What academics are really saying http://t.co/e5E4H0YRqf—
Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) February 14, 2015
Academic jargon decoded
06 May 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: academic jargon, data mining, philosophy of science, public intellectuals
The Ivy League universities are not immune to grade inflation
05 May 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: grade inflation
#Dailychart: All shall have prizes: grade inflation at Ivy League universities (live chart) econ.st/1twvZVk http://t.co/gKGgWOFGPr—
The Economist (@ECONdailycharts) September 10, 2014
Women are winning the human capital race | Kevin M. Murphy and Robert H. Topel
04 May 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, reversing gender gap
Why have women outpaced men? There’s little cognitive difference between the sexes, and males do better on standardized tests.
But Murphy, Becker, and Hubbard argue that women tend to have better “non-cognitive skills” than men do. Those personal skills and character traits such as persistence, self-control, and conscientiousness may help women excel academically and stay in school until they graduate.
The academic achievement gap actually starts before college: 25 percent more females than males took high-school advanced-placement tests in 2010, the Cleveland Fed economists find.
“There is a substantial gap between the measured high school performance of males and females,” Topel and Murphy write in a 2014 study, noting that female graduating high school seniors have, as a group, higher grade point averages than their male counterparts. “This high school gender gap in academic performance persists in the population that continues on to college.”
via Women are winning the human capital race | The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
College graduates don’t really notice recessions
02 May 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economics of education, great recession, human capital, labour economics, macroeconomics, occupational choice, politics - USA, unemployment Tags: College premium, education premium, labour demographics
Our monthly update on the question: should I stay in school? blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015… http://t.co/IaVxoAJmqe—
Josh Zumbrun (@JoshZumbrun) April 03, 2015
What is assortative mating?
02 May 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, economics of love and marriage, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice Tags: assortative mating
#Dailychart: Sex and money: How women's equality increases wealth inequality. econ.st/1kCYG1R http://t.co/dfrYJs4vBs—
The Economist (@ECONdailycharts) February 13, 2014
The payoff from investing in education is large in developing countries
30 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of education, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: College premium, education premium, educational attainment
15-year-old John Lennon’s report card
26 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, Music Tags: John Lennon, The Beatles
15-year-old John Lennon's report card says, “Too many wrong ambitions & his energy is too often misplaced": http://t.co/2xMThgXTzm—
Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) April 24, 2015
The economic and educational psychology case against making Te reo Māori compulsory in NZ schools
23 Apr 2015 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: do gooders, economics of languages, Maori economic development, network economics, Te reo Māori
The Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Davoy has called for Te Reo Māori to be compulsory in New Zealand schools. She said being bilingual would be “a real added advantage” to young Kiwis and more people knowing Te reo Māori would help race relations.
Learning another language is not a priority for the Pākehā children or Māori mokupuna when you consider the poor literacy rates among Māori, Pasifika and Pākehā. The priority for children in an English speaking country is to master English. Too many children leave school with inadequate reading and writing skills.
Figure 1: Prose literacy by ethnicity, 2011
Source: Literacy skills of young adult New Zealanders | Education Counts.
Lower levels of literacy and numerously are much higher among Māori and Pasifika children. Pākehā consistently having a larger proportion in the higher levels of prose literacy.
Figure 2: Prose literacy rates by ethnicity, 1996 and 2006
Source: Indicator 9: Literacy rates — Office of the Auditor-General New Zealand.
60%of Pākehā are above the minimum level of competence to meet the prose literacy requirements of a knowledge society. This contrasts with the majority of Māori and Pasifika who are below the minimum level of competence.
Furthermore, requiring children who do not have an aptitude for language or school in general to learn a language will reinforce in those who are not doing well that they are not very smart. This will give them more reasons to hate school and leave as soon as possible and never go back.
The key to helping children who do not have an aptitude to succeed greatly at school is to find the subjects where they do do well so they can get a good start to life. If students are not good at academic subjects, requiring them to do more academic studies such as study language is fool-hardy.
Taking resources, and more importantly, students learning time away from basic literacy skills will do little for a Māori economic development and race relations. This is because this taking resources and student learning time away from literacy and basic education will slow the closing of income gaps between Māori and others.
Language is a network good. It pays to join the largest network so you can communicate and do business with more people. The wage premium for immigrants learning English in English-speaking’s countries is about 15%.
Learning Te reo Māori will not help children in their other subjects. The psychology of the transfer of learning was founded 100 years ago to explore the hypothesis that learning Latin gave the student muscle to learn other subjects, both other languages and generally learn faster.
Educational psychologists found that Latin does not help much in studying other languages and other subjects. No significant differences were found in deductive and inductive reasoning or text comprehension among students with 4 years of Latin, 2 years of Latin or no Latin at all.
The reversed college gender gap
23 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap reversed gender gap
CHART: The Huge College Degree Gender Gap: Since 1982, Women Have Earned ~10M MORE US College Degrees Than Men! http://t.co/83JhRfwCLE—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) March 11, 2015
Should everybody go to college? Could everybody go to college?
22 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: College premium, economics of personality traits, education premium, IQ
The history of English mapped
21 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of information Tags: economics of language, English
But why would girls want to sit in a corner playing chess?
20 Apr 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice Tags: chess, economics of personality traits, lost boys, reversing gender gap
For a logical thinker, chess grandmaster Nigel Short missed the obvious move. Teenage girls have better things to do with their talents and in particular their superior reading skills than gaze over a chess board.
The 30 point advantage that 15-year-old girls have in reading scores in the PISA test – see the chart below – is equal to an extra six months schooling. Six months extra schooling explains many a gender and ethnic wage gap.
Having being a member of a few chess clubs, and run chess clubs and large chess tournaments, there are an unusual number of oddballs, eccentrics and mentally ill people who play chess.
The systematic evidence of a greater incidence of learning disorders, Asperger’s syndrome as well is bipolar disorders among teenage boys all encourage teenage boys to focus on chess if only to give an outlet to their obsessive behaviours.
It is for the same reason that socially awkward teenage boys may be attracted to computer programming if they have various obsessional disorders.
Who-d a-Thunk It? The new OECD Report on 15-Year Olds in 60+ Countries Finds Significant Gender Differences? http://t.co/X2rGVygPwF—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) March 11, 2015
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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