6 - Education & Health Flashcards
What is human capital?
The quality of labour - skills and abilities of workers, both cognitive and non-cognitive.
The link between education and human capital?
Education is only investment into HC, not HC per se.
What do they mean with ends and means?
That HC and education is not only investments that contribute to development but also an outcome of development. For ex in different development measures, like HDI, we measure educ and health as development.
Is it enough to increase access to schools?
No, must focus on both quantity and quality of schools. Enrollment is just a first step to human capital, must make sure that children attend, are motivated, teachers’ presence, teachers’ skills, resources etc.
Gross enrollment rate (GER)
How many children in a specific school category (primary ex) divided by those who are in the right age. Often above 100 since some must repeat a year etc. More spread out in poor countries. Like a triangle narrowing against 100 for richer.
GER for secondary
An upward sloping line, which indicates that rich countries have a much higher GER for higher education, while the fitted line for GER for primary is quite stable around 100.
Mention 7 measures of education:
- GER (all ages)
- NER (right age)
- OOS (out of school)
- Grade completion
- Grade retention (don’t pass to next grade, drop-outs etc)
- Educational attainment (avg completed years for adults)
- Learning achievements/test scores (PISA + national tests).
Quality vs quantity biggest concern now?
Quality! Massive increase in number of schools, ex measured by distance to school, instruction hours etc. BUT this has lead to reduced quality…
Measure quality of education:
- school inputs: teacher attendance, teacher skills, resources per peers.
- teaching at right level
- test scores
- value added/students learning
Demand for education: simple model
Parents will demand school for their children if:
i+delta(w1-w0)>c+w0,
in other words, if the intrinsic value plus the discounted future benefits are larger than the cost of schooling + the wage lost during the school years.
What determines the expected returns, w1?
- Employment opportunities for educated labor
- Opportunities to use education in agri or self-employment
- Information of benefits
- School quality
- Who gets the return, child or parent?
- Complimentary assets
What determines the discount factor, delta?
Different between rich and poor HH, depends on access to credit (if access then invest is always better than not), hunger and stress of poverty, intergenerational transfers (richer parents transfer more to their children and educ is a good transfer).
What determines the cost, c?
- School fees
- Transportation cost
What determines the foregone wage, w0?
In poor areas, child labor is very common and w0 is determined by children’s work opportunities.
Ex. ban on child labor should increase demand for education.
Conditional cash transfers (for education):
CCT has proven to be good for creating incentives AND at the same time solve the liquidity constraints.
- Families receive cash, but only if their kids attend school.
(price effect - relative value of school in comparison to alt. increases)
Policies to increase demand for education:
- Scholarships
- Removal of fees/free books and uniforms
- School meal
- Medical services in school
- Improves transport
- Increased supply
- Information about benefits
- Child labor laws