Raising labor productivity is recognized as a critical factor for increasing economic growth and reducing poverty levels in Latin America. Low levels of education continue to be singled out as the main obstacle to higher productivity in the region. We examine the scope for education to lift...

Education policy holds the promise of breaking the strong ties between family background and socio-economic position by providing publicly accessible education for children of all backgrounds. However, the education system may also perpetuate social inequalities if well-off families are able to...

This paper examines the effect of labor market opportunities on schoolingemployment decisions in 12 urban areas in Argentina over 12 years, emphasizing the recession/crisis years 1998-2002. Over 'typical' years deteriorating job rates increase the probability of attending school and decrease the...

This paper studies the effects of open-enrolment on student performance in the context of an admission reform in Stockholm. Before 2000, students had priority to the public upper secondary school situated closest to where they lived, but from the fall of 2000 and onwards, admission is based on...

The economic returns to education in transition countries have been extensively evaluated in the literature. The present study contributes to this literature by estimating the returns to education in Georgia during the last transition period 2000-04. We find very low returns to education in...

This paper provides evidence on the long run relationship between European settlers presence and education levels in Algeria. To correct for endogenous sorting of settlers (and natives) into regions I rely on the fact that proximity to the Mediteranean coast determined the timing of conquest and...

Starting a firm with expansive potential is an option for educated and high-skilled workers. This option serves as an insurance against unemployment caused by labor market frictions and hence increases the incentives for education. We show within a matching model that reducing the start-up costs...

This paper reports the results of experiments designed to examine whether a taste for fairness affects people’s preferred tax structure. Building on the Fehr and Schmidt (1999) model, we devise a simple test for the presence of social preferences in voting for alternative tax structures. The...