In this paper we question the existing practice of reporting enrolment statistics that ignore quality, but also quality-statistics that ignore enrolment differentials. The extant literature on education in Africa is bifurcated in that reports focus either on the quality of education or on access...

While assessing the status of the schooling infrastructure, the evaluation at the aggregate level (at the national or state level) always conceals the geographical spread across sub-regions, and therefore ignores regional disparities. The laggard regions always bring down the overall performance...

One of the continuing areas of controversy surrounding higher education is affirmative action. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Fisher v. Texas, and their ruling may well influence universities' diversity initiatives, especially if they overturn Grutter v. Bollinger and rule that diversity...

The NZ labour market is among the most flexible in the OECD, and outcomes for its young people have been among the best. However, labour-market opportunities are heavily determined by initial education, where New Zealand’s system is also successful and innovative in many ways. Average PISA...

This paper examines the effect of early childhood investments on college enrollment and degree completion. We use the random assignment in the Project STAR experiment to estimate the effect of smaller classes in primary school on college entry, college choice, and degree completion. We improve...

This study was prepared by Elke Lüdemann while she was working in the Department Human Capital and Innovation of the Ifo Institute. It was completed in July 2011 and accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Economics Department of the University of Munich (LMU). The subject of this study is a micro...

A growing literature establishes that high quality early childhood interventions targeted toward disadvantaged children have substantial impacts on later life outcomes. Little is known about the mechanisms producing these impacts. This paper uses longitudinal data on cognitive and personality...

We evaluate the effects of high school exit exams on high school graduation, incarceration, employment and wages. We construct a state/graduation-cohort dataset using the Current Population Survey, Census and information on exit exams. We find relatively modest effects of high school exit exams...

In the canonical regression discontinuity (RD) design for applicants who face an award or admissions cutoff, causal effects are nonparametrically identified for those near the cutoff. The impact of treatment on inframarginal applicants is also of interest, but identification of such effects...

Inequality measured by using Theil index, can be decomposed into between and within–groups. Normally, studies only focus on the inequality within-group due to high percentage of inequality within-group as compared to the between-group. Therefore, the conclusions that have been made in the past...