Economics of maritime disasters : essays on the Titanic and Lusitania

This work seeks to fill some of the gap existing in the economics and behavioural economics literature pertaining to the decision making process of individuals under extreme environmental situations (life and death events). These essays specifically examine the sinking’s of the R.M.S. Titanic, on 14th April of 1912, and the R.M.S. Lusitania, on 7th May 1915, using econometric (multivariate) analysis techniques. The results show that even under extreme life and death conditions, social norms matter and are reflected in the survival probabilities of individuals onboard the Titanic. However, results from the comparative analysis of the Titanic and Lusitania show that social norms take time to organise and be effective. In the presence of such time constraints, the traditional “homo economicus” model of individual behaviour becomes evident as a survival of the fittest competition.

Students' perceptions of teacher biases : experimental economics in schools

We put forward a new experimental economics design with monetary incentives to estimate students’ perceptions of grading discrimination. We use this design in a large field experiment which involved 1,200 British students in grade 8 classrooms across 29 schools. In this design, students are given an endowment they can invest on a task where payoff depends on performance. The task is a written verbal test which is graded non anonymously by their teacher, in a random half of the classrooms, and graded anonymously by an external examiner in the other random half of the classrooms. We find significant evidence that students’ choices reflect perceptions of biases in teachers’ grading practices. Our results show systematic gender interaction effects: male students invest less with female teachers than with male teachers while female students invest more with male teachers than with female teachers. Interestingly, female students’ perceptions are not in line with actual discrimination: Teachers tend to give better grades to students of their own gender. Results do not suggest that ethnicity and socioeconomic status play a role. .

On the design of education conditional cash transfer programs and non education outcomes: the case of teenage pregnancy

We investigate the effect of education Conditional Cash Transfer programs (CCTs) on teenage pregnancy. Our main concern is with how the size and sign of the effect may depend on the design of the program. Using a simple model we show that an education CCT that conditions renewal on school performance reduces teenage pregnancy; the program can increase teenage pregnancy if it does not condition on school performance. Then, using an original data base, we estimate the causal impact on teenage pregnancy of two education CCTs implemented in Bogot´a (Subsidio Educativo, SE, and Familias en Acci´on, FA); both programs differ particularly on whether school success is a condition for renewal or not. We show that SE has negative average effect on teenage pregnancy while FA has a null average effect. We also find that SE has either null or no effect for adolescents in all age and grade groups while FA has positive, null or negative effects for adolescents in different age and grade groups. Since SE conditions renewal on school success and FA does not, we can argue that the empirical results are consistent with the predictions of our model and that conditioning renewal of the subsidy on school success crucially determines the effect of the subsidy on teenage pregnancy

Farm productivity and efficiency in rural Bangladesh: the role of education revisited

This article reassesses the debate over the role of education in farm production in Bangladesh using a large dataset on rice producing households from 141 villages. Average and stochastic production frontier functions are estimated to ascertain the effect of education on productivity and efficiency. A full set of proxies for farm education stock variables are incorporated to investigate the ‘internal’ as well as ‘external’ returns to education. The external effect is investigated in the context of rural neighbourhoods. Our analysis reveals that in addition to raising rice productivity and boosting potential output, household education significantly reduces production inefficiencies. However, we are unable to find any evidence of the externality benefit of schooling – neighbour's education does not matter in farm production. We discuss the implication of these findings for rural education programmes in Bangladesh.

Literacy, technology and the economics of attention

This article is based on a project aimed at generating practical suggestions based on research findings about how new technologies might be used to enhance L1 literacy attainment in disadvantagedsettings. The project involved designing,implementing and researching an innovative approach to curriculum and pedagogy using new digital technologies in language and literacy education within classroom settings involving small groups of "disadvantaged'' learners. The paper reports activity and findings from one of four study sites. It focuses on four Grade 9 boys seen by their teachers as troublemakers and at risk of failing in English. The researchers draw on current conceptual and theoretical work associated with the emergence of an Attention Economy theory to design a collaborative activity around constructing a website, and to identify and analyse positive literacy learning outcomes associated with the pedagogical approach taken. The authors show how this new perspective on attention informs a critique of conventional approaches to school organization and classroom learning, and how it can be used to envisage alternative approaches to understanding and teaching students who display literacy learning difficulties at school.

Three Essays in Economics of Gender

During recent decades, economists' interest in gender-related issues has risen. Researchers aim to show how economic theory can be applied to gender related topics such as peer effect, labor market outcomes, and education. This dissertation aims to contribute to our understandings of the interaction, inequality and sources of differences across genders, and it consists of three empirical papers in the research area of gender economics. The aim of the first paper ("Separating gender composition effect from peer effects in education") is to demonstrate the importance of considering endogenous peer effects in order to identify gender composition effect. This fact is analytically illustrated by employing Manski's (1993) linear-in-means model. The paper derives an innovative solution to the simultaneous identification of endogenous and exogenous peer effects: gender composition effect of interest is estimated from auxiliary reduced-form estimates after identifying the endogenous peer effect by using Graham (2008) variance restriction method. The paper applies this methodology to two different data sets from American and Italian schools. The motivation of the second paper ("Gender differences in vulnerability to an economic crisis") is to analyze the different effect of recent economic crisis on the labor market outcome of men and women. Using triple differences method (before-after crisis, harder-milder hit sectors, men-women) the paper used British data at the occupation level and shows that men suffer more than women in terms of probability of losing their job. Several explanations for the findings are proposed. The third paper ("Gender gap in educational outcome") is concerned with a controversial academic debate on the existence, degree and origin of the gender gap in test scores. The existence of a gap both in mean scores and the variability around the mean is documented and analyzed. The origins of the gap are investigated by looking at wide range of possible explanations.

The Returns to Migration: The Influence of Education and Migration Type

We show the impact of migration type on real wages over time. We create a migration and earnings history from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth over the period 1979-2002. We estimate the effects of primary, onward, and two types of return migration on real wages using a panel data model with individual, location, and time fixed effects. Panel data are well suited for the study of the returns to U.S. internal migration because the influence of migration on wages has been found to occur years after the event. We differentiate return migration into two types: return to a location with ties that form a geographical anchor (home) and return to a prior place of work. We find that real wage growth varies by migration type. Education attainment is a significant factor in real wage growth. Our results show that onward migration is an important channel by which the monetary rewards to a college education are manifested.

Essays on economics of marriage

A sociedade mudou nas últimas décadas abrindo a possibilidade para cientistas sociais estudarem essas mudanças e analisar os seus impactos na unidade familiar. Nesta tese pretendemos analisar como as decisões dos agentes com relação a decisão de casar e estudar pode estar conectado considerando que homens e mulheres têm preferências pelo casamento intragrupo. No modelo estudado encontramos que as preferências para o casamento intragrupo podem aumentar a proporção de homens e mulheres que decidem se casar e estudar. Mostramos também que empiricamente há um positive assortative mating entre pessoas com as mesmas características, tais como, educação, religião ou raça. Além disso, a probabilidade de casais casados na mesma religião aumenta a probabilidade dos casais estarem casados dentro do mesmo nível de escolaridade. Considerando as mudanças em como os casais se formam, a composição educacional e os retornos da educação que aconteceram no Brasil nos últimos anos, investiga-se os impactos dessas mudanças na desigualdade de renda dos casais. Calculamos cenários contrafactuais para o Coeficiente de Gini mantendo uma dessas três variáveis fixas em um determinado ano, comparando o contrafactual estimado com o Gini real. Se o casamento for formado aleatoriamente com relação à educação, o Coeficiente de Gini seria menor do que o real. Mantendo os retornos da educação fixos no ano de 2014 encontramos um Gini contrafactual menor do que o real.

Home and family life in a changing civilization : held by the United States Office of Education in cooperation with the State University of Iowa and the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames, Iowa, November 10 and 11, 1930 /

"January, 1931."

Experiences with infants in the preparation of home economists. Report of a conference called by the Children's Bureau and the Office of Education, Feb. 3-5, 1955, Washington, D. C.

Mode of access: Internet.

Relationships between size of schools and school districts and the cost of education /

Issued Apr. 1980.

Academics’ opinions and practices of education for sustainable development : reflections on a nation-wide, mixed-methods, multidisciplinary study

The Routledge International Handbook of Higher Education for Sustainable Development gives a systematic and comprehensive overview of existing and upcoming research approaches for higher education for sustainable development.