The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic well-being, focusing on the role of educational quality. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population-rather than mere school attainment-are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high-level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes it clear that closing the economic gap with industrial countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions.

http://library1.nida.ac.th/worldbankf/fulltext/wps04122.pdf

The role of education quality for economic growth

This study helps to explain why measured school inputs appear to have little effect on student outcomes, particularly for cohorts educated since 1960. Teachers' unionization can explain how public schools simultaneously can have more generous inputs and worse student performance. Using panel data on United States school districts, I identify the effect of teachers' unionization through differences in the timing of collective bargaining, especially timing determined by the passage of state laws that facilitate teachers' unionization. I find that teachers' unions increase school inputs but reduce productivity sufficiently to have a negative overall effect on student performance. Union effects are magnified where schools have market power.

How teachers unions affect education production

This book is about the threats to education quality that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews service delivery failures in education: cases where programs and policies increase inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts in the classroom. It documents what we know about the extent and costs of such failures. It argues that a root cause of low-quality and inequitable public services is the weak accountability of providers to both their supervisors and clients. The central focus of the book is that countries are increasingly adopting innovative strategies to attack these problems. Drawing on new evidence from 22 rigorous evaluations in 11 countries, this book examines how strategies to strengthen accountability relationships in school systems have affected schooling outcomes. The book provides a succinct review of the rationale and impact evidence for three key lines of reform: (1) policies that use the power of information to strengthen the ability of students and their parents to hold providers accountable for results; (2) policies that promote schools' autonomy to make key decisions and control resources; and (3) teacher incentives reforms that specifically aim at making teachers more accountable for results.

Making Schools Work: New Evidence on Accountability Reforms

The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic well-being, with a particular focus on the role of educational quality. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population - rather than mere school attainment - are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions.

The Role of School Improvement in Economic Development

The role of improved schooling, a central part of most development strategies, has become controversial because expansion of school attainment has not guaranteed improved economic conditions. This paper reviews the role of education in promoting economic well-being, with a particular focus on the role of educational quality. It concludes that there is strong evidence that the cognitive skills of the population - rather than mere school attainment - are powerfully related to individual earnings, to the distribution of income, and to economic growth. New empirical results show the importance of both minimal and high level skills, the complementarity of skills and the quality of economic institutions, and the robustness of the relationship between skills and growth. International comparisons incorporating expanded data on cognitive skills reveal much larger skill deficits in developing countries than generally derived from just school enrollment and attainment. The magnitude of change needed makes clear that closing the economic gap with developed countries will require major structural changes in schooling institutions

/pdf/the-role-of-school-improvement-in-economic-development-5cq0t4zr9y.pdf

This paper uses the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment student-level achievement database for Mexico to estimate state education production functions, controlling for student characteristics, family background, home inputs, resources, and institutions. The authors take advantage of the state-level variation and representative sample to analyze the impact of institutional factors such as state accountability systems and the role of teachers' unions in student achievement. They argue that accountability, through increased use of state assessments, will improve learning outcomes. The authors also cast light on the role of teachers' unions, namely their strength through appointments to the school and relations with state governments. The analysis shows the importance of good relations between states and unions. Furthermore, it demonstrates that accountability systems are cost-effective measures for improving outcomes.

http://www-wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/07/30/000158349_20070730150230/Rendered/PDF/wps4286.pdf

Institutional Effects as Determinants of Learning Outcomes : Exploring State Variations in Mexico

Mexico's more than 10 million indigenous peoples constitute about 11 percent of the country's population. While accounting for a smaller percentage of the country's total population than in some other Latin American countries, Mexico's indigenous population is the largest in Latin America and represents a third of the continent's total indigenous population. That Mexico's indigenous peoples are far poorer than its non indigenous peoples is well known: about three quarters of indigenous peoples in Mexico are poor, while only half of non indigenous people live below the official poverty line. This brief analyzes the determinants of poverty in Mexico using the 2008 household survey. According to the indirect measure, poverty rates for indigenous peoples in Mexico remain high, as does the gap between indigenous and non indigenous groups.

Indigenous peoples and poverty in Mexico

This paper uses the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment student-level achievement database for Mexico to estimate state education production functions, controlling for student characteristics, family background, home inputs, resources, and institutions. The authors take advantage of the state-level variation and representative sample to analyze the impact of institutional factors such as state accountability systems and the role of teachers'unions in student achievement. They argue that accountability, through increased use of state assessments, will improve learning outcomes. The authors also cast light on the role of teachers'unions, namely their strength through appointments to the school and relations with state governments. The analysis shows the importance of good relations between states and unions. Furthermore, it demonstrates that accountability systems are cost-effective measures for improving outcomes.

Institutional effects as determinants of learning outcomes: exploring state variations in Mexico

This paper estimates private and social returns to investment in education in Azerbaijan, using the 2015 Azerbaijan Monitoring Survey for Social Welfare. The private rate of return to education is 6 percent; this is the first estimate of returns to schooling in Azerbaijan since 1995. The returns to schooling are 6 percent for men and 8 percent for women, even controlling for selection. In addition, the paper estimates the returns for higher education; for this level, the rate of return is 9 percent. Finally, using the full discount method, the private rate of return to tertiary education is 9 percent, and the social rate of return is 8 percent. One policy implication is to re-examine the funding of higher education and for its expansion.

Vicente A. Garcia Moreno

Papers

Institutional Effects as Determinants of Learning Outcomes : Exploring State Variations in Mexico

Indigenous peoples and poverty in Mexico

Institutional effects as determinants of learning outcomes: exploring state variations in Mexico

Returns to Education in Azerbaijan : Some New Estimates