The authors test for a link between unionization and net investment rates in Canadian manufacturing. Analysis of data on 18 industries for the years 1967–87 reveals a negative non-linear relationship: the presence of unions appears to have reduced investment when the percentage of firms...

Do smaller classes boost achievement mainly by helping teachers impart specific academic skills to students with low academic achievement? Or do they do so primarily by helping teachers engage poorly behaving students? The analysis uses the grade 3 to 4 transition in San Diego Unified School...

Despite recent theoretical work and proposals from educational reformers, there is little empirical work on the effects of higher grading standards. In this paper we use data from the High School and Beyond survey to estimate the effects of grading standards on student achievement, educational...

This paper uses the 1970, 1980, and 1990 U.S. Censuses to study trends in educational attainment of immigrants relative to natives. Immigrants have become relatively less highly educated, but have become more highly educated in an absolute sense. The effects of changes in relative educational...

We evaluate the integrating and segregating effects of school choice in a large, urban school district. Our findings, based on applications for fall 2001, suggest that open enrollment, a school-choice program that does not have explicit integrative objectives and does not provide busing,...

Value-added modeling continues to gain traction as a tool for measuring teacher performance. However, recent research questions the validity of the value-added approach by showing that it does not mitigate student-teacher sorting bias (its presumed primary benefit). Our study explores this...

The paper uses a survey to examine undergraduates' knowledge of salaries by type of education. Students' beliefs varied systematically with their year of study and personal background. The median student made (estimated) absolute errors of approximately 20 percent, but the mean signed error was...

The paper examines the impact of the business cycle on enrollments and finances at individual community colleges between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s. We find that 1 percent increases in the unemployment rates of recent high school graduates and of all adults are associated with rises in...