Effects of Educational Policies
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021 12:15 PM - 2:15 PM (EST)
- Chair: Elizabeth Cascio, Dartmouth College
Returns to Education and the Impacts on International Students’ Enrollments and Selectivity: Evidence from the Optional Practical Training Program
Abstract
The United States remains the top destination for international students across the world. The Optional Practical Training (OPT) program provides international students the possibility to gain work experience in the United States during a 1 to 2-year period, typically following their graduation. We examine how extending the duration of OPT by 17-months for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) majors affects the quantity and selection of international students. We find sizable and positive treatment effects on the number of students registering into U.S. higher education. Furthermore, the OPT extension appears to have altered the type of student, raising the quality of students. The findings add up since extending the OPT duration confers international students another opportunity to secure an H-1B visa –a path to permanent residency and employment in the United States. Overall, the results as suggestive of the importance of facilitating permanent access to the labor market in order to induce the best and brightest to study in the United States.The Returns of an Additional Year of Schooling: The Case of State-Mandated Kindergarten
Abstract
In this paper, we examine the effects of state mandatory kindergarten requirements on long-run educational attainment and labor market outcomes. While in most states kindergarten began as a voluntary program, starting in the 1970s some states evolved to mandating kindergarten attendance. We exploit changes in state KG mandatory school entrance laws across states over time to causally identify the influence of an additional year of ECE on important individual education and labor market outcomes, comparing states with mandatory attendance to those with voluntary attendance. We exploit this natural experimental design using data from the confidential Restricted Data Center (RDC) 2000 Decennial long-form survey and the 2001-2015 ACS survey, which allow us to link exact birth dates (month and year) and state of birth with KG requirements information (i.e., mandates, birthdate/age cutoff for school entry, and the introduction of state-subsidized KG). Our analysis sample comprises pooled repeated cross-sections of individuals born between 1965 and 1987, thus exposed to changes in KG mandates between 1970 and 1992 at ages 30 and above. Findings indicate no overall impacts of mandatory kindergarten policies on educational attainment in adulthood, but substantial heterogeneous impacts, with women and Hispanic and Black individuals benefiting most in terms of educational attainment, poverty reduction, and income. Our findings indicate that states’ investments in universal early education pay off in the long run, and are equity enhancing.The Effects of the Child Care Tax Credit on the Educational Achievement of Children
Abstract
The Child Care Tax Credit (CCTC) is a child care subsidy program that encourages parents, especially mothers, to join the labor force. Previous research shows that the CCTC significantly increases the labor force participation rate of mothers, especially for married ones. How are children's well-being affected when mothers join the labor force and substitute maternal child care with purchased child care services? Potentially there are two main channels that the CCTC affects the educational achievement of children. The working mother brings in more income and the tax credit gives the family some extra financial resources, which help the development of the children. The tax credit also affects the mother's time allocation, and the change of time exposed to child care intensity also affects the development of the child. I document a comprehensive legislative history of the CCTC enactments, amendments, and repeals at both federal and state levels. Using the detailed CCTC variation generated by exogenous law changes and applying the variation on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I examine the short-term and long-term effects of the CCTC policy exposure at an early age on the educational achievement of the child. Preliminary results show that CCTC policy exposure at an early age has negative effects on the educational achievement of the child, which shows evidence that the mother's time allocation effect at an early age dominates the income effect of the tax credit for the marginal population.Beyond Teachers: Estimating Individual Guidance Counselors' Effects on Educational Attainment
Abstract
Guidance counselors are a common school resource for students navigating complicated and consequential education choices. I provide the first causal estimates of individual counselors' effects on high schoolers, using quasi-random counselor assignment policies in Massachusetts. I find that counselors vary substantially in their effectiveness at increasing students' high school graduation rates and college attendance, selectivity and persistence. Counselors' effects on educational attainment are similar in magnitude to teachers' effects, but they flow through improved information and direct assistance, rather than through improved cognitive or non-cognitive skills. Counselor effectiveness is most important for low-achieving and low-income students, perhaps because these students are most likely to lack other sources of information and assistance. Good counselors tend to improve all measures of educational attainment but some specialize in improving high school behavior while others specialize in increasing selective college attendance. Improving access to effective counseling may be a promising way to increase educational attainment and close socioeconomic gaps in education.JEL Classifications
- I2 - Education and Research Institutions