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1 – 10 of 812Md. Abdur Rahman Forhad and Gazi Mahabubul Alam
A minimum dropout age (MDA) requires potential dropouts to stay in school until graduation. Most countries have an MDA at least 16. An MDA greater than 16 requires potential…
Abstract
Purpose
A minimum dropout age (MDA) requires potential dropouts to stay in school until graduation. Most countries have an MDA at least 16. An MDA greater than 16 requires potential dropouts to stay in school for at least one more year, which immediately reduces their available time and opportunities to commit a crime in the community. This study aims to examine how a higher MDA reduces crime in the community. The authors then show a higher MDA helps potential dropouts to become an entrepreneur.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop an economic model of crime that shows how an MDA greater than 16 affects contemporaneous juvenile crime in the community. Considering an MDA of 16 as a benchmark MDA, a hypothetical example with simulated data on the USA is used. The authors then show how a higher MDA offers a financial opportunity for the professional development programs.
Findings
An MDA greater than 16 reduces crime in the community. Reducing crime allows preventing social and monetary cost on juvenile delinquency. This economic efficiency offers a financial ability for adolescent training and other development programs and thereby reduces unemployment and other adverse consequences of the society.
Originality/value
Unlike previous studies, the authors develop an economic model of crime that shows a hypothetical relationship between an MDA and contemporaneous juvenile crime in the community. A higher MDA allows more financial ability for juvenile development programs in high school to improve the entrepreneurial skills.
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Theodore F. Figinski, Alicia Lloro and Phillip Li
This study provides new evidence on the effect of compulsory schooling laws on educational attainment and earnings. First, we re-examine the effect of compulsory schooling laws…
Abstract
This study provides new evidence on the effect of compulsory schooling laws on educational attainment and earnings. First, we re-examine the effect of compulsory schooling laws for cohorts born between 1900 and 1964 (“older cohorts”) using newly available data that match administrative earnings records with the survey data. Second, we provide among the first evidence on cohorts born between 1977 and 1996 (“younger cohorts”). Our findings suggest that compulsory schooling laws increased the educational attainment of older cohorts, but had no economically significant effect on the educational attainment of younger cohorts. We are unable to find consistent evidence that compulsory schooling laws increased the earnings of older cohorts – a finding which adds to growing evidence that compulsory schooling laws are less beneficial than earlier studies suggest.
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This longitudinal study aims to understand the circumstances of and changes in student enrollment in Honduras by comparing geographically and socioeconomically different areas and…
Abstract
Purpose
This longitudinal study aims to understand the circumstances of and changes in student enrollment in Honduras by comparing geographically and socioeconomically different areas and students' year of school entrance.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample was made up of 4,043 students from seven primary schools in a regional city and the capital city. Students' enrollment patterns, schooling and trajectories from entrance to departure, whether as a result of graduating or dropping out, were examined.
Findings
The number of students who graduated without repetition increased, and most of the students accessed primary education at the official entrance age. However, grade repetitions and dropouts were observed in the regional city in particular, and differences were also found in the school departure age by region. In the regional city, continuation of schooling after a change in residence has become more common in recent years. Adopting an automatic promotion policy could be one strategy for reducing grade repetitions and dropouts; however, further discussion is required to prepare a remedial opportunity for students who might otherwise lack the minimum proficiency level.
Originality/value
Few studies have examined changes in school enrollment in Honduras from a micro perspective. This study contributes a practical approach to exploring educational trends in the region by explaining how students reached their final grades by tracking trajectories, which has not been observed so far in terms of the accumulated average.
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James P. Cover and Hoseong Kim
This study presents estimates of the effect of changes in the real minimum wage on the employment ratio of three groups believed to be most vulnerable to changes in the minimum…
Abstract
This study presents estimates of the effect of changes in the real minimum wage on the employment ratio of three groups believed to be most vulnerable to changes in the minimum wage: teenagers, young adults, and adult high-school dropouts. It also examines the effect of the minimum wage on three sub-groups within each of these larger groups: males, females, and nonwhites. The data set was obtained from the monthly outgoing rotation groups of the Current Population Survey (CPS), Three Budgets for Urban Families, and the CPI-W for various urban areas. The sample period is 1979–1999.
Virginia Wilcox-Gök, Dave E Marcotte, Farah Farahati and Carey Borkoski
Mental illness, in its various forms, is common in the United States. Tens of millions of Americans are afflicted by an episode of mental illness every year. Estimates of the…
Abstract
Mental illness, in its various forms, is common in the United States. Tens of millions of Americans are afflicted by an episode of mental illness every year. Estimates of the 12-month prevalence of mental disorders in the U.S. (including alcohol and substance abuse or dependence) indicate that 22–30 persons per 100 in the adult population are afflicted each year.1 An episode of a psychiatric disorder, like a physical disorder, is debilitating – often disrupting the ability of the afflicted to carry on normal personal, social, and work activities. Mental illness also commonly results in large medical expenses. In addition, a number of recent papers have found that mental illness imposes large labor market losses on the ill, decreasing the likelihood of employment and limiting earnings for the employed.2 In particular, research by two of the authors indicates that depressive disorders cause significant reductions in the labor force participation of women and the earnings of both men and women.3
Shivam Fijwala, Marek Palasinski and Neil Shortland
Given that how crimes are perceived by the general public influences their sense of community safety, police priorities and offending behaviour, and in light of little, if any at…
Abstract
Purpose
Given that how crimes are perceived by the general public influences their sense of community safety, police priorities and offending behaviour, and in light of little, if any at all, attention being paid to the determinants of such perception, the purpose of this paper is to examine their predictive value.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 150 English participants with diverse backgrounds (78 males and 72 females – mean age: M=24.3; SD=5.44) completed surveys on their perceived increase in violent, sexual and benefit fraud crimes, taking into account theoretically and empirically underpinned factors, like age, income, number of days unemployed in the last three years, number of years spent in formal education and machiavellianism.
Findings
The multiple regression results suggest that participants with less formal education and less income were more likely to see a rise in violent crime. They also suggest that participants with less formal education and longer history of recent unemployment were more likely to see a rise in sexual crime. It turned out, however, that the recent history of unemployment was not a significant predictor of the perceived rise in benefit fraud – only a high machiavellianism score was.
Research limitations/implications
This quantitative research paints a complex picture that could be complemented by follow-on qualitative studies.
Practical implications
The overarching message from this relatively modest study, therefore, which is part of a much larger and more complex ongoing research project, is to inform the public on crime in approachable and mass data-driven ways rather than leaving this to sensation-driven and selective scenario-focused media.
Social implications
Increasing people's sense of community safety is likely to improve their general well-being, community cohesion and trust in others without necessarily inclining them to take personal risks and falling victim to crime due to ignorance and gullibility. This, in turn, might help guide crime prevention strategies and contribute to the actual reduction in crime levels and safer communities.
Originality/value
Not only does this article offer insight into people's perception of different crimes, addressing an important and neglected research deficit, but is also cautiously proposes the need for more professional education of the public about crime figures.
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Magnus Lofstrom and John Tyler
In this paper, we develop a simple model of the signaling value of the General Educational Development certificate (GED) credential. The model illustrates necessary assumptions…
Abstract
In this paper, we develop a simple model of the signaling value of the General Educational Development certificate (GED) credential. The model illustrates necessary assumptions for a difference-in-differences estimator that uses a change in the GED passing standard to yield unbiased estimates of the signaling value of the GED for marginal passers. We apply the model to the national 1997 passing standard increase, which affected GED test takers in Texas. We utilize unique data from the Texas Schools Micro Data Panel (TSMP) that contain demographic and GED test score information from the Texas Education Agency linked to pre- and post-test-taking Unemployment Insurance quarterly wage records from the Texas Workforce Commission. Comparing Texas dropouts who acquired a GED before the passing standard was raised in 1997 to dropouts with the same test scores who failed the GED exams after the passing standard hike, we find no evidence of a positive GED signaling effect on earnings. However, we find some evidence suggesting that our finding may be due to the low GED passing threshold that existed in Texas for an extended period.
This study investigated the trends of repetition and dropout rates in Myanmar's lower secondary education before and after the introduction of the “Continuous Assessment and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated the trends of repetition and dropout rates in Myanmar's lower secondary education before and after the introduction of the “Continuous Assessment and Progression System (CAPS)” and probed the dependence of these tendencies on high-, middle- and low- socioeconomic status (SES). The obtained results were then examined to extract effective policy implications for the achievement of universal secondary education as specified in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Design/methodology/approach
Before and after the CAPS introduction at four government secondary schools, grade repetition and dropout rate trends were examined with respect to differences in students' SES. The analysis utilised a sample of 7,272 students from target secondary schools in urban Yangon Region, Myanmar.
Findings
It was found that since the introduction of CAPS, the grade repetition rates had fallen significantly in all SES groups, so was effective regardless of students' SES. The results also demonstrated the influence of unequal CAPS on dropout rates: in the middle-SES group, significant falls to nearly zero post-CAPS implementation. The high-SES group was at ceiling pre- and post-CAPS, so was unaffected. However, in the low-SES group, high dropout rates persisted, indicating that the poor socioeconomic backgrounds of these students significantly reduced the benefits of CAPS.
Originality/value
Rather than using cross-sectional data such as education statistics, this study used longitudinal data based on academic enrollment registries that included information on individual enrollment statuses, which allowed for the relationships between grade repetition, school dropout, education policies and socioeconomic circumstances to be elucidated.
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Dahir Abdi Ali and Ali Mohamud Hussein
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent of dropout students and identify the relationship between risk factors of dropout and the survival time of students.
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent of dropout students and identify the relationship between risk factors of dropout and the survival time of students.
Design/methodology/approach
The Kaplan–Meier estimator (KM), also known as the product-limit technique, is a nonparametric model function that is commonly used in estimating survival function events (Kaplan and Meier, 1958). The survival function's Kaplan–Meier estimators are used to estimate and graph survival probabilities as a function of time, as well as explanatory data analysis (EDA) for the survival data, including the median survival time, and compare for two or more of the survival events. In addition, Cox proportional hazards model is employed for modelling purpose.
Findings
Results of the Kaplan–Meier curves show that male students have lower survival rates than female, researchers have found that there is a difference between the survival times of the student's school types, results show students from English-based schools are higher than Arabic-based schools as suggested by the survival curve. Similarly, there is a difference between the survival times of students aging equal or greater than 25 and students aging less than 25 and survival function estimates of dropout according to high school grade marks has huge difference. These results were confirmed using log rank test as age, school type and marks were statistically significantly different while gender is not statistically significant.
Research limitations/implications
There is no study of this kind from the Somalia context about the student's dropout. Subsequent to the outbreak of civil war in 1988 and the collapse of the central government in 1991, all public social services in Somalia including education centers were severely disrupted.
Originality/value
The statistical methods discussed in the previous section will be applied on a real dataset obtained from different offices of the university; most of the data were extracted from faculty of economics office and admission and record office. The data set comprised of 70 students from SIMAD university, consists of full-time faculty of economics students who enrolled at the university in the academic year of 2017–2018 until two years of diploma, students either complete 24 months of diploma or leave the university and that is the event of interest.
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Meltem Dayioglu, Müşerref Küçükbayrak and Semih Tumen
Using a regression discontinuity design in tandem with a difference-in-discontinuities analysis, the study finds that increasing the minimum wage reduces the employment…
Abstract
Purpose
Using a regression discontinuity design in tandem with a difference-in-discontinuities analysis, the study finds that increasing the minimum wage reduces the employment probability of young males by 2.5–3.1 percentage points.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors exploit an age-specific minimum wage rule – which sets a lower minimum wage for workers of age 15 than the adult minimum wage paid to workers of age 16 and above – and its abolition to estimate the causal effect of a minimum wage increase on youth employment and education in Turkey.
Findings
The authors also document that, initially, the minimum wage increase does not lead to a major change in high school enrollment, while the likelihood of transitioning into “neither in employment nor in education and training” (NEET) category notably increases. However, in the medium term, the NEET effect is transitory; school enrollment increases over time and absorbs the negative employment effect.
Originality/value
The authors argue that policy effects have mostly been driven by demand-side forces rather than the supply side.
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