Using large scale survey data, I document substantial differences in behavioural engagement (defined as involvement in academic and social activities, cooperative participation in learning, and motivation and effort) and emotional engagement levels (defined as a sense of belonging and well-being at school) between students with and without special…

We used housing assignment data from a college in China to investigate peer effects on college grades. Study results provided some evidence for peer effects in college housing units. First, peer effects through means occurred during both fall and spring semester of the first year in college, with estimated effect much larger than that in previous…

Contrary to expectations, the likelihood of overeducation is shown to be inversely related to unemployment rates when not control for selectivity. Furthermore, incidence data show that overeducation is more common among men than women and among Whites than Blacks. At issue is selectivity: employment must be selected for overeducation to occur.…

This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of controlling for endogenous peer effects in estimating the influence of gender peer effects on educational outcomes. Using Manski's linear-in-means model, this paper illustrates that the estimation of gender peer effects is potentially biased in the presence of endogenous peer effect in education.…

Utilizing comprehensive administrative data from Norway I investigate long-term birth month effects. I demonstrate that the oldest children in class have a substantially higher GPA than their younger peers. The birth month differences are larger for low-SES children. Furthermore, I find that the youngest children in class are lagging significantly…

Although previous research has shown that homework improves students' academic achievement, the majority of these studies use data on students' homework time from retrospective questionnaires, which may be less accurate than time-diary data. We use data from the combined Child Development Supplement (CDS) and the Transition to Adulthood Survey…

We evaluate the impact of educational reforms starting from the mid-1990s in India on the school attendance rate of low-income rural children aged 6-14 compared to ineligible rural children, employing NSSO data from 1983 to 2004/2005. We estimate a triple difference model allowing for differential (linear) trends and find a positive causal effect…

Studies using tests scores as the dependent variable often report point estimates in student standard deviation units. We note that a standard deviation is not a standard unit of measurement since the distribution of test scores can vary across contexts. As such, researchers should be cautious when interpreting differences in the numerical size of…

This paper evaluates the effects of a high school curriculum reform on students' probability to enroll at university and to choose a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) major. The reform increased the difficulty of graduating from high school by increasing the instruction time in core subjects and by raising the graduation…

Overeducation potentially signals a productivity loss. With Socio-Economic Panel data from 1984 to 2011 we identify drivers of educational mismatch for East and West medium and highly educated Germans. Addressing measurement error, state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity, we run dynamic mixed multinomial logit models for three different…

In this paper, we explore whether there is a relationship between average grades earned in a course and the national average salaries of graduates of the major associated with the course. Using student-level data from a selective private liberal arts college, we find an inverse relationship. The result suggests that students face a trade-off…

To sort pupils at the end of primary school, some early-tracking systems apply a mechanism that unwittingly divides classes into two groups: students preparing for exams to enter better schools and everyone else, who decide not to compete for selective schools. Utilizing TIMSS data and a follow-up study in the Czech Republic, we show that this…

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the return to pre-immigration education for non-western immigrants, and explain why it is so low. Returns to one extra year of education is three times higher for ethnic Norwegians than for non-western immigrants. Using the method "Over-Required-Under" (ORU) education approach, we reveal that…

This paper uses a rich longitudinal dataset to measure the evolution of the gender differences in numeracy among school-age children in Indonesia. Girls outperformed boys by 0.08 standard deviations when the sample was around 11 years old. Seven years later, the gap has widened to 0.19 standard deviations, equivalent to around 18 months of…

In this paper, we revisit the question whether inequality in education and human capital is closely related to income inequality. Using the most popular functional forms describing the relationship between, first, output and human capital and, second, education and human capital, we find that the effect of inequality in schooling on income…