Language Skills and Economic Returns

This article focuses on the contributions from the emerging positivist epistemological approach, endorsed by the economics of language and the economics of education, to study the returns to language skills, assuming that language competencies constitute key components of human capital. It presents initial results from a study on economic returns to language skills in eight countries enrolled in the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) – Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Norway and Italian-speaking Switzerland. The study shows commonalities between countries in terms of language skills valuing, beyond the type of language policy applied at the national level. In each of the eight countries compared, skills in a second language are estimated to be a major factor constraining affecting wage opportunities.Returns to education, language skills, IALS

Language Skills and Economic Returns

This article focuses on the contributions from the emerging positivist epistemological approach, endorsed by the economics of language and the economics of education, to study the returns to language skills, assuming that language competencies constitute key components of human capital. It presents initial results from a study on economic returns to language skills in eight countries enrolled in the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) – Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Norway and Italian-speaking Switzerland. The study shows commonalities between countries in terms of language skills valuing, beyond the type of language policy applied at the national level. In each of the eight countries compared, skills in a second language are estimated to be a major factor constraining affecting wage opportunities

Explaining learning gaps in Namibia: The role of language proficiency

In a multilingual context, this study investigates the role of language skills on mathematics achievement. It compares characteristics of 5048 Grade-6 learners in 275 Namibian schools. The outcome variable is the standardized SACMEQ mathematics score collected in year 2000. Hierarchical linear modeling is used to partition the total variance in mathematics achievement into its within- and between-school components. The results do confirm the positive correlation between strong language skills variations at the school-level and low pupil mathematics scores, which may question the capacity of the current bilingual policy to provide for an effective and equal learning environment.Learning achievement; language skills; multilevel analysis; HLM

Determinants and Consequences of Language-in-Education Policies: Essays in Economics of Education

This thesis consists of three empirical studies in economics of education on the determinants and consequences of language-in-education (LiE) policies. The “Environmental settings – Inputs – Processes – Immediate outcomes – Long-term outcomes” (EIPOL) evaluation model is applied to LiE policies and programs and serves as the overall framework of this research (see Introductory Chapter). Each study then targets at least one stage of the EIPOL framework to test the validity of the “green” vs. “free-market” linguistic theories. Whereas the two first studies derive models tested empirically in the African context, the third is tested on a sample of countries from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). The first study, Rationales to Language-in-Education Policies in Postcolonial Africa: Towards a Holistic Approach, considers two issues. First, it explores the factors affecting the choice of an LiE policy in 35 African countries. The results show that the countries adopting a unilingual education system put different weights on the influential parameters than countries adopting a bilingual education system and that both groups of countries validate somehow both the “green” and the “free-market” approaches. Second, the article investigates how decision makers can ensure the optimal choice of language(s) of instruction by developing a non-cooperative game theoretic model with network externalities. The model shows that it is never optimal for two countries to become bilingual, or for the majority linguistic group to learn the language of the minority group, unless there is minimum cooperation to ensure an equitable redistribution of payoffs. This finding confirms the “free-market” theory. The second study, The Role of Language in Learning Achievement: A amibian Case Study, investigates the role played by home language and language proficiency on mathematics scores of 5048 Grade-6 learners in 275 Namibian schools, via the second survey data by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ). Hierarchical linear modeling is used to partition the total variance in mathematics achievement into its within- and between-school components. Results of the analysis show that although home language plays a limited role in explaining within- and between-school variations in mathematics achievement, language proficiency, when proxied by reading scores, plays a significant role in the heterogeneity of results. Thus, confirming the role of language skills in learning achievement and so validating the “green” theory. Finally, the third study, Language Skills and Economic Returns, investigates the economic returns to language skills, assuming that language competencies constitute key components of human capital. It presents results from eight countries enrolled in the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). The study finds commonalities between countries in terms of the valuing of language skills, independent of the type of language policy applied at the national level. In each of the eight countries compared, skills in a second language are estimated to be a major factor constraining wage opportunities. This study validates the “free-market” theory.Language-in-education policies, decision making analysis, non-cooperative game, language skills, hierarchical linear modeling, human capital theory, rate of return analysis, postcolonial Africa, IALS, SACMEQ

100 years of educational reforms in Europe: a contextual database

This report presents the macro data on educational reforms collected for the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The first and chore part provides an analytical overview of the educational reforms that may have affected the skill level of Europe’s elderly population. More specifically, it targets the national institutional plans or movements that have brought (or attempted to bring) systemic change in educational practices during the last century (e.g., pedagogical theories, curriculum reforms and operational structures). Furthermore, through a simple application correlating compulsory education laws and the evolution of the number of years of education, this report demonstrates the scope and potentialities of the database. Finally, the appendix lists all the data collected by country and level of education.SHARELIFE, contextual data, education reforms

Validating SHARE in France with other French surveys : health and income data

The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is cross national: the questionnaire is identical across all participating countries and, because of the modest size of the sample in each country, it is usually not feasible to proceed to solely national use of the data. Moreover, as SHARE is unique in Europe in terms of scope and target sample, its results cannot easily be validated by comparison with other similar cross national surveys. This paper attempts to relate some key SHARE variables to their counterparts in other French surveys. We concentrate on health and income data that we relate to various INSEE surveys on Health, Consumption, Housing and Income. Concentrating on France, where the SHARE survey agency is the National Statistical Institute, allows the comparison to abstract from sample design and interviewers’ quality effects. We surmise that an ex ante harmonized questionnaire such as SHARE is easier to apply in qualitative domains such as health, or in non-ambiguous quantitative measures such as weight and height, but is harder in domains where each country has its own institutions and concepts. We assess the quality of the income questions both at the extensive margin (who gets what type of income, and non-response conditional on receiving) and at the intensive margin (what are the main quantiles of income distribution for recipients). We find that the French SHARE data are of good quality when the questions are simple. For instance, the body mass index of males is the same in the Health survey and in SHARE. However, discrepancies can be larger on quantitative data. They seem less important on the extensive than on the intensive margins, and generally less in wave 2 than in wave 1. We suggest some ways to improve the quality of future waves of SHARE.SHARE ; Survey Methodology ; Cross-country comparison ; Survey design ; Data collection ; Survey method for income data ; Survey method for subjective health data ; Measurement error ; Non-response

100 Years of Educational Reforms in Europe: A Contextual Database

This report presents the macro data on educational reforms collected for the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). It is divided in two sections. The first and chore part provides an analytical overview of the educational reforms that may have affected the skill level of Europe¿s elderly population. More specifically, it targets the national institutional plans or movements that have brought (or attempted to bring) systemic change in educational practices during the last century (e.g., pedagogical theories, curriculum reforms and operational structures). Furthermore, through a simple application correlating compulsory education laws and the evolution of the number of years of education, this part also aims at demonstrating the scope and potentialities of this data when combined to micro-sources. In turn, the appendix lists all the data collected by country and level of education.JRC.DG.G.9-Econometrics and applied statistic

100 years of educational reforms in Europe: a contextual database

This report presents the macro data on educational reforms collected for the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The first and chore part provides an analytical overview of the educational reforms that may have affected the skill level of Europe’s elderly population. More specifically, it targets the national institutional plans or movements that have brought (or attempted to bring) systemic change in educational practices during the last century (e.g., pedagogical theories, curriculum reforms and operational structures). Furthermore, through a simple application correlating compulsory education laws and the evolution of the number of years of education, this report demonstrates the scope and potentialities of the database. Finally, the appendix lists all the data collected by country and level of education