BA-Seminar: The Economics of School Systems

BA-Seminar | 2 std | 4 cr | Schwerdt | engl / (dt) | ILIAS | ZEuS

Description

Today it is widely recognized that education is enormously important to economic success in our modern knowledge-based world, not only for individuals, but for nations. Governments actively promote economic growth through large investments in education and training and substantial research has gone into identifying determinants of educational achievement which can be controlled by policy. However, there still exists a large uncertainty about whether specific education policies indeed promote the development of skills.

The aim of the seminar is to familiarize students with recent insights from the Economic literature on the effectiveness of various policy levers. In the seminar we will review the recent empirical evidence on the importance of school systems based on data from various large-scale international assessments of student achievement (e.g. PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS). The focus on empirical evidence based on these easily available data sources also allows for replications of the central findings of this literature as well as empirical investigations by students on related research questions. The specific topics to be covered include class-size, external exams, school competition, school autonomy, educational tracking, teacher quality, teacher pay, teaching practices, instruction time, and teaching equipment.

Schedule

The seminar will take place as a block seminar on January 19 (room G421) and January 20, 2018 (room F426).
A preliminary session will take place on October 27, 2017, 10:30-11:45 am, room F208.

Language

The entire seminar (paper, presentations, etc.) is held in English language. You are allowed, however, to prepare your seminar paper and bachelor thesis in German language, if you prefer so.

Assessment

For B.Sc. Economics students: presentation of the outline in class and bachelor thesis in the following semester. Students of other programs: completed seminar paper at the time of the seminar.

Topics and Introductory Literature

In addition to the key papers listed below, the following two papers provide an introduction to the topics of the seminar.

Wossmann, Ludger. 2016. “The Importance of School Systems: Evidence from International Differences in Student Achievement.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 30 (3): 3-31.

Schlotter, Martin, Ludger Woessmann, and Guido Schwerdt. 2011. “Econometric Methods for Causal Evaluation of Education Policies and Practices: A Non-Technical Guide.” Education Economics 19 (2): 109-137.

1. Class-size

Altinok, Nadir, and Geeta Kingdon. 2012. “New Evidence on Class Size Effects: A Pupil Fixed Effects Approach.” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 74(2): 203–34.

2. External Exams

Jürges, Hendrik, Kerstin Schneider, and Felix Büchel (2005). “The Effect of Central Exit Examinations on Student Achievement: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from TIMSS Germany.” Journal of the European Economic Association 3 (5): 1134-1155.

3. School Autonomy

Hanushek, Eric A., Susanne Link, and Ludger Woessmann. 2013. “Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA.” Journal of Development Economics 104: 212–32.

4. Educational Tracking

Piopiunik, Marc. 2014. “The Effects of Early Tracking on Student Performance: Evidence from a School Reform in Bavaria.” Economics of Education Review 42: 12–33.

5. Teaching Practices

Bietenbeck, Jan. 2014. “Teaching Practices and Cognitive Skills.” Labour Economics 30: 143–53.

6. Instruction Time

Rivkin, Steven G., and Jeffrey C. Schiman. 2015. “Instruction Time, Classroom Quality, and Academic Achievement.” Economic Journal 125(588): F425–F448.

7. Teaching Equipment

Falck, Oliver, Constantin Mang, and Ludger Woessmann. 2015. “Virtually No Effect? Different Uses of Classroom Computers and their Effect on Student Achievement.” CESifo Working Paper 5266.

8. Teacher Quality

Hanushek, Eric A., Marc Piopiunik, and Simon Wiederhold. 2014. “The Value of Smarter Teachers: International Evidence on Teacher Cognitive Skills and Student Performance.” NBER Working Paper 20727.

9. Teacher Pay

Dolton, Peter, and Oscar D. Marcenaro-Gutierrez. 2011. “If You Pay Peanuts Do You Get Monkeys? A Cross-country Analysis of Teacher Pay and Pupil Performance.” Economic Policy 26(65): 5–55.

10. Private Competition

West, Martin R., and Ludger Woessmann. 2010. “ ‘Every Catholic Child in a Catholic School’: Historical Resistance to State Schooling, Contemporary Private Competition and Student Achievement