[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iae/iaewps/wp2007n05.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Importance of Observing Early School Leaving and Usually Unobserved Background and Peer Characteristics in Analysing Academic Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Guyonne Kalb

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

  • Sholeh A. Maani

    (Department of Economics, The University of Auckland)

Abstract
In this paper, we use a recent panel data set from New Zealand to examine the link between the academic performance and the decision by teenagers to drop out of school before exams at the end of year 10. These choices have significant lifetime economic impacts, since early school leaving in many cases closes pathways to further education. We address endogeneity and error correlation of potential performance in national examinations and school-leaving choices prior to exams. Birth month provides an instrument used in the equation for drop out, because those born in particular months can legally leave school before the exam takes place, whereas the other students cannot. The analyses incorporate the effect of academic ability (childhood IQ), parental education, family resources at different points in time while the child is growing up, and school and peer characteristics. The results show that those who drop out early are unlikely to have performed well in the exam. The predicted difference between those who drop out or continue, at least up to their exam, is almost completely explained by observed factors. Leaving out those variables which are often not available in other datasets (such as childhood IQ, childhood family resources and teenage peer effects), we find that the unobserved factors in academic performance and early school leaving are correlated. It is found that beyond childhood IQ and family resources, teenage peer and school factors have additional and significant associations with grade outcomes. This has important policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Guyonne Kalb & Sholeh A. Maani, 2007. "The Importance of Observing Early School Leaving and Usually Unobserved Background and Peer Characteristics in Analysing Academic Performance," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2007n05, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/working_paper_series/wp2007n05.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeff Borland & Roger Wilkins, 1996. "Earnings Inequality in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 72(216), pages 7-23, March.
    2. Carneiro, Pedro & Heckman, James J., 2003. "Human Capital Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 821, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Card, David & Rothstein, Jesse, 2007. "Racial segregation and the black-white test score gap," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(11-12), pages 2158-2184, December.
    4. Paul Gregg & Stephen Machin, 2000. "Child Development and Success or Failure in the Youth Labor Market," NBER Chapters, in: Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries, pages 247-288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Feinstein, Leon & Symons, James, 1999. "Attainment in Secondary School," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 300-321, April.
    6. Case, A.C. & Katz, L.F., 1991. "The Company You Keep: The Effects Of Family And Neighborhood On Disadvantaged Younths," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1555, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    7. Rothstein, Jesse M, 2004. "College performance predictions and the SAT," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt59s4j4m4, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    8. Maani, Sholeh A. & Kalb, Guyonne, 2007. "Academic performance, childhood economic resources, and the choice to leave school at age 16," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 361-374, June.
    9. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1995. "The Determinants of Children's Attainments: A Review of Methods and Findings," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1829-1878, December.
    10. repec:bla:econom:v:54:y:1987:i:216:p:465-75 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. repec:bla:econom:v:68:y:2001:i:270:p:137-56 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. David M. Blau, 1999. "The Effect Of Income On Child Development," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 261-276, May.
    13. repec:bla:econom:v:56:y:1989:i:221:p:25-39 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Rothstein, J.M.Jesse M., 2004. "College performance predictions and the SAT," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 297-317.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leão Fernandes, Graça & Chagas Lopes, Margarida, 2008. "ISEG Undergraduate Students: Determinants of Academic Performance," MPRA Paper 22082, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sholeh A. Maani & Guyonne Kalb, 2003. "Childhood Economic Resources, Academic Performance and the Choice to Leave School at Age Sixteen," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2003n01, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    2. Guyonne Kalb & Sholeh Maani, 2011. "How important are omitted variables, censored scores and self-selection in analysing high-school academic achievement?," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 14(3), pages 307-332.
    3. Maani, Sholeh A. & Kalb, Guyonne, 2007. "Academic performance, childhood economic resources, and the choice to leave school at age 16," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 361-374, June.
    4. Galindo-Rueda, Fernando & Vignoles, Anna, 2002. "Class Ridden or Meritocratic? An Economic Analysis of Recent Changes in Britain," IZA Discussion Papers 677, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Jesse Rothstein, 2019. "Inequality of Educational Opportunity? Schools as Mediators of the Intergenerational Transmission of Income," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(S1), pages 85-123.
    6. Marta E Barazzetta & Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D’ambrosio, 2017. "Childhood Circumstances and Young Adulthood Outcomes: The Effects of Mothers' Financial Problems," PSE Working Papers halshs-01622334, HAL.
    7. Francesconi, Marco & Ermisch, John, 2002. "The effect of parents’ employment on children’s educational attainment: 2002 ed," ISER Working Paper Series 2002-21, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    8. Andrew E. Clark & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Marta Barazzetta, 2021. "Childhood circumstances and young adulthood outcomes: The role of mothers' financial problems," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 342-357, February.
    9. Kalb, Guyonne & van Ours, Jan C., 2014. "Reading to young children: A head-start in life?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-24.
    10. Oscar Marcenaro-Gutierrez & Fernando Galindo-Rueda & Anna Vignoles, 2008. "Who actually goes to university?," Studies in Empirical Economics, in: Christian Dustmann & Bernd Fitzenberger & Stephen Machin (ed.), The Economics of Education and Training, pages 79-103, Springer.
    11. Maria Humlum, 2011. "Timing of family income, borrowing constraints, and child achievement," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 979-1004, July.
    12. Kathryn Yount & John Maluccio & Jere Behrman & John Hoddinott & Alexis Murphy & Usha Ramakrishnan, 2013. "Parental Resources, Schooling Achievements, and Gender Schooling Gaps: Evidence of Change over 25 years in Rural Guatemala," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(4), pages 495-528, August.
    13. Rosalind Levacic & Stephen Machin & David Reynolds & Anna Vignoles & James Walker, 2000. "The Relationship between Resource Allocation and Pupil Attainment: A Review," CEE Discussion Papers 0002, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    14. Pamela Lenton, 2006. "Where do I go and what should I do? Routes through further education," Working Papers 2006014, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised Dec 2006.
    15. Ermisch, John F & Francesconi, Marco & del Bono, Emilia, 2008. "Intrafamily Resource Allocations: A Dynamic Model of Birth Weight," CEPR Discussion Papers 6970, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. David Card, 2007. "How Immigration Affects U.S. Cities," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 0711, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    17. Paul Gregg & Carol Propper & Elizabeth Washbrook, 2007. "Understanding the relationship between parental income and multiple child outcomes: A decomposition analysis," CASE Papers case129, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    18. Takashi Oshio & Shinpei Sano & Miki Kobayashi, 2010. "Child Poverty as a Determinant of Life Outcomes: Evidence from Nationwide Surveys in Japan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(1), pages 81-99, October.
    19. Pierre Lefebvre & Philip Merrigan, 2005. "Low-fee ($5/day/child) Regulated Childcare Policy and the Labor Supply of Mothers with Young Children: A Natural Experiment from Canada," CIRANO Working Papers 2005s-09, CIRANO.
    20. Steve Bradley & Jim Taylor, 2004. "Ethnicity, educational attainment and the transition from school," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(3), pages 317-346, June.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2007n05. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sheri Carnegie (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.