Why Is There No Harvard Among Japanese Private Universities?

The social and academic reputation of private universities in Japan is generally far behind the national universities. We argue that heavy subsidy and the low tuition of national universities determined by the central government are both responsible for making the production of high academic quality difficult for private universities in equilibrium. Using several simulations based on a theoretical model of assignment of heterogeneous students and universities with respect to tuition and educational quality, we show that the distribution of tuitions and academic quality of private universities are affected by the low tuition and heavy subsidy policy of national university. Using the cross-section data of all universities in Japan, we present empirical evidence on the determinants of tuition of private universities that support our theoretical predictionEmpirical analysis of Japanese economy, Demand for education quality, Assignment model

Do Education Vouchers Prevent Dropouts at Private High Schools? Evidence from Japanese Policy Changes (Japanese)

Although education voucher programs for students attending private high schools have existed in Japan for decades, as yet there have been no studies that examine their effectiveness. In this paper, we estimate the programs' preventative effect on dropouts using school-track level (academic or vocational) panel data covering all high schools in northern Japan. Facing increasing dropouts due to financial difficulties, prefectural governments have expanded the scope and amount of their private high school tuition support programs since the late 1990s. We use this variation to identify the effect of tuition support on students' decision to dropout, controlling for initial ability of entering students as well as unobservable school-track effects. We also apply the instrumental variable method to account for the possible endogeneity of policy changes. Our results suggest that increasing tuition support is particularly effective in preventing dropouts of private high school students in nonacademic tracks.

Long-Term Effects of Preschooling on Educational Attainments

経済学 / EconomicsWhether universal preschool education can eliminate the achievement gap among children in the long term has been debated in the United States and elsewhere. This paper offers new evidence from the experience of massive preschool education expansion in Japan. Using prefecture-level panel data, we estimate the effects of preschooling expansion on two measures of long-term educational achievement: high school and college advancement rates. We find that the expansion of both kindergarten and nursery schools have a significant positive impact on high school and college advancement rates, and the effect of attendance in nursery school is stronger than that in kindergarten.JEL Classification Codes: I22, I28, H7

International differences in gradients in early childhood overweight and obesity : the role of maternal employment and formal childcare attendance

Background There are significant cross-country differences in socio-economic gradients in later childhood and adulthood overweight/obesity; few studies assess whether this cross-national variation is evident from early childhood. Furthermore, the role of childcare in explaining overweight/obesity gradients might vary across countries, given differences in access, quality and heterogeneity within. Additionally, childcare is linked to parental characteristics such as maternal employment. The interplay between childcare and employment in producing early overweight/obesity gradients has received little attention, and might vary cross-nationally. Methods Using harmonized data from six high-quality, large datasets, we explore the variation in gradients in early overweight/obesity (at age 3–4 years old) by parental education across several high-income countries (USA, UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan). We then assess whether differential formal group care use attenuates some of these gradients, and whether this varies across maternal employment. Results Gradients in early childhood overweight/obesity by parental education are evident across several developed countries. Countries with higher overall prevalence of early overweight/obesity did not have the largest inequalities across education groups. The contribution of formal group care to producing these gradients varied across countries and across maternal employment status. Conclusion Early childhood inequalities in overweight/obesity are pervasive across developed countries, as noted for older children and adults. However, mechanisms producing these gradients vary across national contexts. Our study shows that, given the right context, quality childcare and maternal employment can successfully support healthy weight trajectories and not contribute (or even reduce) social inequalities in early overweight/obesity

Cross-national differences in socioeconomic achievement inequality in early primary school : the role of parental education and income in six countries

This paper presents comparative information on the socioeconomic status (SES) gradients in literacy skills at age 6-8, drawing on harmonized national datasets from France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We investigate whether understanding of comparative SES gradients in early-to-mid childhood depends on the operationalization of SES (parental education, income, or both); and whether differences in inequalities at the end of lower secondary schooling documented in international large-scale assessments are already present when children have experienced at most two years of formal compulsory schooling. We find marked differences in the SES gradient in early achievement across countries that are largely insensitive to the way SES is measured, and that seem to mirror inequalities reported for older students. We conclude that country context shapes the link between parental SES and children’s educational achievement, with country differences rooted in the early childhood period

Lives of the Firehorse Cohort: What the Statistics Show

The superstition that says women born in the year of the firehorse (Hinoeuma) are emotional and difficult to control clearly caused the fertility rate to drop sharply in Japan in 1906 and 1966. In this article, we focus on the lives of those born in the firehorse generation. We use government statistics to determine their family backgrounds and how they lived their adult lives. We review demographic studies regarding the reasons for fertility declines in the firehorse years, propose some theoretical hypotheses on how the superstition might have affected the later lives of the firehorse children, and review some related studies. Using government statistics, including the Census, Vital Statistics, and the Basic Survey of Schools, we investigate the family background, education, labor status, and marriage rates of the 1966 cohort, and the marriage rates, labor status, and health of the 1906 cohort. We find, among other things, that the quality of the education received by the 1966 cohort appears to be higher than that of other cohorts, their marriage rates for both men and women are lower, and the labor participation rate of the 1906 cohort is higher than that of other cohorts.