This paper studies human capital formation, labor supply and retirement decisions associated with four alternative regimes of social security. We implement a theoretical model with overlapping generations of households and two different ability types within each generation. We find that with a given social security contribution rate, it is better to transfer income to the elderly as old-age ben...

We examine the effect of single motherhood on children’s secondary school track choice using 12-year-old children drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel. In line with previous studies for the U.S., the U.K. and Sweden, we find a negative correlation between single motherhood and children’s educational attainment. Looking for alternative explanations for this correlation, we use probit regre...

Using the bicomplex numbers T which is a commutative ring with zero divisors defined by T = {w0+w1i1+w2i2+ w3j | w0, w1, w2, w3 ∈ R} where i21 = −1, i22 = −1, j = 1, i1i2 = j = i2i1, we construct hyperbolic and bicomplex Hilbert spaces. Linear functionals and dual spaces are considered on these spaces and properties of linear operators are obtain; in particular it is established that the eigenv...

Education Policy and Equality of Opportunity We provide a measure of equality of educational opportunity in 54 countries, estimated as the effect of family background on student performance in two international TIMSS tests. We then show how organizational features of the education system affect equality of educational opportunity. Our model predicts that late tracking and a long pre-school cycl...

This paper evaluates a school reform in Bavaria that moved the timing of tracking in lowand middle-track schools from grade 6 to grade 4; students in high-track schools were not affected. To eliminate state-specific and school-type-specific shocks, I estimate a triple-differences model using three PISA waves. The results indicate that the reform reduced the performance of 15-year-old students b...

The rapid increase in primary enrollment seen in many developing countries might further worsen the poor schooling quality often found in these countries. I estimate the effect of enrollment growth following the removal of primary school fees in Tanzania and find that it led to sizeable increases in the pupil-teacher ratio and a reduction in observable teacher quality, but rule out a substantia...

Educational Achievement and the Allocation of School Resources The school resources – educational outcomes debate has focused almost exclusively on spending levels. We extend this by analysing the relationship between student achievement and schools’ budget allocation decisions using panel data. Per-pupil expenditure has only a modest relationship with improvement in students’ standardised test...

Early Life Adversity and Children’s Competence Development: Evidence from the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk This paper investigates the role of early life adversity and home resources in terms of competence formation and school achievement based on data from an epidemiological cohort study following 364 children from birth to adolescence. Results indicate that organic and psychosocial risk...

Empirical studies of the relationship between school inputs and test scores typically do not account for household responses to changes in school inputs. Evidence from India and Zambia shows that student test scores are higher when schools receive unanticipated grants; but there is no impact of grants that are anticipated. We show that the most likely mechanism for this result is that household...

Regression and neural network models of wage determination are constructed where the explanatory variables include detailed information about the impact of school curricula on future earnings. It is established that there are strong nonlinearities and interaction effects present in the relationship between curriculum and earnings. The results have important implications in the context of the hu...