How Income Contingent Loans could affect Return to Higher Education: a microsimulation of the French Case

The paper assesses the implementation of income contingent loan schemes for higher education (ICL) in an institutional context characterized by two main features: (i) a former tuition free system and (ii) a great heterogeneity in tertiary education’s diplomas quality and cost, which impacts the individual career paths. In this particular case, ICL implementation leads to a trade-off between increasing ‘career’ equity in terms of collective public spending versus individual gains and widening low education traps by reducing the economic incentives to pursue a tertiary education curriculum. Based on a dynamic microsimulation model we propose an ex ante evaluation of the enlargement of low education traps induced by the implementation of different ICL designs in France. We conclude that the risk of low education traps’ enlargement remains very small.higher education;income contingent loan; microsimulation;

How Income Contingent Loans could affect Return to Higher Education: a microsimulation of the French Case

Ce papier analyse la mise en place de dispositifs de prêts à remboursement conditionnel au revenu pour l'éducation du supérieur (PARC) dans un contexte institutionnel particulier qui se caractérise par (i) un système d'accès gratuit en place préalablement et (ii) une grande hétérogénéité dans les diplômes, leurs qualités et leurs coûts se traduisant par des effets sur les carrières des anciens étudiants. Dans ce cas particulier, la mise en place de PARC conduit à un arbitrage entre une amélioration de ‘l'équité' des carrières (en termes de dépenses publiques collectives versus gains individuels), et l'élargissement de ‘trappes à basse éducation'. Sur la base d'un modèle de microsimulation dynamique, nous proposons une évaluation ex ante de l'élargissement de ces trappes. Nous concluons que le risque de cet élargissement reste très faible pour la France.

Assessing interactions among education, social insurance, and labor market policies in a general equilibrium framework: an application to Morocco

This paper developsa general equilibrium model to analyze the marginal and joint impacts that alternative macroeconomic, education, and social protection policies have on the dynamics of employment and unemployment by skill level. The model introduces a disaggregated treatment of the labor market that incorporates an informal sub-sector in every sector of the economy. The analysis explicitly models the distribution of skills in the labor force by following over time sex-age cohorts across various levels of the education system and in the labor market. And it integrates a module that projects the revenues and expenditures of the pension system. The model is applied to the case of Morocco. Simulations show that even under positive assumptions regarding economic growth, unemployment rates are likely to remain close to current levels in the next decade. The paper argues that only an integrated package of policies that affect the macro-economy, the investment climate, and the education and social protection systems would allow sustainable creation of enough"good quality"jobs.Labor Markets,Labor Policies,,Economic Theory&Research,Access to Finance

A gentle transition from Java programming to Web Services using XML-RPC

Exposing students to leading edge vocational areas of relevance such as Web Services can be difficult. We show a lightweight approach by embedding a key component of Web Services within a Level 3 BSc module in Distributed Computing. We present a ready to use collection of lecture slides and student activities based on XML-RPC. In addition we show that this material addresses the central topics in the context of web services as identified by Draganova (2003)

How Income Contingent Loans could affect Return to Higher Education: a microsimulation of the French Case

Presented at (1) Society for Advancement of Socio-Economics Meeting 2008 (Costa Rica); (2) SIM's seminar CES (CNRS-Université Paris 1)The paper assesses the implementation of income contingent loan schemes for higher education (ICL) in an institutional context characterized by two main features: (i) a former tuition free system and (ii) a great heterogeneity in tertiary education's diplomas quality and cost, which impacts the individual career paths. In this particular case, ICL implementation leads to a trade-off between increasing ‘career' equity in terms of collective public spending versus individual gains and widening low education traps by reducing the economic incentives to pursue a tertiary education curriculum. Based on a dynamic microsimulation model we propose an ex ante evaluation of the enlargement of low education traps induced by the implementation of different ICL designs in France. We conclude that the risk of low education traps' enlargement remains very small.Ce papier analyse la mise en place de dispositifs de prêts à remboursement conditionnel au revenu pour l'éducation du supérieur (PARC) dans un contexte institutionnel particulier qui se caractérise par (i) un système d'accès gratuit en place préalablement et (ii) une grande hétérogénéité dans les diplômes, leurs qualités et leurs coûts se traduisant par des effets sur les carrières des anciens étudiants. Dans ce cas particulier, la mise en place de PARC conduit à un arbitrage entre une amélioration de ‘l'équité' des carrières (en termes de dépenses publiques collectives versus gains individuels), et l'élargissement de ‘trappes à basse éducation'. Sur la base d'un modèle de microsimulation dynamique, nous proposons une évaluation ex ante de l'élargissement de ces trappes. Nous concluons que le risque de cet élargissement reste très faible pour la France

Intergenerational Educational Transmission within Families: An Analysis and Microsimulation Projection for Austria

In this contribution we study intergenerational educational transmission within families in Austria. The paper is divided into an analytical part and a synthesis of the resulting behavioural models to a comprehensive computer microsimulation model that is used to project the future educational composition of the population. The models are based on retrospective event history data collected in the special programme of the 1996 micro-census, which was also used to generate the starting population for projections. The analysis of school choices reveals a very strong influence of parental educational attainment leading to strong intergenerational transmission mechanisms within families, i. e., considerable intergenerational persistence of educational careers within families. In contrast to the continuing educational expansion at the population level, very stable behavioural relationships can be found on the micro level when accounting for parental educational attainment. Our projections reveal that the educational expansion that we experienced in the last decades will continue at a very moderate speed in the next decades until an equilibrium is reached. In the equilibrium, half of the population will obtain a Matura diploma of which 30% will also graduate from university.

Psychometrics in Practice at RCEC

A broad range of topics is dealt with in this volume: from combining the psychometric generalizability and item response theories to the ideas for an integrated formative use of data-driven decision making, assessment for learning and diagnostic testing. A number of chapters pay attention to computerized (adaptive) and classification testing. Other chapters treat the quality of testing in a general sense, but for topics like maintaining standards or the testing of writing ability, the quality of testing is dealt with more specifically.\ud All authors are connected to RCEC as researchers. They present one of their current research topics and provide some insight into the focus of RCEC. The selection of the topics and the editing intends that the book should be of special interest to educational researchers, psychometricians and practitioners in educational assessment