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We analyse the prevalence of bullying in Germany during COVID-19, both as in-person bullying (in our context: school bullying) and via social media and electronic communication tools (cyberbullying). Using Google Trends data from 2013 to 2022 and exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as a natural experiment when schools switched to distance learning, we document stark changes in the prevalence of (cyber)bullying in Germany: Our results indicate that during school years affected by COVID-19, online searches for school bullying decreased by about 29 percent, while online searches for cyberbullying increased by about 40 percent during the same periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a mechanism that gives students the option of paying higher tuition to attend their preferred schools. This seat‐purchasing mechanism is neither strategyproof nor stable. Our paper combines administrative and survey data to estimate students' preferences and conducts welfare analysis. We find that changing from a deferred acceptance mechanism to the cadet‐optimal stable mechanism reduces students' welfare but that adopting the observed seat‐purchasing mechanism alleviates this welfare loss. Moreover, students from affluent communities prefer to pay higher tuition to stay at preferred schools, while those from less affluent communities are more likely be priced out to lower‐quality schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a model with corrupt and honest examiners, and applicants with heterogeneous innate ability in the education sector with effort and bribe modelled as substitutes. The results show that ‘strong’ candidates rely only upon effort; ‘medium’ candidates choose positive levels of bribe and effort; ‘weak’ candidates rely only on bribery. They also show that corruption may decrease education quality by lowering aggregate effort while increasing education quantity by increasing the aggregate chances of obtaining a degree, depending on candidates’ ability and the proportion of corrupt examiners. We also find empirical support for the key predictions of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study examines the effect of forest loss on child health and educational outcomes in Indonesia, a country that has experienced one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. In line with the findings in the medical and biological literature that deforestation can encourage the breeding of malaria-carrying mosquitoes through changes in local ecosystems, our estimation results show that deforestation significantly increases child fever but not other infectious diseases, implying an increased incidence of malaria infection due to deforestation. In addition, the results from the education analysis show that children exposed to larger-scale deforestation in early childhood are afterwards more likely to fall behind academically in terms of years of education. Various robustness checks suggest that these adverse health and educational effects are driven by forest loss but not by other possible preexisting trends or confounders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conduct a randomised control trial at an Italian university to investigate the impact of test anxiety on high-stakes exams. Students are subjected to two different interventions – silence and music – designed to influence their pre-test anxiety levels. We monitored and compared individual biomarkers before and after each treatment to measure anxiety changes and their influence on exam scores. Our findings revealed that decreased mean arterial and systolic pressures enhanced performance in females, particularly under the silence treatment. However, no significant effect was observed in male students. This study suggests that test anxiety could contribute to gender-based performance disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes education, training, and the youth labor market in central and eastern Europe.

The research purpose of this paper was to explore the evaluation of skills by academic staff to improve the quality of the administration process in higher education institutions (HEIs) from two perspectives. Firstly, the authors investigated whether there are statistically significant differences between the genders of academic staff in higher education institutions regarding the evaluation of their skills and competencies. Secondly, the study aimed to determine if there are statistically significant differences in competencies perceived between academic staff of STEM sciences and those with academic experience in other sciences in terms of assessing their professional competencies. The purpose was determined by the impact of self-assessment of professional competencies on the improvement of administrative processes.

A mismatch between one's culture and that of the school they attended – cultural discontinuity – has been put forward as a reason for low educational attainment globally. This paper evaluates the cultural discontinuity hypothesis for Indigenous youth in Canada using the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. I find that Indigenous language instruction and cultural programming are generally associated with negative educational outcomes for the full APS sample. However, in communities with the highest proportion of Indigenous language speakers, and among a sub-sample who speaks an Indigenous language, such programming is more likely to be associated with educational success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study exploits the correlation between Yellow River flooding and human capital accumulation using county-level data from Anhui, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, and Shandong provinces in China. Employing a spatial regression discontinuity approach, we compare the differences in human capital accumulation within and beyond the Yellow River floodplain areas (YRFA). Empirical results show human capital accumulation in the YRFA is at least 12.1 percent lower than outside the YRFA. Furthermore, our results demonstrate intergenerational transmission and gender differences in the negative impact of the Yellow River flooding on human capital accumulation. The baseline specifications of this study are not affected by drought and overall natural disasters. This paper documents historical human capital accumulation, clan power, and social trust, through which Yellow River flooding has a long-term impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how private tutoring relates to students’ transitions to demanding post-compulsory schools and their success there, considering their competencies after tutoring but before the transition. Analyzing PISA and linked register data from Switzerland, we find that students who received private tutoring before the transition are more likely to struggle in selective schools compared to non-tutored peers with similar competencies. While our results are not causal due to the non-random nature of private tutoring uptake, our findings underscore a potential concern regarding selection mechanisms for entry into selective education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether delaying motherhood beyond the teenage years benefits children. We account for selection into teenage motherhood in two parallel ways: We compare children with their cousins and we exploit miscarriages as a natural experiment that induces some women to postpone childbirth. Across the two strategies, we find no or limited effects of teenage motherhood on children's health and educational outcomes. When we use women delaying motherhood to their early twenties as a counterfactual for teenage mothers, we show suggestive evidence that the effects of such delays are nil across outcomes for both strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A skilled principal is an invaluable asset in the evolving landscape of higher education institutions, where challenges continually arise and the global economy demands adaptability. This study explored the essential skills and knowledge necessary for principal roles in Islamic Economics and Finance (IEF) schools. A qualitative multiple-case study approach was employed, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 academics from four IEF schools at public universities in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The study revealed six essential skill and knowledge areas that IEF school principals must possess to thrive: advocacy for IEF education, developing and communicating a clear strategic vision, efficiently managing resources and workloads, fostering a collegial environment, providing effective instructional leadership, and building and sustaining strong partnerships. Improving the skills and knowledge of IEF principals can lead to better school management and education. The findings of this study hold significant importance in the advancement of leadership programs designed for IEF school principals and provide valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders regarding the indispensable knowledge and skills that principals of IEF schools must possess.

This paper examines how school quality, measured by teachers’ human capital, target setting, culture, tutoring, lesson plan, and outside classroom support, relates to student learning. Using panel data from Japan and exploiting within-student variation in exposure to school characteristics, the results show that these dimensions of school quality contribute to developing cognitive skills, especially of students initially in the lower end of the score distribution for Japanese, while the effects on math skills vary by students’ learning level and dimensions of school quality. Moreover, the analysis of non-cognitive skills suggests that disciplinary culture likely increases self-control of primary school students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic probation policies place restrictions on low-performing college students, incentivizing them to improve their performance or leave the program. We examine the effect of an intensive academic probation policy that includes mandatory study time. Using a regression discontinuity analysis and administrative data from the U.S. Air Force Academy, we find that placement on academic probation increases performance without increasing attrition and increases completion of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees. These impacts are surprising in light of research showing increased attrition and shifts towards easier course loads at other institutions, suggesting that more intensive interventions may help low-performing college students without discouraging program completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracking early in the school career can significantly influence a student's educational path. Using data from a Dutch cohort study linked with administrative records, we examine the gap in track recommendation between students from different socio-economic groups at the end of primary school. We find that students whose parents are not tertiary educated receive significantly lower recommendations on average. A decomposition of the total difference in track recommendations shows that differences in cognitive and non-cognitive skills can explain around 57% of the gap. Adding additional information about the family, school, and place of residence reduces the unexplained gap to 28%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I investigate the impact of the inflow of Syrian refugees to Jordan on school enrollment rates of 16–21-year-old Jordanians. Using an instrumented difference-in-differences identification strategy that utilizes the variation in the share of refugees across time and space, I show that the refugee influx resulted in a decline in school enrollment, primarily among males and youths with less educated parents. Next, I show that the effect would have been larger in the absence of post-influx investments in educational infrastructure in the most impacted areas. Finally, I show an increase in employment among Jordanian youths, pointing to a potential labor market mechanism for the estimated impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based mental health services (SBMH) may increase students' access to care, which could yield benefits for mental health status and human capital-related outcomes. We use a difference-in-differences design with 19 years of survey and administrative data to estimate the impacts of SBMH on a range of K–12 student outcomes. SBMH increases average outpatient mental health service use and reduces self-reported suicide attempts. There is weaker evidence that SBMH reduces suspensions and juvenile justice involvement and no evidence that SBMH affects average attendance, standardized test scores, or self-reported substance use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degrees are presumably the most important institution in education markets. However, despite their high relevance, degrees and their design features remain poorly understood within the economics of education. This study addresses this gap. We provide an accurate formal definition of what constitutes a degree and formulate the first theory of degree design. This theory is based on a technological platform view that interprets degrees as modules within a hierarchical structure resembling that of software architectures. This approach provides new opportunities to address questions of degree optimization. Furthermore, a novel strategy to optimize the design of school degrees is proposed. This strategy is expected to improve the learning environment of weaker students across all school types, leaving higher-performing students rather unaffected. The implications and limitations of our approach are also discussed.

In a world that has rapidly transformed through the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), our systematic review, guided by the PRISMA protocol, investigates a decade of AI research, revealing insights into its evolution and impact. Our study, examining 3,767 articles, has drawn considerable attention, as evidenced by an impressive 63,577 citations, underscoring the scholarly community's profound engagement. Our study reveals a collaborative landscape with 18,189 contributing authors, reflecting a robust network of researchers advancing AI and machine learning applications. Review categories focus on systematic reviews and bibliometric analyses, indicating an increasing emphasis on comprehensive literature synthesis and quantitative analysis. The findings also suggest an opportunity to explore emerging methodologies such as topic modeling and meta-analysis. We dissect the state of the art presented in these reviews, finding themes throughout the broad scholarly discourse through thematic clustering and BERTopic modeling. Categorization of study articles across fields of research indicates dominance in Information and Computing Sciences, followed by Biomedical and Clinical Sciences. Subject categories reveal interconnected clusters across various sectors, notably in healthcare, engineering, business intelligence, and computational technologies. Semantic analysis via BERTopic revealed nineteen clusters mapped to themes such as AI in health innovations, AI for sustainable development, AI and deep learning, AI in education, and ethical considerations. Future research directions are suggested, emphasizing the need for intersectional bias mitigation, holistic health approaches, AI's role in environmental sustainability, and the ethical deployment of generative AI.

The paper investigates the short-run job mobility of educationally mismatched workers, examining the validity of the Sicherman-Galor hypothesis, which predicts that overeducation is a temporary condition from a worker’s perspective associated with higher upward occupational and wage mobility. The study uses data from the Polish Labour Force Survey, investigating yearly changes in employment status, occupation, and wages. The results show that overeducated workers are more likely to remain employed compared to their properly matched colleagues. Both overeducated and undereducated workers tend to move towards jobs for which they are better matched. However, the rate of this adjustment is very low, contradicting the Sicherman-Galor hypothesis. On the other hand, overeducated workers, but mostly prime-aged ones, are found to experience faster wage growth compared to properly matched individuals, aligning with the Sicherman-Galor hypothesis. The higher wage growth of overeducated workers can be partially attributed to workers improving their match status over time.