1,721,067 research outputs found
Should we increase instruction time in low achieving schools? Evidence from Southern Italy
Full text linkAbstractThis paper investigates the short term effects of a large scale intervention, funded by the European Social Fund, which provides additional instruction time to selected classes of lower secondary schools in Southern Italy. Selection is addressed using institutional rules that regulate class formation: first year students are divided into groups distinguished by letters, they remain in the same group across grades at the school, and the composition of teachers assigned to groups is stable over time. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we consider consecutive cohorts of first year students enrolled in the same group. We compare participating groups to non-participating groups within the same school, as well as to groups in non-participating schools. We find that the intervention raised scores in mathematics for students from the least advantaged backgrounds. We also find that targeting the best students with extra activities in language comes at the cost of lowering performance in mathematics. We go beyond average effects, finding that the positive effect for mathematics is driven by larger effects for the best students
Survey instruments and the reports of consumption expenditures: evidence from the consumer expenditure surveys
No full textThe paper uses data from the consumer expenditure surveys to demonstrate that the mode of collection is important for the analysis of consumption data. We first show that population figures obtained with diaries markedly differ from figures obtained by using recall questions. We then exploit multiple measurements of food expenditure to identify the effects of the mode of collection on the distribution of reported consumption. Finally, we show how to combine information from multiple reports to obtain a single measure of total expenditure in consumer expenditure surveys. The paper concludes by offering guidelines for empirical analyses based on these data, and by providing an application of the methods proposed to the measurement of inequality and wellbeing
Misclassified Treatment Status and Treatment Effects: An Application to Returns to Education in the U.K.
No full textIn this paper we study the impact of misreported treatment status on the estimation of causal treatment effects. We characterise the bias introduced by misclassification on the average treatment effect on the treated under the assumption of selection on observables. Although the bias of matching-type estimators computed from misclassified data cannot in general be signed, we show that the bias is most likely to be downward if misclassification does not depend on variables entering the selection-on-observables assumption, or only depends on such variables via the propensity score index. We extend the framework to multiple treatments. We provide results to bound the returns to a number of educational qualifications in the UK semi-parametrically, and by using the unique nature of our data we assess the plausibility for the two biases from measurement error and from omitted variables to cancel out
Misclassified Treatment Status and Treatment Effects: An Application to Returns to Education in the U.K.
No full textIn this paper we study the impact of misreported treatment status on the estimation of causal treatment effects. We characterise the bias introduced by misclassification on the average treatment effect on the treated under the assumption of selection on observables. Although the bias of matching-type estimators computed from misclassified data cannot in general be signed, we show that the bias is most likely to be downward if misclassification does not depend on variables entering the selection-on-observables assumption, or only depends on such variables via the propensity score index. We extend the framework to multiple treatments. We provide results to bound the returns to a number of educational qualifications in the UK semi-parametrically, and by using the unique nature of our data we assess the plausibility for the two biases from measurement error and from omitted variables to cancel out
Threat of grade retention, remedial education and students achievement: evidence from upper secondary schools in Italy
No full textWe use a reform in Italy to investigate the effects on academic achievement of more stringent requirements for grade progression at secondary school. Geographic discontinuities in the implementation enable comparison among similar students undergoing alternative progression rules. We find different short-term results across curricular tracks, with negative effects of the increased threat of grade retention for students in technical and vocational schools. In contrast with the effects on academic achievement, we find that schools reacted to the additional administrative burden and costs imposed by the reform by admitting more students to the next grade. We argue that the reform had a negative effect on the motivation and engagement of the students who experienced the greatest difficulties, exacerbating inequalities
Identification and Estimation of Engel Curves with Endogenous and Unobserved Expenditures
No full textWhen dealing with the estimation of Engel curves, measurement errors in expenditure data and simultaneity are likely sources of endogeneity. In this paper we study identification of the parameters that characterize an Engel curve in the presence of both. We consider specifications where budget shares are polynomials in the logarithm of total expenditure, which is the case frequently encountered in empirical applications. We propose an estimation procedure which is an extension of that in Lewbel (1996) and exploits a control function assumption to correct for the endogeneity of the true unobserved total expenditure
Identication and Estimation of Engel Curves with Endogenous and Unobserved Expenditures
Full text linkWhen dealing with the estimation of Engel curves, measurement errors in expenditure data and simultaneity are likely sources of endogeneity. In this paper we study identication of the parameters that characterize an Engel curve in the presence of both. We consider specications where budget shares are polynomials in the logarithm of total expenditure, which is the case frequently encountered in empirical applications. We propose an estimation procedure which is an extension of that in Lewbel (1996), and exploits a control function assumption to correct for the endogeneity of the true unobserved total expenditure
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