<p> Abstract of Dissertation Loan Awarding Practices and Student Demographic Variables as Predictors of Law Student Borrowing This study examined the effect of institutional loan awarding practices and student demographic characteristics on law student borrowing, in order to contribute to our understanding of student borrowing decisions. Behavioral economic concepts like framing and status quo bias suggest that decisions about borrowing may not be made using a rational cost-benefit analysis alone, as traditional economic theory suggests, but may also be influenced by the loan amount that an institution initially awards a student. The amount initially awarded represents the status quo, which, for a variety of possible reasons, the student may be inclined to accept, even if he is eligible to borrow more. </p><p> Using three years of student borrowing data from a law school, multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the effect of initial loan amount offered and 15 additional independent variables on loan amount borrowed. The law school data provided a unique opportunity to study student loan borrowing decisions because the institution followed two different loan awarding practices in the three academic years for which data was obtained. This provided a quasi-experimental environment in which to study the effect of initial loan amount awarded on loan amount borrowed. </p><p> Altogether, the model explained nearly half of the variance in loan amount borrowed and initial loan amount offered explained 5.4 percent of the variance in loan amount borrowed holding all other variables in the model constant. In addition to initial loan amount offered, the following variables were also found to be statistically significant predictors of loan amount borrowed: Asian race, age, being married, Expected Family Contribution, cost of attendance, class level, student status, total credits, and total non-loan aid. It was also found that there was no statistically significant difference in the relation between initial loan amount offered and loan amount borrowed in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, under the old awarding practice, as compared with 2010-2011, when a new awarding practice was in place. This suggests that students responded similarly to the initial loan amount offered, or the status quo amount, under both the old and new awarding practices.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Michigan, 2005. / (UnM)AAI3186741. Chair: Jana Nidiffer. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-08, Section: A, page: 2862.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Iowa State University, 2007. / Abstract. Bibliography: leaves 143-151.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-85) Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-85).

Esta tese é composta por três ensaios relacionados à educação e cultura. O primeiro deles mensura o impacto do capital cultural do professor, medido através da frequência a atividades culturais, sobre o aprendizado em língua portuguesa e matemática dos alunos do 5º ano do ensino fundamental de escolas brasileiras. Para estabelecer uma relação causal, instrumentaliza-se o capital cultural dos professores pela oferta de atividades culturais do município. Os resultados encontrados indicam que o capital cultural dos professores tem efeito positivo apenas para o aprendizado das crianças em língua portuguesa. Quando adiciona-se controle de qualidade educacional da escola em uma amostra restrita às escolas públicas brasileiras, o coeficiente de interesse continua significativo, porém com menor magnitude. Os mecanismos encontrados para os resultados são que professores com maior capital cultural incentivam de alguma forma as crianças a consumirem bens e serviços culturais, além de utilizar mais, em sala de aula, livros de leitura em geral. O segundo ensaio visa avaliar a política de meia entrada para estudantes no consumo de bens e serviços culturais no Brasil. A metodologia empregada explora as diferentes datas de criação das leis da meia entrada entre os estados brasileiros utilizando os modelos de Diferenças-em-Diferenças (DD) e Diferenças Triplas (DDD). Os resultados encontrados no presente trabalho sugerem que a criação da lei da meia entrada teve efeitos positivos tanto em termos de aumento na probabilidade dos estudantes consumirem bens e serviços culturais como em elevar seus gastos com esse tipo de bem. Por fim, o terceiro ensaio avalia se qualificações dos docentes têm efeitos nos impactos das características da turma sobre o aprendizado escolar individual. Foram consideradas como características da turma medidas de composição relacionadas à raça, nível socioeconômico e educação familiar. A metodologia empregada no presente trabalho controla para características observadas dos alunos e dos professores, além de características não observadas de escolas, através do método de efeitos fixos. Os resultados, em geral, apontam que efeito da qualidade do professor na nota dos alunos em exames de proficiência, via características das turmas, sempre é maior em turmas cujo aluno, em função de sua cor, não é uma minoria e onde a proporção de alunos com pais analfabetos é menor. A única exceção é quando analisa-se, para as notas de alunos negros, a variável “Capital cultural do professor” e a característica da turma “Proporção de alunos negros”. Nesse caso, a presença do professor com maior capital cultural na turma resulta em um acréscimo maior das notas de alunos negros em turmas onde o negro é uma minoria do que em turmas onde ele é uma maioria. / This thesis consists of three essays related to education and culture. The first one measures the impact of cultural capital of teachers, measured by the frequency of cultural activities, on portuguese and mathematics learning in 5th grade students. We use the city provision of cultural activities as instruments for teachers’ cultural capital to establish a causal relationship . The results indicate teachers’ cultural capital has a positive effect only for children’s portuguese learning. When we add control of education quality of schools in a sample for Brazilian public schools, the coefficient of interest remains significant, but lower. We found two mechanisms for these findings. First, teachers with high cultural capital levels encourage children to demand cultural goods and services. Second, teachers with high cultural capital levels encourage children to read books inside the classroom. In the second essay, we estimate the effects of the law of half price tickets on the consumption of cultural goods and services of Brazilian students using samples collected for all metropolitan regions from the Household Budget Surveys (HBS), carried out in 1987/88, 1995 / 96, 2002/03 and 2008/09. We evaluate the effects of the law on the proportion of students that consume cultural goods and changes in their expenses with those goods. We explore the time differences of the creation of those laws among Brazilian states to estimate a causal relationship using the Difference-in-differences (DD) and Triple differences (DDD) methodology. We found that the creation of law of half price tickets had positive effects on increasing the students likelihood to consume cultural goods and services and on raising their spending with those goods. Finally, the third essay evaluates whether teachers’ qualifications have effects on the impact of classroom characteristics on individual scholar achievement. We considered as classroom characteristics measures related to race, socioeconomic status and family education. The methodology used in this study controls for observed characteristics of students and teachers, as well as unobserved characteristics of schools using the fixed effects model. The results indicate that the effect of teacher quality on students proficiency examinations, through characteristics of classroom, is always higher on classroom which students, depending on their color, are not a minority and where the proportion of students with illiterate parents is lower. The only exception is when we analyze, for achievements of black students, the variable "Cultural capital of the teacher" and the classroom characteristic "Proportion of black students." In this case, the presence of the teacher with higher cultural capital level in classrooms generates greater increase for black students in classes where the black is minority than in classes where they are majority.

Esta tese é composta por três ensaios relacionados à educação e cultura. O primeiro deles mensura o impacto do capital cultural do professor, medido através da frequência a atividades culturais, sobre o aprendizado em língua portuguesa e matemática dos alunos do 5º ano do ensino fundamental de escolas brasileiras. Para estabelecer uma relação causal, instrumentaliza-se o capital cultural dos professores pela oferta de atividades culturais do município. Os resultados encontrados indicam que o capital cultural dos professores tem efeito positivo apenas para o aprendizado das crianças em língua portuguesa. Quando adiciona-se controle de qualidade educacional da escola em uma amostra restrita às escolas públicas brasileiras, o coeficiente de interesse continua significativo, porém com menor magnitude. Os mecanismos encontrados para os resultados são que professores com maior capital cultural incentivam de alguma forma as crianças a consumirem bens e serviços culturais, além de utilizar mais, em sala de aula, livros de leitura em geral. O segundo ensaio visa avaliar a política de meia entrada para estudantes no consumo de bens e serviços culturais no Brasil. A metodologia empregada explora as diferentes datas de criação das leis da meia entrada entre os estados brasileiros utilizando os modelos de Diferenças-em-Diferenças (DD) e Diferenças Triplas (DDD). Os resultados encontrados no presente trabalho sugerem que a criação da lei da meia entrada teve efeitos positivos tanto em termos de aumento na probabilidade dos estudantes consumirem bens e serviços culturais como em elevar seus gastos com esse tipo de bem. Por fim, o terceiro ensaio avalia se qualificações dos docentes têm efeitos nos impactos das características da turma sobre o aprendizado escolar individual. Foram consideradas como características da turma medidas de composição relacionadas à raça, nível socioeconômico e educação familiar. A metodologia empregada no presente trabalho controla para características observadas dos alunos e dos professores, além de características não observadas de escolas, através do método de efeitos fixos. Os resultados, em geral, apontam que efeito da qualidade do professor na nota dos alunos em exames de proficiência, via características das turmas, sempre é maior em turmas cujo aluno, em função de sua cor, não é uma minoria e onde a proporção de alunos com pais analfabetos é menor. A única exceção é quando analisa-se, para as notas de alunos negros, a variável “Capital cultural do professor” e a característica da turma “Proporção de alunos negros”. Nesse caso, a presença do professor com maior capital cultural na turma resulta em um acréscimo maior das notas de alunos negros em turmas onde o negro é uma minoria do que em turmas onde ele é uma maioria. / This thesis consists of three essays related to education and culture. The first one measures the impact of cultural capital of teachers, measured by the frequency of cultural activities, on portuguese and mathematics learning in 5th grade students. We use the city provision of cultural activities as instruments for teachers’ cultural capital to establish a causal relationship . The results indicate teachers’ cultural capital has a positive effect only for children’s portuguese learning. When we add control of education quality of schools in a sample for Brazilian public schools, the coefficient of interest remains significant, but lower. We found two mechanisms for these findings. First, teachers with high cultural capital levels encourage children to demand cultural goods and services. Second, teachers with high cultural capital levels encourage children to read books inside the classroom. In the second essay, we estimate the effects of the law of half price tickets on the consumption of cultural goods and services of Brazilian students using samples collected for all metropolitan regions from the Household Budget Surveys (HBS), carried out in 1987/88, 1995 / 96, 2002/03 and 2008/09. We evaluate the effects of the law on the proportion of students that consume cultural goods and changes in their expenses with those goods. We explore the time differences of the creation of those laws among Brazilian states to estimate a causal relationship using the Difference-in-differences (DD) and Triple differences (DDD) methodology. We found that the creation of law of half price tickets had positive effects on increasing the students likelihood to consume cultural goods and services and on raising their spending with those goods. Finally, the third essay evaluates whether teachers’ qualifications have effects on the impact of classroom characteristics on individual scholar achievement. We considered as classroom characteristics measures related to race, socioeconomic status and family education. The methodology used in this study controls for observed characteristics of students and teachers, as well as unobserved characteristics of schools using the fixed effects model. The results indicate that the effect of teacher quality on students proficiency examinations, through characteristics of classroom, is always higher on classroom which students, depending on their color, are not a minority and where the proportion of students with illiterate parents is lower. The only exception is when we analyze, for achievements of black students, the variable "Cultural capital of the teacher" and the classroom characteristic "Proportion of black students." In this case, the presence of the teacher with higher cultural capital level in classrooms generates greater increase for black students in classes where the black is minority than in classes where they are majority.

Esta tese é composta por três ensaios relacionados à educação e cultura. O primeiro deles mensura o impacto do capital cultural do professor, medido através da frequência a atividades culturais, sobre o aprendizado em língua portuguesa e matemática dos alunos do 5º ano do ensino fundamental de escolas brasileiras. Para estabelecer uma relação causal, instrumentaliza-se o capital cultural dos professores pela oferta de atividades culturais do município. Os resultados encontrados indicam que o capital cultural dos professores tem efeito positivo apenas para o aprendizado das crianças em língua portuguesa. Quando adiciona-se controle de qualidade educacional da escola em uma amostra restrita às escolas públicas brasileiras, o coeficiente de interesse continua significativo, porém com menor magnitude. Os mecanismos encontrados para os resultados são que professores com maior capital cultural incentivam de alguma forma as crianças a consumirem bens e serviços culturais, além de utilizar mais, em sala de aula, livros de leitura em geral. O segundo ensaio visa avaliar a política de meia entrada para estudantes no consumo de bens e serviços culturais no Brasil. A metodologia empregada explora as diferentes datas de criação das leis da meia entrada entre os estados brasileiros utilizando os modelos de Diferenças-em-Diferenças (DD) e Diferenças Triplas (DDD). Os resultados encontrados no presente trabalho sugerem que a criação da lei da meia entrada teve efeitos positivos tanto em termos de aumento na probabilidade dos estudantes consumirem bens e serviços culturais como em elevar seus gastos com esse tipo de bem. Por fim, o terceiro ensaio avalia se qualificações dos docentes têm efeitos nos impactos das características da turma sobre o aprendizado escolar individual. Foram consideradas como características da turma medidas de composição relacionadas à raça, nível socioeconômico e educação familiar. A metodologia empregada no presente trabalho controla para características observadas dos alunos e dos professores, além de características não observadas de escolas, através do método de efeitos fixos. Os resultados, em geral, apontam que efeito da qualidade do professor na nota dos alunos em exames de proficiência, via características das turmas, sempre é maior em turmas cujo aluno, em função de sua cor, não é uma minoria e onde a proporção de alunos com pais analfabetos é menor. A única exceção é quando analisa-se, para as notas de alunos negros, a variável “Capital cultural do professor” e a característica da turma “Proporção de alunos negros”. Nesse caso, a presença do professor com maior capital cultural na turma resulta em um acréscimo maior das notas de alunos negros em turmas onde o negro é uma minoria do que em turmas onde ele é uma maioria. / This thesis consists of three essays related to education and culture. The first one measures the impact of cultural capital of teachers, measured by the frequency of cultural activities, on portuguese and mathematics learning in 5th grade students. We use the city provision of cultural activities as instruments for teachers’ cultural capital to establish a causal relationship . The results indicate teachers’ cultural capital has a positive effect only for children’s portuguese learning. When we add control of education quality of schools in a sample for Brazilian public schools, the coefficient of interest remains significant, but lower. We found two mechanisms for these findings. First, teachers with high cultural capital levels encourage children to demand cultural goods and services. Second, teachers with high cultural capital levels encourage children to read books inside the classroom. In the second essay, we estimate the effects of the law of half price tickets on the consumption of cultural goods and services of Brazilian students using samples collected for all metropolitan regions from the Household Budget Surveys (HBS), carried out in 1987/88, 1995 / 96, 2002/03 and 2008/09. We evaluate the effects of the law on the proportion of students that consume cultural goods and changes in their expenses with those goods. We explore the time differences of the creation of those laws among Brazilian states to estimate a causal relationship using the Difference-in-differences (DD) and Triple differences (DDD) methodology. We found that the creation of law of half price tickets had positive effects on increasing the students likelihood to consume cultural goods and services and on raising their spending with those goods. Finally, the third essay evaluates whether teachers’ qualifications have effects on the impact of classroom characteristics on individual scholar achievement. We considered as classroom characteristics measures related to race, socioeconomic status and family education. The methodology used in this study controls for observed characteristics of students and teachers, as well as unobserved characteristics of schools using the fixed effects model. The results indicate that the effect of teacher quality on students proficiency examinations, through characteristics of classroom, is always higher on classroom which students, depending on their color, are not a minority and where the proportion of students with illiterate parents is lower. The only exception is when we analyze, for achievements of black students, the variable "Cultural capital of the teacher" and the classroom characteristic "Proportion of black students." In this case, the presence of the teacher with higher cultural capital level in classrooms generates greater increase for black students in classes where the black is minority than in classes where they are majority.

<p> Today&rsquo;s high school students will face a host of economic problems such as the demise of the social safety net, mounting college student debt, and costly health care plans, as stated in the rationale for financial literacy provided by the Council for Economic Education&rsquo;s <i>National Standards for Financial Literacy</i>. These problems are compounded by growing income and wealth inequality and the widespread influence of neoliberal ideology. Although one of the major goals of economics education is to teach students to make reasoned economic choices in their public and private lives and provide the skills to solve personal and social economic problems, little empirical research has been conducted on how these goals are addressed. Secondary economics education research has primarily focused on measuring students&rsquo; grasp of neoclassical economics while a separate body of literature provides theoretical critiques of that approach. This study responds to the gap presented by these separate camps by capturing the economics discourse of a high school economics and personal finance course in relation to the role of economic decision-making in a democracy, and the space to hold values discussions. Using case study methodology that included analysis of student and teacher interviews, classroom observations, the standards and official curriculum, lesson plans, and student-produced documents, the study provides deep, context-dependent knowledge about how the official curriculum is manifest in the classroom. </p><p> Findings reveal that the role of economic decision-making and values discussions were given very little space. The discourse was heavily focused on the acceptance of the science and mastery of technical knowledge about personal finance for the dual purposes of preparing students to succeed on the W!SE Financial Literacy Certification Test and preparing students to navigate and succeed in a fixed economic reality firmly committed to neoclassical economics. The role of economic decision-making was diminished by the foregrounding of financial literacy over economics, which served as a mechanism of power to send the silent message that economic circumstances (such as wealth inequality) change through individual choices and that economic and social phenomena can be understood and addressed through the application of technical approaches. </p><p>

This dissertation comprises three essays on the allocation of labour and capital in a large developing country, Indonesia. In the first essay, I examine the impact of the 1998 East Asian recession on child schooling outcomes in Indonesia. Using panel data on 7-15 year-olds, I exploit the heterogeneous impact of the recession across urban communities as measured by the variation in rice price increases, under the assumption that communities where rice prices increased the most were those where real wages declined the most. I find that for the youngest children (aged 7-12 years) there is a large negative impact of higher rice prices on school attendance and no effect on labour market participation. For older children (aged 13-15 years), schooling enrolment does not respond to rice prices but labour market participation declines sharply in the worst-hit communities. I find no evidence of adverse long-term consequences on human capital formation. In the second essay, I test the hypothesis that there exists a significant earnings differential between similar workers in the formal and informal sectors. Using panel data on salaried and self-employed individuals, I find that after controlling for firm size and individual-specific heterogeneity, there is no formal sector earnings premium, except in the public sector. The results are robust to the presence of unpaid family workers, measurement error, and non-random attrition in the survey. This questions the commonly held belief that labour markets in developing countries are segmented because of legal institutions that protect high formal sector earnings. In the third essay, I estimate the effect of a large exchange rate depreciation on the performance of importers. The ability to manage volatility in the cost of imported inputs is likely to depend on a firm's access to external sources of finance as well its ability to hedge against exchange rate movements. Using data from a census on Indonesian firms, I find that while domestic importers face lower value-added due to a rise in their costs of production, foreign-owned importers fare better: they are more likely to sustain higher value-added, hire more labour and use more materials than domestic owned firms. This suggests another channel through which FDI can add value to a firm in a developing country, particularly with the increasing importance of trade in intermediate goods.