploit an unusual policy experiment to answer what may be the most effective way to increase primary school enrolment and student learning and conclude that publicity might be a way to solve the problem of corruption and diversion of funds in the provision of local services.

The Millennium Development Goals call for universal primary school enrolment but still the available literature on schooling provides little guidance on what governments in developing countries should prioritize to raise educational attainment.

Journalists are entitled to free DP downloads on request; please contact pressoffice@cepr.org. To learn more about subscribing to CEPR's Discussion Paper Series, please visit the CEPR website.

URL: http://www.cepr.org/pubs/new-dps/dplist.asp?dpno=6363.asp
Topics: Development
Tags: Corruption, education, Newspaper campaign

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