When one door closes: the impact of the hagwon curfew on the consumption of private tutoring in the Republic of Korea [WP IEB]

The Korean government has struggled against the proliferation of private tutoring for more than four decades. In 2006, state education authorities imposed a restriction on operating hours of hagwon (private tutoring academies or cram schools) in an attempt at reducing the economic and time resources spent on private tutoring. Since then, some provincial authorities have modified the curfew on hagwon. We take advantage of these policy shifts to identify average treatment effects taking a difference in-differences approach. Our findings suggest that enforcing the curfew did not generate a significant reduction in the hours and resources spent on private tutoring, our results being heterogeneous by school level and socioeconomic status. Demand for private tutoring seems to be especially inelastic for high school students, who increased their consumption of alternative forms of private tutoring. As the consumption of private tutoring is positively correlated with academic performance and socioeconomic status, the curfew may have a negative effect on the equality of educational opportunities

Regulating private tutoring consumption in Korea: lessons from another failure

The proliferation of private tutoring is a widespread phenomenon, Korea being one the most notable examples. Indeed, successive Korean governments have attempted to limit private tutoring consumption for more than four decades. In 2006, state education authorities imposed a restriction on operating hours of hagwon (private tutoring academies) in an attempt at reducing the economic and time resources spent on private tutoring. Since then, some provincial authorities have modified the curfew on hagwon. We take advantage of these policy shifts to identify average treatment effects taking a difference-in-differences approach. Our findings suggest that enforcing the curfew did not generate a significant reduction in the hours and resources spent on private tutoring, our results being heterogeneous by school level and socioeconomic status. Demand for private tutoring seems to be especially inelastic for high school students, who increased their consumption of alternative forms of private tutoring. As the consumption of private tutoring is positively correlated with academic performance and socioeconomic status, strengthening the curfew may have a negative effect on the equality of educational opportunities

L'avaluació econòmica de la Llei d'Educació de Catalunya: una avaluació de l'avaluació

El 16 de juliol de 2009 es va publicar al Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya (DOGC) la Llei 12/2009, d'educació. La Llei d'educació de Catalunya (LEC), evolució natural del Pacte d'educació de Catalunya de 2006, es basava en una sèrie de pilars entre els quals destaquen l'abast integral per a tots els nivells no universitaris, la promoció de l'autonomia de centre i el reconeixement de la importància de l'avaluació del sistema educatiu

Growth and inequality in the Republic of Korea during the 1990’s decade

La República de Corea suele ser citada como ejemplo de crecimiento con equidad. El proceso de desarrollo fue acompañado por un rápido proceso de industrialización, así como por un fuerte y continuo incremento en la dotación educativa de su población desde la década de 1950, tendencia que se mantuvo durante la década de 1990. Ahora bien, durante ésta se alteraron algunos de los fundamentos estructurales de su modelo de industrialización, reduciéndose el ritmo de crecimiento e incrementándose la desigualdad en la distribución de la renta. El objetivo de este artículo es doble: por un lado, conocer la evolución de la desigualdad en la distribución de las rentas del trabajo en Corea desde la década de 1990 hasta el año 2005 y, por otro, investigar algunas de las causas de dicha evolución.__________________________________The Republic of Korea is usually cited as an example of growth with equity. The development process was accompanied by a rapid industrialization process and an intense and continuous increase in the educative stock of its population since the decade of 1950, tendency that continued during the 1990’s. However, during this decade some of the structural foundations of its model of industrialization were altered, being reduced the rate of growth and increased the inequality in income distribution. The objective of this article is double: on the one hand, to describe the evolution of labour income inequality in Korea from the decade of 1990 to year 2005 and, on the other hand, to investigate some of the causes of this evolution

The mathematics skills of school children: How does England compare to the high performing East Asian jurisdictions?

English policymakers have been disappointed with children’s performance on TIMSS and PISA, particularly in comparison to the results of young people from East Asia. In this paper we provide new insight into the England – East Asia gap by considering how cross-national differences in math test scores change between ages 10 and 16. Our results suggest that, although average math test scores are higher in East Asian countries, this gap does not increase between ages 10 and 16. Thus, reforming the secondary school system may not be the most effective way for England to ‘catch up’. Rather earlier intervention, during pre-school and primary school, may be needed instead

The Use (and Misuse) of PISA in Guding Policy Reform: The Case of Spain

In 2013 Spain introduced a series of educational reforms explicitly inspired by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 results. These reforms were mainly implemented in secondary education - based upon the assumption that this is where Spain's educational problems lie. This paper questions this assumption by attempting to identify the point where Spanish children fall behind young people in other developed countries. Specifically, by drawing data from multiple international assessments, we are able to explore how cross-national differences in reading skills change as children age. Consideration is given to both the average level of achievement and the evolution of educational inequalities. Our conclusion is that policy-makers have focused their efforts on the wrong part of the education system; educational achievement is low in Spain (and educational inequalities large) long before children enter secondary school. This study therefore serves as a note of caution against simplistic interpretation of the PISA rankings

Medida de la eficiencia de la atención primaria en Barcelona incorporando indicadores de calidad

Demostrar el impacto que tiene la consideración de indicadores cualitativos en la evaluación de la eficiencia técnica de los equipos de atención primaria (EAP). La crisis económica que se inició en 2008 ha llevado a procesos de reasignación de recursos basados en indicadores cuantitativos, dejando los cualitativos en un segundo plano. El estudio aplica técnicas de análisis envolvente de datos (AED) a 58 EAP pertenecientes a tres servicios de atención primaria (SAP) de la provincia de Barcelona. Los datos combinan información pública de la Generalitat de Catalunya con los proporcionados (previa solicitud) por el Observatorio del Sistema de Salud de Cataluña. El análisis compara los resultados de tres modelos, permitiendo esta aproximación identificar cambios en la eficiencia de los EAP en función de la (no) consideración de indicadores de calidad asistencial

Impacte del sistema de beques de menjador de Catalunya sobre la igualtat d'oportunitats educatives

L'objectiu principal de les beques escolars és incrementar la igualtat d'oportunitats educatives. Els ajuts de menjador per motius socioeconòmics de Catalunya, gestionats pels consells comarcals des de l'any 1996, constitueixen un bon exemple. Els canvis demogràfics i socioeconòmics experimentats han provocat que part de les necessitats que pretenien ser cobertes mitjançant aquests ajuts hagin quedat desateses. Aquest article detecta punts febles dins l'actual sistema d'ajuts de menjador per motius socioeconòmics i planteja reflexions per a la seva hipotètica adaptació a la nova realitat a la qual s'enfronta

The contribution of the disabled to the attainment of the Europe 2020 strategy headline targets

In 2009 the European Council published its Europe 2020 Strategy in which it fixed a number of social, educational and economic targets to be achieved by 2020. However, given the current economic crisis, the majority of European countries are struggling to attain these goals. In this framework, this study seeks to quantify the potential contribution of one of the most disadvantaged groups, Europe’s disabled, to the attainment of the Europe 2020 Strategy targets via the monitoring of a number of indicators. The impact of changes in the situation of the disabled is simulated using micro data drawn from the 2009 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Our results show that improving the socioeconomic situation of the disabled could be crucial for attaining the Europe 2020 targets. However, future policy designs at the national level will need to take into account the actual definition of disability that is employed, the heterogeneity of circumstances to be found within such a definition, and the gap between the situation of the disabled and non disabled populations

School Composition Effects in Spain: Accounting for Interceptand Slope Effects

Drawing on PISA 2012 data, in this paper we study the impact of school's socio-economic composi-tion on the science test scores for Spanish lower-secondary education students. We adopt a semi-para-metric methodology that enables spillovers to affect all the parameters in the educational productionfunction. We also deal with the issue of endogenous students' sorting into schools with better socio-economic composition. The positive effect of school's socio-economic composition is stronger whencomputed using the semi-parametric approach, suggesting the relevance of slope effects of school com-position. However, the spillovers are substantially reduced when the endogenous sorting of students iscontrolled for