Chapter 1 examines peer effects in the take up of welfare within a school setting- free school meals. Data from the Pupil Level Annual School Census, which collects information on every child attending a school in the UK, is used, defining the peer group using the child's ethnicity and language. Hypotheses about the nature of the peer effect are tested. I exploit the introduction of cashless catering systems which removes stigma. Secondly, by comparing the peer effect for those who have claimed in previous years with those who have not, information is tested. Finally, I test a role model hypothesis. All three have an impact and information is most important for the most deprived. Chapter 2 examines the casual effect of education on teen births and child health. The increase in school leaving age to 15 and 16 increased the years of completed schooling; however, there was no effect of the introduction of new examinations. The compulsory schooling law change to 16 did increase the probability of holding a qualification and reduced the probability of a teen birth. Furthermore, the impact of the increase to 16 also - lead to improvements in birth outcomes, this was primarily driven by the mother having a more educated partner and a reduction in poverty. Other measures of child health are mixed and mostly did not improve. Chapter 3 (with Michele Belot, published in Journal of Health Economics (2011)) pro- vides field evidence on the effect of diet on educational outcomes, exploiting a campaign lead by celebrity chef J amie Oliver in 2004, which introduced drastic changes in the meals offered in the schools of one Borough - Greenwich - shifting from low-budget processed meals towards healthier options. We evaluate the effect of the campaign on educational outcomes using a difference in differences approach; using the neighbouring Local Edu- cation Authorities as a control group. We find evidence that educational outcomes did improve and that authorised absences - which are most likely linked to illness and health - fell by 14%.

This thesis consists of three stand-alone papers which address separate questions regarding the economics of education and formation of human capital. Family Background, Gender and Cohort Effects on Schooling decisions (Chapter 2) In this chapter we use unique retrospective family background data from Wave 13 of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) on different birth cohorts to analyze the relevance of family background, in particular parental education, and gender on differential educational achievement. We find parents' education attainments to be strong predictors of the education of their offspring. In particular, maternal education is the main determinant of postcompulsory educational attainment. Our results are robust to the inclusion of a large set of control variables, including household income. Secondly, we investigate whether the large expansion of the UK educational system during recent decades has concurred with enhanced relative educational opportunities for children of parents with low educational background. The analysis reveals that the relevance of parental education over time becomes stronger in terms of achieving higher educational levels, in particular university degree. However, there are significant dissimilarities with respect to gender differences. Particularly, we observe a positive secular trend in female education attainment associated to maternal education . What Determines Post-Compulsory Educational Choice? Evidence from the longitudinal Study of Young People in England (written with Yu Zhu and William Collier) (Chapter 3) This chapter is concerned with the detenninants of educational choices, including the choice between the academic and vocational pathway, immediately after the completion of compu1sory education. Using a unique dataset which is rich in both family background and , - I attamment in education, we flnd that educational attainments at the end of the compulsory (.schooling stage are powerful predictors for post-compulsory educational choices in England. In particular, the single academic success indicator of achieving the Government's gold standard in GCSE, is able to explain around 30% of the variation in the proportion of young people studying for academic qualifications. In contrast, all family background variables streamlined explain no more than 14% of the variation in the decision to pursue an academic qualification upon completion of compulsory education at age 16. Instrumental-variables estimation which exploits variations in birth weight and school starting age suggest that over half of the least-squares effect of achieving the gold standard in GCSEs on studying for academic qualifications is due to individual heterogeneity (ability bias) or simultaneity bias (reverse causation). Nonetheless, conditional on the young person working towards a higherlevel qualification, we find strong evidence of a highly significant causal effect of achieving the gold standard when choosing between the academic or vocational pathway. A Longitudinal Perspective on Higher Education participation in the UK (Chapter 4) This final chapter is based on the first seven waves of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) that allow us to follow a recent cohort of pupils from age 14 through to Higher Education (HE) participation at age 19/20. Therefore, our approach involves using rich individual data that have been linked to school level infonnation and geographic markers to examine some of the factors determining HE participation for individuals who were in Year 11 in 2005106 and who could therefore flC5t enter HE in 2008/2009 . Our results indicate that differences in HE participation (including studying a science degree and attending prestigious universities) between students coming from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds are large and that much of the socia-economic - gap in HE participation rates is driven by particularly low participation rates for students at the bottom of the income distribution. However, when we introduce controls for prior educational attainment, student's expectations towards university, academic results during secondary schooling and type of school attended, these gaps in participation are substantially reduced:-Our analysis suggests that one of the main challenges to widening participation for pupils from poorer socia-economic backgrounds is early policy interventions at, say, age 11 are likely to have an important effect in HE participation. Also, relatively later interventions (at ages 14 to 16) which aim to improve the educational aspirations of teenagers and to target better GCSEs results will further close this gap.

The Thesis examines the development of technical education from the Great Exhibition (1851). Against the background of educational thought and practice and working class demand for educational facilities, it shows how changing economic conditions rendered-the growth of technical education an urgent necessity. Expressed through such agencies as were provided by International exhibitions, the demand for technical education was articulated through middle and working class agencies and experimentally met through such educational agencies as Schools of Design. Intensified foreign competition indicated the need of this development and depression after 1873 intensified it. The Technical Education Act of 1889 has its origin in growing pressure thus engendered and represents an acceptance by Parliament of a need demonstrated through half a century of working class and middle class discussion and pressure.

No description available.

Même s’il existe une production de ressources pédagogiques s’appuyant sur des exemples pris en Guadeloupe ou dans son environnement, l’enseignement des sciences économiques et de gestion ne nous semble pas y avoir été considéré comme objet d’étude, alors qu’il interroge des composantes fondamentales du contexte de ce territoire comme la situation socio-économique et l’environnement réglementaire. Cette étude porte sur le fonctionnement de certains Brevets de Technicien Supérieur en Guadeloupe (BTS), diplôme professionnel français se préparant en deux ans après le baccalauréat, dont les programmes et critères d’évaluation sont nationaux. Les lauréats sont supposés pouvoir s’insérer immédiatement dans le monde professionnel, en particulier dans leur environnement géographique local et sont préparés à cette insertion par des stages en entreprises. Nous nous intéressons à la tension pouvant résulter d’une définition nationale du diplôme, le plus souvent en référence à des réalités de l’hexagone et le contexte local d’enseignement et d’insertion professionnelle, éloigné sur les plans sociaux-économiques et règlementaires. De manière plus précise, nous questionnons en premier lieu les conceptions de professeurs de ces BTS au regard de cette tension : existe-elle pour eux ? Comment la prenne-t-elle éventuellement en compte dans leur action pédagogique ? Ce questionnement a permis de préparer le second volet de notre étude, auprès d’étudiants de BTS. En effet, la question de l’insertion professionnelle ressort comme importante dans les propos des professeurs. Nous avons donc voulu savoir comment, au fil des stages – moments privilégiés de modification des représentations sociales des étudiants – leur projet professionnel s’affinait. Avant de réaliser ces enquêtes, nous avons dressé un paysage de la place du BTS en Guadeloupe et choisi de concentrer notre travail sur deux BTS, assistant de manager et tourisme, le premier possédant des prescrits faisant que peu référence à l’environnement du déroulement de la formation à l’opposé du second. Nous souhaitions ainsi pouvoir établir une comparaison basée sur ce que nous avons appelé l’ancrage contextuel d’une formation. La première enquête a été réalisée auprès de professeurs en économie-gestion des deux BTS retenus sous forme d’entretiens semi-directifs. Notre objectif était donc d’appréhender leurs conceptions et leurs pratiques déclarées quant à la contextualisation didactique. Les professeurs, faisant état d’effets de contexte occasionnés par la tension susmentionnée, déclarent en tenir compte dans leurs enseignements des sciences économiques et de gestion, en contextualisant leurs pratiques. Cependant, ces contextualisations restent limitées, les professeurs se sentant contraints par le cadre national du diplôme. Par exemple, en BTS tourisme, les décalages entre le contexte local et celui de l’hexagone peuvent provenir d’une mutation moins accomplie en Guadeloupe (au moment de l’enquête) vers la « tourismatique » (informatique appliquée au tourisme). En BTS assistant de manager, ces décalages peuvent résider dans les spécificités du contexte économique et fiscal comme par exemple, les régimes différents de TVA ou l’existence de l’octroi de mer en Guadeloupe : les professeurs hésitent à enseigner les règles en vigueur en Guadeloupe, de peur de pénaliser leurs étudiants lors des examens définis nationalement. Cette enquête a donc révélé l’existence de paradoxes, entre les visées professionnalisantes des BTS et les prescrits (référentiels, examens…) définis nationalement, et donc (partiellement) inadaptés aux divers contextes d’exercice des métiers. En ce qui concerne les étudiants, une enquête longitudinale par questionnaires a été menée auprès d’une cohorte de chacun des BTS retenus, sur la durée de la formation. / Even if there is a production of educational resources based on examples in Guadeloupe or its environment, the teaching of the economics sciences and management was not considered as an object of scientific study, though it questions fundamental components of the context of this territory like the socioeconomic situation and the regulatory environment. This study concerns the functioning of some French BTS (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur / Advanced Technician Certificate), a professional diploma prepared in two years after the “baccalaureat”, with national programs and evaluation criteria. The successful candidates are supposed to be immediately employable, especially in their local geographical environment, and are prepared for that by professional training sessions in companies. We are interested in a paradox which can be the result of the national definition of the diploma, in reference to the French mainland realities and the local contexts of teaching and of professional integration, far from the socio-economic and regulatory plans. Firstly, we wonder about the point of view of the teachers of those “BTS” about this paradox: does it exist for them? How is it taken into account in their educational action? These questions allowed us to prepare the second part of this study, among students of BTS. Indeed teachers think that the occupational integration is important. We wanted to know how, during and after professional training sessions– privileged moments for modification of the social representations of the student – their professional project became refined. Before doing these inquiries, we drew up a landscape of the place of the BTS in Guadeloupe and chose to focus our study on two BTS, namely assistant manager [deputy manger] and tourism. The first with programs with few references to the environment of the training, contrary to the second. We wanted to ensure a comparison on what we called the anchoring contextual of a training. In the first survey, we conducted semi-structured interview with Guadeloupean teachers of the two BTS mentioned previously. Our objective was to grasp their conceptions and their practices declared about the contextualization of didactics. The teachers, mentioned context effects, by the paradox mentioned previously and declare to take it account in their teachings of the economics sciences and management by contextualizating their practices. However, these contextualizations remain limited, the teachers feeling forced by the national frame of the diploma. For example, in BTS tourism, the gaps between the local context and the French mainland can result from a transformation less accomplished in Guadeloupe (at the time of the survey) towards the “tourismatique” (computing applied to tourism). In BTS assistant manager, these gaps may stay in the specificities of the economic and fiscal context as for example, the different sets of VAT or the existence of the duck dues in Guadeloupe: these adaptations remain limited by fear of disadvantaging the students for the national exam. This demonstrates paradoxes between the professionalizing aim of the BTS and its programs (exams), and thus (partially) unsuitable for the different contexts of the jobs background.

Στην παρούσα εργασία διερευνήθηκαν οι προσδιοριστικοί παράγοντες του βαθμού αποφοίτησης των πτυχιούχων των τμημάτων Οικονομικής Επιστήμης στην Ελλάδα. Τα στοιχεία που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για τους σκοπούς της ανάλυσης προέρχονται από τα δευτερογενή δημοσιευμένα στοιχεία της Ελληνικής Στατιστικής Αρχής και αφορούν απόφοιτους σε επίπεδο πανεπιστημιακού τμήματος για τα έτη 2001-2007. Ως δείκτες επίδοσης χρησιμοποιήθηκε το ποσοστό των αποφοίτων με βαθμό πτυχίου " Άριστα", "Λίαν Καλώς" και "Καλώς". Στην εμπειρική ανάλυση χρησιμοποιήθηκαν υποδείγματα τύπου "fractional logit" επειδή η προς εξέταση μεταβλητή εμφανίζεται σε ποσοστά. Με βάση προγενέστερες μελέτες, κυρίως σε διεθνές επίπεδο, ως ερμηνευτικές μεταβλητές χρησιμοποιήσαμε το βαθμό εισαγωγής στα τμήματα Οικονομικής Επιστήμης που εξετάζουμε, την παλαιότητα των τμημάτων, το ποσοστό των φοιτητών που φοιτούν στον τόπο μόνιμης κατοικίας τους, την πληθυσμιακή πυκνότητα των νομών όπου είναι εγκατεστημένα τα τμήματα, τους δείκτες ερευνητικής επάρκειας των μελών ΔΕΠ και την αναλογία μελών ΔΕΠ σε κάθε βαθμίδα προς το σύνολό τους. Ακόμα συμπεριλάβαμε το έτος αποφοίτησης, αλλά και την αναλογία εγγεγραμμένων φοιτητών στα πλαίσια του κανονικού ορίου φοίτησης (συνολικά και μόνο τις γυναίκες) και φοιτητών πέραν του κανονικού ορίου φοίτησης προς το σύνολο των εγγεγραμμένων φοιτητών αντίστοιχα. Σε γενικές γραμμές σύμφωνα με τα ευρήματα της παρούσας ανάλυσης ο βαθμός αποφοίτησης των πτυχιούχων των τμημάτων Οικονομικής Επιστήμης δεν διαμορφώνεται με τον ίδιο τρόπο αλλά φαίνεται να διαφέρει συστηματικά μεταξύ των τμημάτων. Ειδικότερα, ο βαθμός εισαγωγής αποτελεί βασικό προσδιοριστικό παράγοντα του βαθμού επίδοσης, αποτέλεσμα που συμβαδίζει με τη διεθνή εμπειρική ένδειξη. Περαιτέρω, εμφανίζεται σημαντική η αναλογία μελών ΔΕΠ σε κάθε βαθμίδα προς το σύνολό τους αλλά και το έτος αποφοίτησης. / In this study we investigated the determinants of degree performance of graduates of Economic Departments in Greece.