Education and Earnings for Poverty Reduction : Short-Term Evidence of Pro-Poor Growth from the Mexican Oportunidades Program

Education, as an indispensable component of human capital, has been acknowledged to play a critical role in economic growth, which is theoretically elaborated by human capital theory and empirically confirmed by evidence from different parts of the world. The educational impact on growth is especially valuable and meaningful when it is for the sake of poverty reduction and pro-poorness of growth. The paper re-explores the precious link between human capital development and poverty reduction by investigating the causal effect of education accumulation on earnings enhancement for anti-poverty and pro-poor growth. The analysis takes the evidence from a well-known conditional cash transfer (CCT) program — Oportunidades in Mexico. Aiming at alleviating poverty and promoting a better future by investing in human capital for children and youth in poverty, this CCT program has been recognized producing significant outcomes. The study investigates a short-term impact of education on earnings of the economically disadvantaged youth, taking the data of both the program’s treated and untreated youth from urban areas in Mexico from 2002 to 2004. Two econometric techniques, i.e. difference-in-differences and difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach are applied for estimation. The empirical analysis first identifies that youth who under the program’s schooling intervention possess an advantage in educational attainment over their non-intervention peers; with this identification of education discrepancy as a prerequisite, further results then present that earnings of the education advantaged youth increase at a higher rate about 20 percent than earnings of their education disadvantaged peers over the two years. This result indicates a confirmation that education accumulation for the economically disadvantaged young has a positive impact on their earnings enhancement and thus inferring a contribution to poverty reduction and pro-poorness of growth.

Reading That Matters : A Literature Review on Meaningful Reading Experiences in the EFL Classroom

This thesis is a literature review on literature reading in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom, of mainly upper secondary schools. The underlying objective for this work is that meaningful reading experiences can have a positive impact on a developing young individual on his or her way into adulthood. The aim of this thesis is to explore what theories and methods are used when trying to create prerequisites for meaningful reading experiences, and how these experiences actually are realized. Qualitative methods are mainly used, except for a small section of the methodology of finding the sources, which is quantitative in nature. Since very little previous research has been done in the field, the six sources used in this review are internationally spread over five continents. They are mainly analyzed from a theoretical background of reader response and critical literacy perspectives. The main findings show that a number of theoretical approaches and methodologies can be useful in creating meaningful reading experiences. What may have proven most effective was addressing actual problems in the students’ everyday lives through applied critical literacy.

Sysselsättningseffekter i svenska aktiebolag av införandet av RUT-avdraget : En Difference-in-Differenceanalys

Detta arbete har gjorts med syftet att utvärdera sysselsättningseffekterna i svenska aktiebolag av införandet av RUT-avdraget. RUT-avdraget infördes 2007 och innebär att privatpersoner kan få göra skattereduktion för olika typer av hushållsarbeten. Datamaterialet som används i denna studie är bokföringsdata för alla Sveriges aktiebolag mellan 2000 – 2010, aggregerat till tresiffriga SNI-koder för alla de svenska kommunerna. Utifrån datamaterialet har RUT-avdragets sysselsättningseffekter analyserats med hjälp av en Difference-in-Differencemodell. Resultatet visar att RUT-avdraget gjort att 6930 nya arbeten har skapats i de svenska aktiebolag som ingår i RUT-sektorn. Detta innebär alltså att RUT-avdraget har haft en positiv effekt på sysselsättningen.