Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

College As Capability Enhancement, Cristina Lee

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis I wanted to apply the Sen’s framework in Development as Freedom to college campuses. In my experience at Claremont McKenna College, I have seen how some students are able to take advantage of the resources better than others. Given that we were all accepted by the same admissions office, I always questioned why did some students know how to take advantage of the system. In order to explore this, I first discuss Sen’s capability approach. Then, I show how the capability approach is more comprehensive than social networking theory and William Deresiewicz’s account on elite colleges. Finally, …

Charles Ballard Interview, Justin Carinci

External Papers and Reports

Professor Charles Ballard of Michigan State University delivered the lecture “The Fall and Rise of Income Equality in the United States” Sept. 27, 2017 as part of the Werner Sichel Lecture Series at Western Michigan University. Ballard detailed the “Great Convergence” of income equality in the United States that grew out of policies of the 1930s and 1940s and a “Great Divergence” of inequality starting about 1980. Ballard called this income gap, which is now greater than during the Gilded Age, “the largest economic phenomenon of our lifetimes.”

School Resources And Student Outcomes: Evidence From The State Of Illinois, Alyssa Cooper

Stevenson Center for Community and Economic Development—Student Research

Literature on the subject of school resources and student outcomes tends to find that there is a positive relationship between both variables. Most literature uses per-pupil spending (PPS) or teacher salaries as a measure of school resources. While I have modeled both in my paper, my focus in this paper is on per-pupil spending. Using data from the Illinois State Board of Education from 2006-2016 and measuring student outcomes through average ACT scores, operational PPS is found to be insignificant, whereas instructional PPS is found to be positive and significant at the 5% level. Estimates suggest that a 1 standard …

Could Reducing Compulsory Years Of Schooling In A Developing Country Be Beneficial?, Dina Al Ajmi

Theses and Dissertations

Towards the end of the 1980s Egypt introduced an educational policy aimed at reducing the years of compulsory primary schooling from six years to five years. This reduced the overall compulsory years of schooling from nine years to eight years. This paper will examine the educational and labor outcomes of this policy change differentiated by urban and rural areas using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2006 and 2012 rounds. Regressions estimated in this paper differentiated between the urban and rural populations. The results suggested that the effect on the rural community was much larger than the effect on …

Goal Effectiveness In Achieving Educational Outcomes: Experimental Evidence From 9th Graders In Medellin, Colombia, Daniel Salicath, Alessandra Cassar

Master's Theses

Does goal setting among low-income ninth graders leads to higher average goal achievements of educational outcomes? This question is explored by a field experiment motivated by the acknowledged California-based Family Independence Initiative (FII), to analyze the effectiveness of individual goal setting, incentives and self-help groups on the achievement of educational goals. By randomizing treatments and control with the cooperation of the Secretary of Education in Medellin, different classrooms were assigned to five different experimental groups that met systematically for five months. The results show that goal setting is a cost-effective method to help low-income students achieve educational outcomes. Setting a …

Aspirations As A Component Of Life Satisfaction: A Look At Female Microfinance Borrowers In Oaxaca, Mexico, Joseph E. Kemler

Master's Theses

This research is an extension to the Oaxaca Hope Project by B. Wydick and T.J. Lybbert. How does an individual gauge her own satisfaction with life? Previous research has noted that many domains make up overall life satisfaction, i.e. career satisfaction, family life satisfaction & social life satisfaction. A burgeoning topic in this regard is the role that aspirations play in life satisfaction. Using survey data from female microfinance borrowers in Oaxaca, Mexico this project attempts to analyze the affect previous aspirations have on life satisfaction. By creating an “aspirational window” we objectively attempt to gauge the relationship between “high” …

How Does Child Participation In Early Head Start Programs Affect Their Mother’S Employment And Educational Attainment?, Pamela Barcelona

Theses and Dissertations

Early Head Start (EHS) was established in 1994 to provide assistance to families in need. Mothers receiving services are more likely to attend high school and job training than mothers who don't receive them. Mothers in EHS are also more likely to have part-time employment than mothers who are not.

Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the consequences of changes in the unemployment rate in Colombia on the level of education attained for adolescents. Increases in the unemployment rate are associated with an increase in the average number of years of education. No significant effect was found for men of the same age.

Genes, Education, And Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From The Health And Retirement Study, Nicholas W. Papageorge, Kevin Thom

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Recent advances have led to the discovery of specific genetic variants that predict educational attainment. We study how these variants, summarized as a genetic score variable, are associated with human capital accumulation and labor market outcomes in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). We demonstrate that the same genetic score that predicts education is also associated with higher wages, but only among individuals with a college education. Moreover, the genetic gradient in wages has grown in more recent birth cohorts, consistent with interactions between technological change and labor market ability. We also show that individuals who grew up in economically …

The Effects Of Gentrification: Inhabitants, Education, And Displacement, Marilyn Pineda

Honors College Theses

Locally and internationally, cities that face decades of disinvestment and neglect at one point experience a resurgence and revival in that location. A city’s resurgence and revival is seen in the form of new houses, businesses, and the migration of middle to upper middle class individuals is known as gentrification. Subjectively, gentrification is beneficial to those who are home owners because they can sell their houses for a higher price than what they bought it for; it is beneficial to the landlord who is able to increase the rents of units (Atkinson 2002). In light of all this, while the …

Modelling Public-Education Spending Vs. Allocation As Independent Factors Of Educational Outcomes, Kevin Tasley

Undergraduate Economic Review

This paper explores and expands upon the work of Hanushek and Wößmann (2007) whose accumulated findings propose increased educational spending provides only marginal returns in terms of student’s cognitive outcomes. This study constructs an OLS regression model to explore the significance of U.S. state education spending and financial allocations as independent factors of state-level average ACT scores over a 10-year time series. The model additionally accounts for self-selection and socio-economic status. The results of this study support Hanushek and Wößmann’s conclusions while also demonstrating evidence that shifts in allocations towards instructional spending, as opposed to increasing total expenditures, could have …

The Influence Of Height On Academic Outcomes, Devon Haskell Gorry

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

This paper examines whether the height premium for academic outcomes is driven by unequal opportunities for tall individuals. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, this paper shows that taller individuals typically earn higher grades and attain more schooling, but the associations are not uniform across school size. Height is only associated with better outcomes for students attending large schools and these improvements are concentrated among males. Data suggest that height contributes more to sports participation and school satisfaction in large schools where resources are more scarce. Thus, differential opportunities or treatment across height in large schools …

The Impact Of Education On Political Ideology: Evidence From European Compulsory Education Reforms, Andrew G. Meyer

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Previous research documents a correlation between education and political ideology, usually indicating a positive relationship between education and left-wing political views. In this paper, I examine to what extent this association is causal. I merge political ideology data from 25 waves of Eurobarometer surveys with information on 18 educational reforms in 11 European countries. I then instrument for educational attainment with a regression discontinuity design that estimates the increase in education due to compulsory educational reforms. Notably, it appears that omitted variables bias is important here. I find a significant causal effect of education moving individuals to the right when …

The College Admissions Problem: Effects Of Income And Ability Of Postsecondary Education Outcomes, Martha Whamond

Honors Theses

This paper examines the effects of students’ pre-college income on student outcomes and college admissions decisions. Under the assumption that colleges maximize utility by maximizing student outcomes, a two-stage regression model for student outcomes is building using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the 1997 National Youth Longitudinal Survey (NLSY97). The first stage estimates a model for college quality using the IPEDS dataset. The college quality estimates are then used as independent variables in the second stage. The second stage estimates student outcomes as a function of pre- college income, ability, college quality, and demographic characteristics …

Education, Income, And Social Behavior Across Missouri, Gail Heyne Hafer, R. W. Hafer

Center for Applied Economics

This study investigates the relationship between education and several economic and social outcomes. On the economic side we consider the link between education and income. We also look at how education is related to health choices and social cohesion. Our basic question is: “What is the relationship between educational decisions made in the past and economic and social outcomes today?” Answers to this question reflect not only personal educational choices, but also shed light on the policy issue of why it is important to improve educational attainment.

Are Education And Economic Growth Related? Some Evidence From The States, R. W. Hafer

Center for Applied Economics

It seems common sense that the more educated someone is, the greater the chances that they will have relatively higher incomes. Indeed, on average someone with a college degree is more likely will have a higher lifetime stream of earnings than someone who only graduates from high school. Does this same relationship hold at the state level? Are states with better education outcomes also the states that tend to grow faster? More specifically, what does the evidence on Missouri’s educational achievement predict for the state’s economic future?

We investigate whether differences in economic growth across states are in part explainable …

Four Essays On A Student's Expectation That They Will Complete College, Martin Gray Hunter

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

It has been common practice in the economics literature to utilize data on observed outcomes and negate what individuals believe or expect will happen in the future. Using responses to a unique set of questions in the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) I show that the literature could benefit in several ways by incorporating such data. The leading essay documents a positive association between a student's subjective probabilistic belief that they will complete a four-year college degree and whether or not they attend and complete college. The results indicate the following. First, although overconfident, individuals as young as …

Does It Take A Village To Teach A Child? Lessons From Experiments In Education, Piyush Kuthethoor

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Why should we and how do we incorporate a community-based development model into the design, implementation and targeting of experimental programs? This project is motivated to create a useful theoretical framework or “lens” for development that reflects social reality, one which sees communities, the space of patterned, meaningful interpersonal relationships, as a locus of development. It is interested in ways that such a framework can help design adaptable policy innovations/developmental programs and come up with successful and sustained solutions to pressing human needs. First, a “lens” of community is developed for analysis using findings from behavioral studies, historic observations, philosophy, …

Degree Matters: The Impact Of A Leader’S Foreign Education On His Country’S Economic Development, Zhongyi Yu

CMC Senior Theses

I analyze the correlation between a nation leader’s foreign education experience and their nation’s GDP growth and economic freedom in African, Asian, and South American countries. There is a statistically significant correlation between a leader’s foreign education and the country’s GDP growth rate, especially in Africa. Data also shows that a leader’s foreign education is positively correlated with his country’s economic freedom. Despite the fact that the regressions can only demonstrate correlation as opposed to causation relationships among variables, further analysis of the results concludes that a leader’s education and the country’s development are reciprocal. The findings of this paper …

A Study Of The Factors Involved And The Strategies Employed By Michigan School Districts In Developing Deficit Elimination Plans, Sue C. Carnell

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to study the factors that contribute to financial deficits, examine the strategies used to reduce deficits, and explore the barriers that may prohibit the reduction of financial deficits. As part of legislative mandates, school superintendents are faced with creating a deficit elimination plan to reduce the financial deficits facing their districts. In 2013, the State of Michigan began to shut down financially challenged districts for the first time. School districts labeled as “deficit districts” struggled to remove the designation assigned to them. Fifty-eight traditional Michigan public school districts with financial deficits between school years …

The Effects Of Where You Grew Up On Your Future Opportunity, Christopher Josiah Lockwood

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Neighborhoods effect developing children from several areas. The influence that a community possesses can either bolster socioeconomic status or inhibit it. Some experiments have been done in the US to aid struggling families in disadvantaged neighborhoods that have produced significant results. This purpose of this senior project is to analyze and discuss the varying ways in which neighborhoods can affect its inhabitants (i.e. education, health/nutrition), the experiments aimed to helping poor families, and offer a possible solution to mitigate these issues.

Positive Education Federalism: The Promise Of Equality After The Every Student Succeeds Act, Christian Sundquist

Articles

This Article examines the nature of the federal role in public education following the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act in December 2015 (“ESSA”). Public education was largely unregulated for much of our Nation’s history, with the federal government deferring to states’ traditional “police powers” despite the de jure entrenchment of racial and class-based inequalities. A nascent policy of education federalism finally took root following the Brown v. Board decision and the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary School Act (“ESEA”) with the explicit purpose of eradicating such educational inequality.

This timely Article argues that current federal education …

Beyond The 'Resiliency' And 'Grit' Narrative In Legal Education: Race, Class And Gender Considerations, Christian Sundquist

Articles

Law schools have been struggling to adapt to the “new normal” of decreased enrollments and a significantly altered legal employment market. Despite the decrease in traditional attorney jobs, as well as the possibility that artificial intelligence systems such as “ROSS” will displace additional jobs in the future, there still remains a significant gap in legal services available to the poor, middle class, and immigrants. The integration of social justice methodologies in the classroom thus has become critically important to the future of legal education and of the very practice of law.

Many commentators on the future of legal education have …

It Is Expensive To Be Poor: Equity In Financing Education In Turkey (2004–2012), Elene Murvanidze

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Turkish government, under the rule of Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), (2002-2017) has conducted many educational reforms. Different researchers have evaluated effectiveness of those policies differently. Some claim that policies result in a more inclusive and diverse educational system, others argue that the reforms would rekindle child labor, increase child brides and condemn girls to illiteracy. In our research we measure the effects of educational reforms on equity in financing education (i.e., out-of-pocket expenditures).

After estimating Gini, Concentration and Kakwani indices, and graphing Lorenz and Concentration curves, we find out that education financing in …

The Success Of Bottled Water: The Hidden Costs Hurt Us And The Environment, Cassandra Sevigny

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Bottled water is consumed worldwide as both a matter of necessity and preference. People who need bottled water live in areas with compromised water sanitation, such as developing countries. People who prefer bottled water despite its higher price tag tend to live in areas that already have ready access to clean water, such as developing countries. These preferences for bottled water stem partly from taste and convenience, but are largely driven by advertising efforts by bottled water companies. The preference for bottled water leads to increased sales as well as increased cost. Costs include damages to health and the environment. …

Cognitive Performance Across The Life Course Of Bolivian Forager-Farmers With Limited Schooling, Michael Gurven, Eric Fuerstenberg, Benjamin C. Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Bret Beheim, Helen Davis, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Cognitive performance is characterized by at least two distinct life course trajectories. Many cognitive abilities (e.g. “effortful processing” abilities including fluid reasoning, and processing speed) improve throughout early adolescence and start declining in early adulthood, while other abilities (e.g. “crystallized” abilities like vocabulary breadth) improve throughout adult life, remaining robust even at late ages. Although schooling may impact performance and cognitive “reserve”, it has been argued that these age patterns of cognitive performance are human universals. Here we examine age patterns of cognitive performance among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of Bolivia, and test whether schooling is related to differences in cognitive performance …