Linking education, science and technology with national development is a subject of increasing concern in many developing countries. In this dissertation, we have studied empirically the contribution, or lack of it, which public investment in education, science and technology has made to the attainment of development objectives in Cameroon since 1960. Using a small computable macroeconometric model of Cameroon incorporating some major relevant quantitative aspects of the knowledge sector, we have investigated the effects on that sector and on the overall economic system of increased education- and research-service resources. We have also analyzed some of the major qualitative factors that are important in this sector. / Our results suggest that, given existing patterns of education, science and technology in Cameroon, the contribution of public investment in this sector may be small compared to the potential contribution suggested in the literature. The implications of these results are examined for policy-making and planning at the national level.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the skills development project which aims at developing income generating skills, impacts on the ability of unemployed women to generate income. Secondly, the researcher wished to know how the women who have been involved with the skills development programme, used the developed skills to generate income. The study, in order to document the experiences of the women in trying to gain these skills and to use them in generating income, has produced life histories of the women who succeeded in generating income after their dressmaking skills were developed. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

This thesis examines three different aspects of education policy to ascertain their effects on individual outcomes, both in the classroom and in the labour market. The goal is to provide new empirical evidence using robust identification strategies that can inform better policy. The first chapter looks at the role of pre-primary education in Germany using the German Socio-Economic Panel data set (GSOEP) to determine if attending an early education programme for longer increases the probability of attending a higher-level secondary school at age fourteen. I employ family fixed effects estimation and quasi-experimental analysis to control for selection. The results of the family fixed effects estimation show a small and negative impact of attending early education for more years. In the quasi-experimental analysis, based upon a federal law change in 1996, I find no impact of more years of early education on later schooling outcomes. In the second chapter of this thesis, I again use the GSOEP to examine the recent German reform to extend the length of the primary school day. I exploit the quasi-experimental roll-out of reform to assign treatment to women and look at whether increasing school hours increases the likelihood that mothers enter into employment or extend their hours if already working. I find that the policy has an effect at the extensive margin, drawing more women into the labour market, but that there is no significant impact of the policy at the intensive margin. In the final chapter I turn my attention to how peers' non-cognitive traits impact an individual's learning outcomes. Using an educational panel from Flanders, Belgium, I use the linear-in- means model of peer effects as well as several non-linear models to see how peers' personalities in a classroom affect Dutch and math scores. The results show that having more conscientious peers on average positively impacts Dutch and math scores, but that a greater dispersion of conscientiousness hurts Dutch outcomes. I also find that having more extroverted peers on average hurts math performance.

D. Ed. (Adult and Higher Education) / The aim of this study was to investigate and formulate criteria for distance education programmes at residential South African universities. The objectives of the study included the following perspectives: * Definition and conceptualization: to define and conceptualize the relevant concepts regarding distance education programmes for residential South African universities; * A perspective for change: to discuss the challenges faced by South African universities, comprising certain external and internal determinants, in order to justify the reconsideration of present university education programmes; * A perspective on residential university education: to analyze the composition and format of residential university education programmes. * A perspective on distance education university programmes: to analyze the composition and format of distance education university programmes. * A comparative perspective: to compare typical residential and distance education university programmes. * A perspective on the criteria: to design criteria for distance education programmes at residential universities, which could be employed as recommendations for implementing such programmes.

Decisions about marriage and childbearing, and the subsequent interactions between members of a family unit can have important individual and societal impacts on income, well-being, and economic mobility. This is especially true for women in developing countries, given limited female formal labor force participation, the economic significance of marriage markets, and the reliance on kin networks in the absence of formal safety nets. This dissertation consists of three essays that analyze how individuals form families, how those family members interact, and the subsequent impacts on the well-being of the family unit. The first chapter studies the effects of a rapid university expansion on access to education and family formation for women. The second chapter examines the long-term effects of a primary schooling expansion program on the prevalence of child marriage. The final chapter examines the long-term consequences of early life exposure to armed conflict on family formation. In the first essay, I analyze the impact of increased access to higher education on family formation outcomes for women in developing countries. Using a difference-in-differences design that accounts for the staggered nature of university openings, and a combination of household surveys and administrative data, I examine the impact of women’s exposure to a rapid university expansion in Nigeria in the 2000s on three key aspects of the family formation process - the likelihood and timing of first marriage and birth, their spouses’ characteristics, and the quantity and “quality” of any children produced in the marriage. I find that university openings improved years of schooling and educational attainment among school-aged women, and delayed the timing of the first marriage and childbirth of women. Women also had fewer births, and their children were more likely to have better development outcomes. I show suggestive evidence that these outcomes are driven by increased autonomy - women delay sexual activity and are more likely to work, use contraception and have the final say over important decisions. My second essay analyzes the impact of a 1976 universal primary education reform that provided free primary education to all school-aged children in Nigeria on the prevalence of child marriage. Using data from household surveys, I implement a difference-in-difference empirical strategy that exploits variation in exposure to the reform across birth cohorts and localities. I find that women exposed to the reforms acquired more schooling and the probability that women marry before the age of 15 reduces. However, there are no significant effects of exposure to the policy on the overall age of marriage, or the likelihood of marriage before the age of 18 on average. I present evidence on other marriage outcomes - men’s education increases, as does the spousal education gap. Furthermore, women desire and have fewer children, and are also more likely to be engaged in paid work. However, I find no effects on the spousal age gap or the husband’s age. My third and final essay explores the long-term effects of exposure to violent conflict onfamily formation in developing countries. Using a difference-in-differences empirical design that exploits variation in the intensity of war exposure by ethnicity and age, I analyze the long-term impacts of the 1967-1970 Biafran War on the family formation outcomes of men and women who were exposed to the war during their pre-adolescent years. I find that conflict induces men to delay first marriage and first birth, but there are no significant impacts on the timing of these activities for women. Both men and women who are exposed to the war have fewer children, and women also desire fewer children overall. Additionally, women who were exposed to the war have a smaller age difference from their husbands and are less likely to be married to men who have other wives. They are also less likely to experience domestic violence, on average. War exposure has no effect on the education difference between spouses, but women’s educational attainment increases, on average, while that of men decreases. Finally, I find no effects of war exposure on women’s relational empowerment, in terms of their attitudes to domestic violence and intra-household decision-making, but they are less likely to be engaged in paid work. This study contributes new evidence on the long-term impact of armed conflict on family formation in sub-Saharan Africa and shows how these impacts vary by gender and the age and duration of war exposure.

In this dissertation, I present an examination of the economics of education through three chapters. In the first paper, I study the overrepresentation of elite university graduates in senior positions in public administration. Using rich administrative data from Chile, I employ a stacked fuzzy regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of attending elite universities versus non-elite institutions on the likelihood of working in the public sector and attaining top positions within it. The findings suggest that while the observed disparity in top positions within public administration is largely a result of selection rather than inherent advantages of elite education, attending elite universities may enhance social mobility for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, particularly within specific majors. In the second paper, my coauthors and I propose an alternative approach using algorithms to predict college readiness and guide course placement. Drawing on experimental data from seven community colleges, the study shows that algorithmic placement increases placement rates into college-level courses without sacrificing pass rates. Moreover, algorithmic placement shows promise in narrowing demographic disparities in placement rates and remedial course enrollment, outperforming traditional placement tests in terms of predictive accuracy while mitigating discrimination. In the final chapter, I explore the relationship between school counselor availability and disciplinary outcomes in middle and high schools across the United States. Leveraging exogenous variations in student-to-counselor ratios driven by state recommendations and mandates, I employ administrative data from 26 states to estimate the causal impact of counselor availability on disciplinary actions such as suspensions, expulsions, and transfers. The results indicate that increased counselor availability reduces school disciplinary actions, with larger effects observed in high schools compared to middle schools. Moreover, speculative analyses suggest that the effectiveness of counselors in mitigating disciplinary issues may be complemented by the overall staffing levels in high schools. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of how educational policies and practices shape individual outcomes and societal inequalities, shedding light on avenues for promoting social mobility, improving educational access and equity, and fostering conducive learning environments.

This dissertation consists of three essays focused on policies that hold the potential to reduce gender and socioeconomic gaps in the developing world. The first two chapters focus on higher education while the last chapter focuses on STEM gender gaps during primary school. Chapter 1 looks at the impacts of new transportation infrastructure on access to college, college choice, completion, and early labor market outcomes. I use novel geolocated administrative data and a difference-in-differences strategy that exploits the rollout of two new public transportation lines in Lima, Peru. I document that a 17% decrease in commuting time to college correlates with a significant 6% rise in enrollment rates, predominantly observed in private educational institutions. Notably, among the beneficiaries of this transportation policy, female students tend to opt for low-quality private colleges connected to the newly established transportation lines. Conversely, male students are more likely to enroll in public colleges, which are more geographically dispersed across the city. I use a college choice model and find that for every standard deviation increase in post-graduation expected wages, male students exhibit a willingness to commute up to 55% longer than their female counterparts. Furthermore, over the medium to long term, improved transportation accessibility is associated with a 12% boost in college graduation likelihood and a 6% increase in access to white-collar employment. Chapter 2 studies the effects of an increase in college-quality information on graduates’ labor market outcomes. It takes advantage of new higher education reform that regulates universities’ compliance with a set of basic quality standards and awarded or denied operating licenses based on it. This new regulation resulted in 50 closures out of 144 institutions. Using administrative labor market data, I estimate a difference-in-differences approach that takes advantage of the staggered nature of licensing decisions. Using administrative labor market data and a staggered difference-in-differences approach, we find positive effects of positive news about graduates’ human capital: within one year of the licensing announcement,wages increase by 8%, employment by 7%, hours worked by 8%, and the likelihood of being employed in a large firm and the public sector by 6% and 5%, respectively. Most effects are concentrated among graduates with shorter or no tenure at their current job, while we don’t find significant effects for workers with longer tenure. This suggests that uncertainty about workers’ productivity is reduced over time, with public signals affecting workers’ welfare. Chapter 3 studies the case of a program that provides weekly science workshops to primary school girls and evaluates whether this program improves educational achievement, attitudes, and aspirations using an experimental design in Peru. We find no significant effects on girls’ academic performance until after 2 years of the program. However, we find that girls who participated in the program are more overconfident about their grades in science, have strong negative perceptions of non-STEM majors, and trade-off school time for personal projects.

Schools are among the most important contributors to human capital development. Over the past few decades, the education sector has witnessed two significant trends that highlight the complex challenges and opportunities that schools currently face. First, there is a growing concern over the quality of the public school system. In response, school choice initiatives have become increasingly common, proposed as a means to introduce competitive forces into the education market, thereby incentivizing incumbent schools to enhance their quality. Second, the impact of climate change on human capital development has become increasingly apparent. The education system is particularly vulnerable to disruptions caused by climate-induced adverse events, such as natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks, which are growing more frequent and severe. This dissertation examines the consequences of these two important trends, aiming to provide insights into their implications for education policy. In the first chapter, I study the impact of competitive pressures on school resource allocation and the consequent impact on student achievement. Using administrative data in North Carolina, I examine the impact of nearby charter openings on the class structure and the allocation of teachers to students within traditional public schools (TPSs). I find that TPSs experience a significant attrition of teachers and a disproportionate exodus of economically advantaged and high-achieving students to charter schools. Subsequently, TPSs reduce the number of classes, resulting in a significant increase in both class size and the student-teacher ratio. Faced with the dual pressures of enlarged class sizes and the necessity of maintaining school proficiency rates dictated by accountability systems, TPSs undertake measures to enhance the allocation equity and efficiency of teaching resources. This involves a strategic reassignment of more high-quality teachers to disadvantaged students, and the enhancement in teacher-student racial matching. These effects remain consistent after accounting for changes in the composition of both teachers and students at the school level before and after the introduction of charter schools. Exposure to charter schools does not significantly affect the average standardized test scores in Math for TPSs, but it does lead to a noticeable increase in school proficiency rates. The second chapter studies the implications of alternative school choice designs for the equity and efficiency in the allocation of teachers within TPSs. This chapter develops and estimates an empirical model of school choice and school competition to characterize how TPSs reallocate teachers to students in response to competitive forces from charter schools, and the subsequent impacts on the distribution of student academic performance. I use administrative data from North Carolina to estimate the model with standard structural model estimation techniques. I utilize the model to assess the policy implications of expanding charter schools, decomposing the policy's effects into those stemming from student sorting and those from the reallocation of teachers (via the competition channel). I find that expanding the charter school sector effectively enhances equity in the distribution of high-quality teachers within TPSs and reduces achievement gaps, primarily through the competition channel. Additionally, optimizing the matching process between teachers and students can further facilitate allocative efficiency as a result of this policy. The third chapter focuses on the distributional effects of climate change on human capital development, with an acute emphasis on the suffering of the most disadvantaged students. We examine the causal effect of unexpected school closures due to wildfires on student academic achievement and the underlying mechanisms. We exploit exogenous variation in the intensity of wildfire school closures in California between 2009 and 2017 as a natural experiment. We find that wildfire school closures have negative effects on both English language arts and Math test scores. Students with lower socioeconomic status experience larger negative effects from such unexpected closures. Furthermore, we show that school time loss and air pollution are two important mechanisms contributing to the decline we measure in student achievement.

This dissertation includes three essays that examine the economics of internationalstudents from three different perspectives in various contexts. The first essay examined the economic (monetary) return of international students who pursue prestigious graduate degrees in the United States. I studied the impact of attending graduate programs at prestigious U.S. institutions on graduates’ earnings for international students in the U.S. labor market. Using a combination of identification strategies including the propensity score matching (PSM) strategy as well as Oster’s (2017) selection on an unobservable approach, I found that international students who have attended graduate programs at more prestigious institutions in the United States have an earning premium of between 19% and 27%, compared with those who attended non-Tier 1 institutions in the United States. In the second essay, co-authors with X. Y. Ye and S. H. Yang, I investigated the graduateschool choice of a specific group of international students coming from one of the largest international student-sending countries, China (my home country). I provided new evidence on the factors influencing Chinese students’ graduate school choices internationally. I also constructed counterfactual policy simulations by examining what would have happened under different potential scenarios in both China and destination countries. The simulation results showed that the changes in Chinese college quality and family income are likely to affect the number of Chinese students studying abroad but not their distribution patterns among destination countries. In the meanwhile, factors including scholarship opportunities, work visa policies, and recruitment efforts in the destination countries would substantially shift Chinese students’ choice of destination country and, therefore, the specific graduate school location. The third essay examined whether the enrollment of international students at the graduatelevel impacts the domestic graduate student enrollment in the United States. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from 1998 to 2017 and fixed effects modelling to account for time and institutional trends, I found the enrollment of foreign graduate students crowds in domestic graduate student enrollment rather than displaces it. On average, for every 10% increase of international graduate students, the number of domestic graduate students increases from 1% at non-research universities to approximately 2% at research universities domestic graduate students. The magnitude of impact at research universities reduces as additional state-year and institutional type-year controls are added. Taken together, the dissertation contributes to the nuanced understanding of the return to studying abroad in the United States for international students, the behind-the-scenes factors that motivate and drive up such behaviors, and finally the impact that international students bring to the U.S. community when it comes to learning opportunities. The implications and ongoing discussions about international students will help further the collaboration agenda between the United States and the rest of the world in higher education.

Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2006 / The demand for continuing reform to technical and vocational education system and its products and services had been inevitable. The challenge for both the Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training Department of Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the Lerotholi Polytechnic had been to develop strategies, which would enable both economic and social goals to be realized. However, it had been a major concern that the present training system had been having some limitations and the Government’s investments in technical and vocational education produced un-healthy results and returns. The private sector had a poor few of the quality and relevance of the training offered by the public technical institutions; more specifically the Lerotholi Polytechnic, and majority of the labour market had been reluctant to employ the graduates from the institution. If quality assurance and relevance prevailed the private sector would send their employees, supervisors and managers for skills upgrading to the Lerotholi Polytechnic. The Government of Lesotho could promote its economic growth and poverty alleviation objectives if the existing tailored training substantiated to impact on the socio-economic development. The study was intended to investigate the impact of the Lerotholi Polytechnic programmes on the socio-economic development on Lesotho with special reference to Maseru district. The premises lied upon access to the Lerotholi Polytechnic technical and vocational education programmes, relevance of these programmes towards socioeconomic development, their quality assurance for the contribution towards the socioeconomic development and the training and learning strategies employed in the Lerotholi Polytechnic. Management issues such as planning, control and coordination also had to be envisaged with respect to the legal framework of technical and vocational education. Both the Lesotho Ministry of Education and Training Department of Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the Lerotholi Polytechnic formed the sample population whose responses had been triangulated in the quest for the imperative epistemic of the impact of technical and vocational education on the socio-economic development of Lesotho with special reference to Maseru district. Results had been presented and findings acknowledged. Recommendations had been advocated for the better functioning of the Lerotholi Polytechnic programmes in the contribution towards socio-economic development of Lesotho with special reference to Maseru district.