Suchergebnisse

We provide a measure of equality of educational opportunity in 54 countries, estimated as the effect of family background on student performance in two international TIMSS tests. We then show how organizational features of the education system affect equality of educational opportunity. Our model predicts that late tracking and a long pre-school cycle are beneficial for equality, while pre-school enrollment is detrimental at low levels of enrollment and beneficial at higher levels. Using cross-country variations in education policies and their interaction with family background at the student level, we provide empirical evidence supportive of these predictions.

We provide a measure of equality of educational opportunity in 54 countries, estimated as the effect of family background on student performance in two international TIMSS tests. We then show how organizational features of the education system affect equality of educational opportunity. Our model predicts that late tracking and a long pre-school cycle are beneficial for equality, while pre-school enrollment is detrimental at low levels of enrollment and beneficial at higher levels. Using cross-country variations in education policies and their interaction with family background at the student level, we provide empirical evidence supportive of these predictions.

The article measures the relative efficiency of government spending on higher education in selected new EU member states (with special focus on Croatia and Slovenia) in comparison to selected OECD countries. The article applies a non-parametric approach, i.e. data envelopment analysis (DEA), to assess the relative technical efficiency of higher education across selected countries. When estimating the efficiency frontier we focus on measures of quantities outputs/outcomes. The results show that the relatively high public expenditure per student in Croatia should have resulted in a better performance regarding the outputs/outcomes, i.e. a higher rate of higher education school enrolment, a greater rate of labor force with a higher education and a lower rate of the unemployed who have tertiary education. On the other hand, regardless of the input-output/outcome mix, the higher education system in Slovenia is shown to have a much higher level of efficiency compared to both Croatia and many other comparable new EU member states and OECD countries.

This paper reviews the recent literature on the effects of immigration on the public education of the host country, emphasizing the political economy implications. In particular, we are interested on what happens to enrollment in public schools and the quality of education in these schools. Our review of the literature, which includes both quantitative and empirical studies, suggests the following conclusions. First, immigration has triggered native flight toward private schools in a wide variety of contexts. Some studies also find that the households that switch to private schools tend to be those with higher socio-economic status. Secondly, because of these changes in school choices, one consequence of large-scale immigration is that it appears to undermine the political support for public education, resulting in a deterioration in the funding and quality of public schools that seems to affect negatively the educational outcomes of disadvantaged native students. We offer some suggestions for policies that might help mitigate the negative consequences of immigration outlined above so that host countries can maximize the overall economic benefits of immigration.

Our paper provides some of the first evidence on the effect of the Head Start funding expansions on program inputs. We take advantage of the county-year variation in funding increases that were implemented due to a number of legislated policy changes in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s. By focusing on the period between 1988 and 2007, we show that the funding increases were directed at increasing program enrollment and full-time enrollment. We also show that the funding expansions were used to make a number of quality-related in- vestments, including increasing the number of teachers and staff, and upgrading the skill-level of teachers.

This paper aims at linking cross border mobility of students and graduates with the financing of higher education. Against the background of institutional features and empirical evidence of the European Union and Northern America, a theoretical framework is developed. This allows analyzing the optimal financing regimes for different migration scenarios, comparing them with the regimes in place and discussing possible remedies. In particular, the (optimal) sharing of education costs between students / graduates and tax-payers is studied as well as the (optimal) sharing of the tax-payers´ part between the various countries involved: he country which provides higher education (the host country), the country of previous education (the origin country) and possibly the countries which benefit from the improved skills of the workers. Alternative designs exhibiting potentially desirable properties are developed and policy recommendations derived.

Performance-based financing becomes a common strategy to improve health sector quality. The findings of this paper imply that performance-based financing should take motivational effects and levels of provider capacity into account. Using a field experiment in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we find that financial incentives led to more effort from health workers on rewarded activities, without deterring effort on non-rewarded activities. We also find a shift from intrinsic to extrinsic motivation. Finally, the increased effort by health workers proved unsuccessful and led to a reduction in revenue, suggesting that health workers lacked the capacity to develop appropriate strategies to perform.

Performance-based financing becomes a common strategy to improve health sector quality. The findings of this paper imply that performance-based financing should take motivational effects and levels of provider capacity into account. Using a field experiment in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we find that financial incentives led to more effort from health workers on rewarded activities, without deterring effort on non-rewarded activities. We also find a shift from intrinsic to extrinsic motivation. Finally, the increased effort by health workers proved unsuccessful and led to a reduction in revenue, suggesting that health workers lacked the capacity to develop appropriate strategies to perform.

Increasing school resources has often shown disappointing effects on school quality in developing countries, a lack of impact which may be due to student, parent or teacher behavioral responses. We test the short-term impact of an increase in school resources under parental control using an experimental school grant program in Niger.

Improving service quality via beneficiary participation in managing the service may be unrealistic if a community with low authority must act in opposition to a high authority service provider. We present a framework of how community characteristics change the effectiveness of different types of participation. W use date from a ramdomized pilot project on participation in school management in Niger to test our predictions. We find that all parents increase participation in ways that support the teachers, but only educated parents increase monitoring of teacher attendance. We also present evidence that participation can be a "nudge" to increased service demand.

Increasing school resources has often shown disappointing effects on school quality in developing countries, a lack of impact which may be due to student, parent or teacher behavioral responses. We test the short-term impact of an increase in school resources under parental control using an experimental school grant program in Niger.

Improving service quality via beneficiary participation in managing the service may be unrealistic if a community with low authority must act in opposition to a high authority service provider. We present a framework of how community characteristics change the effectiveness of different types of participation. W use date from a ramdomized pilot project on participation in school management in Niger to test our predictions. We find that all parents increase participation in ways that support the teachers, but only educated parents increase monitoring of teacher attendance. We also present evidence that participation can be a "nudge" to increased service demand.

During the 2003-2006 period, subjective health status in Chinese rural areas improved. We used a unique household longitudinal survey to analyze how the introduction of a public insurance system has contributed to the change. This program is based on a doubly voluntary process: counties decide to launch, then households decide to subscribe. We disentangle two channels of influence of the insurance: the insurance effect of the coverage and a general equilibrium effect on all residents in the insurance-adopting counties. The empirical findings include, first, a positive extensive margin: individuals feel better about their health status when covered by the NCMS. However, there is no intensive margin: an individual's self-assessed health status does not improve with the number of years enrolled in the program. Second, we find a positive general equilibrium effect of introducing the NCMS program on non-participants in NCMS counties. This effect accumulates over time.

During the 2003-2006 period, subjective health status in Chinese rural areas improved. We used a unique household longitudinal survey to analyze how the introduction of a public insurance system has contributed to the change. This program is based on a doubly voluntary process: counties decide to launch, then households decide to subscribe. We disentangle two channels of influence of the insurance: the insurance effect of the coverage and a general equilibrium effect on all residents in the insurance-adopting counties. The empirical findings include, first, a positive extensive margin: individuals feel better about their health status when covered by the NCMS. However, there is no intensive margin: an individual's self-assessed health status does not improve with the number of years enrolled in the program. Second, we find a positive general equilibrium effect of introducing the NCMS program on non-participants in NCMS counties. This effect accumulates over time.

During the 2003-2006 period, subjective health status in Chinese rural areas improved. We used a unique household longitudinal survey to analyze how the introduction of a public insurance system has contributed to the change. This program is based on a doubly voluntary process: counties decide to launch, then households decide to subscribe. We disentangle two channels of influence of the insurance: the insurance effect of the coverage and a general equilibrium effect on all residents in the insurance-adopting counties. The empirical findings include, first, a positive extensive margin: individuals feel better about their health status when covered by the NCMS. However, there is no intensive margin: an individual's self-assessed health status does not improve with the number of years enrolled in the program. Second, we find a positive general equilibrium effect of introducing the NCMS program on non-participants in NCMS counties. This effect accumulates over time.