Handbook of the Economics of Education

What is the value of an education? Volume 4 of the Handbooks in the Economics of Education combines recent data with new methodologies to examine this and related questions from diverse perspectives. School choice and school competition, educator incentives, the college premium, and other considerations help make sense of the investments and returns associated with education. Volume editors Eric A. Hanushek (Stanford), Stephen Machin (University College London) and Ludger Woessmann (Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Munich) draw clear lines between newly emerging research on the economics of education and prior work. In conjunction with Volume 3, they measure our current understanding of educational acquisition and its economic and social effects.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES

Contributors

Reflections on the Economics of Education

Introduction to Handbook

Chapter 1: Personality Psychology and Economics

1 Introduction

2 Personality and Personality Traits: Definitions and a Brief History of Personality Psychology

3 Conceptualizing Personality and Personality Traits within Economic Models

4 Measuring Personality

5 Implementing the Measurement Systems

6 Personality and Preference Parameters

7 The Predictive Power of Personality Traits

8 Stability and Change in Personality Traits and Preferences

9 Summary and Conclusions

References

Chapter 2: Nonproduction Benefits of Education

1 Introduction

2 Education’s Effects on Crime

3 Education’s Effects on Health and Mortality

4 Education’s Effect on Citizenship, Political Participation, and Democracy

5 Conclusions

Appendix: Estimating Mediating Effects

Acknowledgments

References

Chapter 3: Overeducation and Mismatch in the Labor Market

1 Introduction

2 Questions

3 Measurement Issues

4 Incidence

5 Impact on Earnings

6 Relation to Labor Market Theories

7 Conclusion

References

Chapter 4: Migration and Education

1 Introduction

2 Empirical Evidence

3 The Migrant

4 The Effect of Migration on the Skill Base and Educational Attainment of Nonmigrants

5 The Children of Immigrants

6 Conclusion

References

Chapter 5: Inequality, Human Capital Formation, and the Process of Development

1 Introduction

2 The Benchmark Model

3 A Unified Theory of Inequality and Growth

4 Nonfinancial Hurdles for Human Capital Accumulation

5 Evidence

6 Concluding Remarks

References

Chapter 6: The Design of Performance Pay in Education

1 Screening Teachers

2 Moral Hazard

3 Markets

4 Conclusion

Acknowledgments

References

Chapter 7: Educational Vouchers in International Contexts

1 The Context for Vouchers Abroad

2 Voucher Programs in Colombia, Chile, and Sweden

3 Effects of Vouchers on Voucher Users

4 Effects of Vouchers on Overall School System

5 Conclusion and Suggested Directions for Future Study

References

Chapter 8: Dropouts and Diplomas

1 Introduction and Motivating Data

2 Models of Years of Schooling and Application to Degree Attainment

3 Specification of College Degree Attainment

4 Evidence on Determinants of Degree Attainment

5 Unanswered Questions in the Study of Degree Attainment

References

Chapter 9: The Political Economy of Education Funding

1 Introduction

2 Public Education Spending with a Private Option

3 Vouchers

4 Heterogeneity

5 Education Funding in Multi-Community Models

6 Dynamics

7 Empirical Issues

8 Future Directions

References

Index

EH

Eric A. Hanushek

Eric Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is internationally recognized for his economic analysis of educational issues, and his research has had broad influence on education policy in both developed and developing countries. He received the Yidan Prize for Education Research in 2021. He is the author of numerous widely-cited studies on the effects of class size reduction, school accountability, teacher effectiveness, and other topics. He was the first to research teacher effectiveness by measuring students’ learning gains, which forms the conceptual basis for using value-added measures to evaluate teachers and schools, now a widely adopted practice. His recent book with Ludger Woessmann, The Knowledge Capital of Nations: Education and the Economics of Growth summarizes research establishing the close links between countries’ long-term rates of economic growth and the skill levels of their populations. He has authored or edited twenty-five books along with over 300 articles. He is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and completed his Ph.D. in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [email protected]; http://hanushek.stanford.edu/

Affiliations and expertise

Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, CA, USA

SM

Stephen J. Machin

Stephen J. Machin is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, has been President of the European Association of Labour Economists, is a Fellow of the Society of Labor Economists and was an independent member of the UK Low Pay Commission from 2007-14. He was Chair of the Economics and Econometrics sub-panel of the UK’s 2021 Research Excellence Framework. He has researched and published extensively in various areas of empirical economics and public policy, including labour market inequality, the economics of education, industrial relations, social mobility, and the economics of crime. [email protected]; https://personal.lse.ac.uk/machin/

Affiliations and expertise

Professor of Economics, University College London and Director, Centre for the Economics of Education and Research Director, Centre for Economic Performance, UK

LW

Ludger Woessmann

Ludger Woessmann is the Director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and Professor of Economics at the University of Munich. He is also Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Being interested in the determinants of long-term prosperity of mankind, his main research focus is on the economics of education, especially the importance of education for economic prosperity and the effects of school systems on educational achievement and equality of opportunity. He is Fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academic Advisory Council of the German Federal Ministry of Economics, and the International Academy of Education. https://sites.google.com/view/woessmann-e

Affiliations and expertise

Professor of Economics, University of Munich and Head, Human Capital and Innovation Department, Ifo Institute for Economic Research, Germany

Life Sciences

Physical Sciences & Engineering

Social Sciences & Humanities

Health

Handbook of the Economics of Education

Description

Key features

Readership

Table of contents

Review quotes

Product details

About the editors

Eric A. Hanushek

Stephen J. Machin

Ludger Woessmann

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