Non-random assignment of students to teachers can bias value added estimates of teachers' causal effects. Rothstein (2008a, b) shows that typical value added models indicate large counter-factual effects of 5th grade teachers on students' 4th grade learning, indicating that classroom assignments...

We develop a model of optimal schooling investments and estimate it using new data on approximately 700 identical twins. We estimate an average return to schooling of 9 percent for identical twins, but estimated returns appear to be slightly higher for less able individuals. Simple cross-section...

Educational interventions are often narrowly targeted and temporary, and evaluations often focus on the short-run impacts of the intervention. Insofar as the positive effects of educational interventions fadeout over time, however, such assessments may be misleading. In this paper, we develop a...

This paper examines the impact of public health insurance expansions through both Medicaid and SCHIP on children's educational outcomes, measured by 4th and 8th grade reading and math test scores, available from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). We use a triple difference...

In this paper, we examine the productivity of commercial activity by US universities in the past six years. While it is generally acknowledged that there has been a dramatic increase in university licensing and patenting, there is little understanding as to the extent to which this is the result...

Education is an important pillar in the national economic development. It contributes to economic growth in varied forms. The educational system in Eritrea shows all the symptoms of prolonged neglect under colonialism and war. But education plays a key role in the development after independence....

This paper examines career choices using a dynamic structural model that nests a job search model within a human capital model of occupational and educational choices. Individuals in the model decide when to attend school and when to move between firms and occupations over the course of their...

Any general statement as to whether the secular trend of a society is eugenic or dysgenic depends upon a reliable calibration of the measurement of general intelligence. Richard Lynn set the mean IQ of the United Kingdom at 100 with a standard deviation of 15, and he calculated the mean IQs of...

This paper examines the impact of labor market frictions and institutions on the divide of schooling investment between general and specific skills. We offer a simple matching model of unemployment in which individuals determine the scope and intensity of their skills. In partial equilibrium, we...

This article deals with the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on poverty and education in Africa. It considers the scale and scope of the pandemic and its anticipated impact on education systems in heavily infected sub-Saharan African countries. It looks for lessons derived from twenty years of...