This paper examines differences in educational attainment between natives and children of immigrants to Canada. We introduce two definitions of secondgeneration immigrants: The first considers all children with at least one immigrant parent to be second-generation immigrants, while the second definition requires that both parents were foreign-born. In the data, regardless of which definition we...

Admission Conditions and Graduates’ Employability We evaluate the information content of admission conditions for study programs’ quality by investigating its relationship with graduates’ employability. We find that study programs with larger numeri clausi are associated with a higher probability of finding a job. Additionally, compulsory admission exams seem to be informative about study progr...

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) are two highly respected studies of school pupils’ academic achievement. English policymakers have been disappointed with school children’s performance on these tests, particularly in comparison to the strong results of young people from East Asia. In this paper we provide new insight i...

Investigation of peer effects on achievement with sample survey data on schools may mean that only a random sample of peers is observed for each individual. This generates classical measurement error in peer variables, resulting in the estimated peer group effects in a regression model being biased towards zero under OLS model fitting. We investigate the problem using survey data for England fr...

Using an incentivized measure of individuals’ taste for competition, this paper investigates whether this taste explains subsequent gender differences in earnings and industry choice in a sample of highability MBA graduates. We find that “competitive” individuals earn 9% more than their less competitive counterparts do. Moreover, gender differences in taste for competition explain around 10% of...

This paper examines patterns of alumni giving, using data on two cohorts of former students from a sample of private colleges and universities. Higher levels of contributions are associated with higher income, whether or not the person graduated from the institution where he or she first attended college, and the degree of satisfaction with his or her undergraduate experience. Their satisfactio...

We develop an overlapping generations model of human capital accumulation and analyze its spatial and temporal properties. The interplay between local spillovers of human capital and global market participation partitions the society into socio-economic classes. We focus upon stationary equilibria and show that a large class of them are locally stable. Stationary equilibria can be homogeneous (...

This lecture offers thoughts on some issues concerning the effective development of the European space of higher education currently being pushed by the twin forces of the Bologna process and the Lisbon declaration of the EU. It is pointed out that the USA example is a good reference point but cannot be imitated mechanically, given the more segmented reality of Europe. It is noted that the Euro...

This study examines parents’ demand for sending their children to a public school located outside their residential school district. Using a unique data set that contains information concerning both inter-district transfers and rejections of transfer applications, I am able to identify which school district characteristics attract the greatest demand for incoming transfers. The analyses reveal ...

This paper explores factors that contribute to growth in undergraduate knowledge of economics. An endogenous growth empirical model was applied to estimate students’ knowledge growth. Sources of knowledge growth were extracted to identify each factor’s contribution. Analysis indicated that in-classroom factors (instructional skill and attendance) accounted for over 50% of knowledge growth. A co...