Promoting scientific faculties: does it work? Evidence from Italy

The object of this article is to assess the causal impact of promotions policies on students' choice of the field of study. We match the records of the students enrolled in two large universities with the records of the participating schools. Within the participating schools, some students took part in the program, while others did not. We adopted an "exposure" approach in which we define as treated all students of a cohort that were eligible for these activities. We find, on average, a positive and significant effect of the policy on targeted and non-targeted scientific bachelor's degrees and positive cross-treatment effects across subjects. However, if the policy has a considerable influence on male students' choices, it does not appear to have any effect on female students' choices. These findings suggest that the policy helped students in correcting their labor market expectations for graduating in science

WP 108 - A deeper insight into the ethnic make-up of school cohorts. Diversity and school achievement

While the share of non-native students in a class is expected to have a non positive effect on school achievement, little is said about the heterogeneity of the ethnic minority make-up. Ethnic diversity can stimulate the creativity of students, can push them to be proficient in the instructional language, can reduce the scope of ethnic identification with all its possible drawbacks, but it may also worsen social interactions among pupils and make the job of teachers more difficult. We exploit the within school cohort variation in ethnic diversity of a rich data-set about primary education in the Netherlands to investigate whether ethnic diversity matters for school achievement, for whom it matters and which can be the other mechanisms it may generate. We find that ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the test scores of minority students, especially for language skills and older students. We also find a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and the school social environment.ethnic diversity; education; peer effects JEL classification: I21; I28; J15

The relationship between inequality in the origin country and emigration

This policy brief illustrates the role of inequality as a driver of migration and seeks empirical evidence of the relationship between inequality within the country of origin and emigration rate.JRC.E.6-Demography, Migration and Governanc

Inequality and macroeconomic factors: A time-series analysis for a set of OECD countries

Abstract In this work, we study the short-and long-run properties of different inequality series vis-à-vis the most important macroeconomic series for a set of OECD countries. We employ standard tools of time series macro-econometrics (e.g. stationarity tests, detrending, comovements analysis, Granger-causality tests, etc.) in order to possible uncover some fresh stylized facts about inequality. The broad picture emerging from our empirical analysis is one where some common patterns coexist together with several country specificities. More specifically, most of inequality series are not stationary; long-run equilibrium relationships between share prices and inequality emerge in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.; at the business cycle frequencies, most inequality series are counter-cyclical (with the exception of Germany), negatively correlated with inflation and positively correlated with unemployment; consumption inequality is pro-cyclical in English-speaking countries; the comovements between inequality series and government consumption appear to be heavily dependent on the institutions of the countries under analysis; Granger-causality tests suggest that in some cases inequality Granger-causes output

Can ethnic diversity have a positive effect on school achievement?

While the share of non-native students in a class is supposed to have a non positive effect on school achievement, little is said about the heterogeneity of the ethnic minority make-up. Ethnic diversity can stimulate the creativity of students, can push them to be proficient in the instructional language, can reduce the scope of ethnic identification with all its possible drawbacks, but it may also worsen social interactions among pupils and make the job of teachers more difficult. I exploit the within school cohort variation in ethnic diversity of a rich data-set about primary education in the Netherlands to investigate whether ethnic diversity matters for school achievement, for whom it matters and which can be the mechanisms it may generate. I find that ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the test scores of minority students, in particular for language skills. I also find some evidence of a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and school social interaction among pupils

Can ethnic diversity have a positive effect on school achievement?

While the share of non-native students in a class is supposed to have a non positive effect on school achievement, little is said about the heterogeneity of the ethnic minority make-up. Ethnic diversity can stimulate the creativity of students, can push them to be proficient in the instructional language, can reduce the scope of ethnic identification with all its possible drawbacks, but it may also worsen social interactions among pupils and make the job of teachers more difficult. I exploit the within school cohort variation in ethnic diversity of a rich data-set about primary education in the Netherlands to investigate whether ethnic diversity matters for school achievement, for whom it matters and which can be the mechanisms it may generate. I find that ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the test scores of minority students, in particular for language skills. I also find some evidence of a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and school social interaction among pupils

Can ethnic diversity have a positive effect on school achievement?

While the share of non-native students in a class is supposed to have a non positive effect on school achievement, little is said about the heterogeneity of the ethnic minority make-up. Ethnic diversity can stimulate the creativity of students, can push them to be proficient in the instructional language, can reduce the scope of ethnic identification with all its possible drawbacks, but it may also worsen social interactions among pupils and make the job of teachers more difficult. I exploit the within school cohort variation in ethnic diversity of a rich data-set about primary education in the Netherlands to investigate whether ethnic diversity matters for school achievement, for whom it matters and which can be the mechanisms it may generate. I find that ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the test scores of minority students, in particular for language skills. I also find some evidence of a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and school social interaction among pupils

A policy perspective of educational issues

Il primo Capitolo trae origine dall’evidenza dello scarso rendimento scolastico dei bambini che vivono nelle case popolari italiane. Gli obiettivi di questo paper sono due: uno è di verificare l’esistenza di un effetto “ghetto” tra pari, l’altro è di verificare l’esistenza di un effetto “ghetto” crescente (nella dimensione della casa popolare) e/o l’esistenza di effetto “struttura” (“casermoni”). L’analisi suggerisce un effetto causale sfavorevole delle case popolari sull’evasione scolastica delle ragazze e un effetto sfavorevole dei “casermoni” sulla bocciatura, per le ragazze che vivono nelle grandi città. Per le altre variabili educative la difficoltà di isolare l’effetto dell’ambiente familiare non permette di trarre delle considerazioni conclusive. Il contributo del secondo Capitolo è di investigare se la diversità etnica delle scuole ha un impatto sui voti dei bambini e per chi è importante. Proviamo anche a chiarire quali meccanismi possono esserci dietro. Usiamo un ricco data-set sull’istruzione primaria nei Paesi Bassi. Troviamo che la diversità etnica ha un impatto positivo sui voti degli studenti della minoranze etniche, specialmente per i voti nelle abilità linguistiche e per gli studenti più grandi. Troviamo anche una relazione negativa tra la diversità etnica e l’ambiente sociale della scuola, che può parzialmente spiegare l’incremento nei voti come il risultato di un ambiente più competitivo. Nel 2005 l’Italia lanciò un’importante politica di promozione per incentivare le iscrizioni a particolari corsi di laurea scientifici. L’obiettivo del terzo Capitolo è di valutare l’efficacia di questa politica. Inoltre, controlliamo se la policy è stata efficace sia per i maschi che per le femmine. Infine, controlliamo se il programma ha generato effetti al di fuori della portata della policy. I risultati mostrano un effetto positivo e significativo della politica “Progetto Lauree Scientifiche” sui corsi di laurea scientifici designati e non e un effetto positivo e trasversale tra le materie. Comunque, se la politica ha un considerevole impatto sulla scelta del corso di laurea per i maschi, non sembra avere alcun effetto per le femmine.The first Chapter originates from the evidence of the low school achievement of children living in Italian public housing. The aims of this paper are two: one is to verify the existence of a "ghetto" peer effect, the other is to verify the existence of an increasing "ghetto" effect (in the size of the project) and/or the existence of an amenity effect (high-rise projects). The analysis suggests an unfavorable causal effect of public housing on school evasion for girls and an unfavorable effect of high-rise projects on grade repetition, for girls living in big cities. For other educational outcomes the difficulty to isolate the family background effect does not allow us to draw conclusive comments. The contribution of the second Chapter is to investigate whether the ethnic diversity of schools has an impact on the test scores of children and for whom it matters. We also try to shed some light on the mechanisms there can be behind. We use a rich data-set about primary education in the Netherlands. We find that ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the test scores of minority students, especially for language skills and older students. We also find a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and school's social environment, that can partly explain the gains in test scores as a result of a more competitive environment. In 2005, Italy launched an important promotion policy to boost enrolments in selected scientific bachelors. The aim of the third Chapter is to evaluate the efficacy of this policy. Moreover, we check whether the policy has been effective for both males and females. Finally, we check whether the program generates effects outside the scope of the policy. The results show a positive and significant effect of the policy "Progetto Lauree Scientifiche" on targeted and non targeted scientific bachelors and positive cross treatment effects across subjects. However, if the policy has a considerable impact on the bachelor's choice for males, it does not appear to have any effect for females

Inequalities' Impacts: State of the Art Review

By way of introduction This report provides the fi rm foundation for anchoring the research that will be performed by the GINI project. It subsequently considers the fi elds covered by each of the main work packages: ● inequalities of income, wealth and education, ● social impacts, ● political and cultural impacts, and ● policy effects on and of inequality. Though extensive this review does not pretend to be exhaustive. The review may be “light” in some respects and can be expanded when the analysis evolves. In each of the four fi elds a signifi cant number of discussion papers will be produced, in total well over 100. These will add to the state of the art while also covering new round and generating results that will be incorporated in the Analysis Reports to be prepared for the work packages. In that sense, the current review provides the starting point. At the same time, the existing body of knowledge is broader or deeper depending on the particular fi eld and its tradition of research. The very motivation of GINI’s focused study of the impacts of inequalities is that a systematic study is lacking and relatively little is known about those impacts. This also holds for the complex collection of, the effects that inequality can have on policy making and the contributions that policies can make to mitigating inequalities but also to enhancing them. By contrast, analyses of inequality itself are many, not least because there is a wide array of inequalities; inequalities have become more easily studied comparatively and much of that analysis has a signifi cant descriptive fl avour that includes an extensive discussion of measurement issues. @GINI hopes to go beyond that and cover the impacts of inequalities at the same time