Variation In Educational Attainment Research Articles

Education and interest in environmental issues in Turkey: Evidence from a compulsory schooling law

ABSTRACT Given the significant impact of individual attitudes in coping with environmental problems, understanding the effects of socioeconomic factors such as education on these attitudes is critical. Utilizing the exogenous variation in educational attainment created by the 1997 education reform in Turkey, I investigate the causal effect of education on individuals’ interest in environmental issues. I apply the fuzzy regression discontinuity design using data from Turkey’s Life Satisfaction Survey. The research provides an insight into the effects of the reform on the schooling behaviour of lower socioeconomic strata. The results indicate that the increase in the proportion of middle school graduates has not changed the interest in environmental issues for men and women in lower socioeconomic positions. The increased likelihood of this group’s exposure to environmental problems, coupled with their reduced capacity to protect themselves, may stimulate interest in environmental issues independent of the effect of education. Furthermore, the increase in economic activities harmful to the environment and the increase in public discourse on environmental issues may also stimulate environmental interest. Since education does not seem to affect environmental interest, targeted policies such as incorporating environmental education into the curriculum may be necessary to enhance environmental interest.

Physical activity intensity moderates the relationship between sleep quality and depressive symptoms among Indonesian working-age adults: Findings from the Indonesia Family Life Survey

BackgroundFew studies have explored the interaction between sufficient physical activity and good sleep quality in determining depression symptoms among adults. This study aims to examine the moderating role of physical activity levels in the association between sleep quality and depressive symptoms. MethodsThis cross-sectional study analyzed secondary data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) 2014-2015 involving 28,469 Indonesian adults aged 15–64. Data were collected through self-report interviews. This study utilized hierarchical regression analysis with physical activity, sleep, and their interaction were regressed on depression scores while controlling for sociodemographic variables. ResultsMore severe depression symptoms were associated with higher physical activity intensity and poorer sleep quality after controlling sociodemographic variables. However, upon introducing the interaction between physical activity and sleep in the regression to assess evidence for moderation, we found that high physical activity was a risk factor for worsened depression symptoms among individuals with poor quality sleep but not among those with good sleep quality. The effects of physical activity were also partially explained by variations in educational attainment. LimitationsThe cross-sectional nature of the IFLS dataset meant that the causality of the association between the variables could not be properly established. ConclusionsThe findings suggest that the effects of physical activity on depression may differ on the basis of sleep quality. The role of physical activity on depression in the Indonesian population was divergent from findings in higher income countries, suggesting that the context of activity may have an important role in mood.

Customs Broker Services Operational Performance: Basis for the Development of Corporate Strategy

This study investigated the operational performance of customs brokers and its implications for developing a corporate strategy. In total, 277 respondents participated, comprising 121 customs brokers and 156 importers from the Philippines, providing demographic information and responding to selfadministered questionnaires. We evaluated operational performance based on quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost using a 4-point Likert scale. The findings revealed that both groups of respondents highly rated customs brokers in terms of quality, dependability, flexibility, and cost. Specific examples illustrating these high ratings were noted. We analyzed differences based on demographic profiles between customs brokers and importers, including gender, speed, and educational attainment. Significant differences were found based on gender and speed. Additionally, variations in educational attainment were identified regarding dependability and flexibility. A significant difference was observed between customs brokers and importers regarding operational performance objectives in terms of speed, with customs brokers rated higher than importers. Addressing this identified difference by implementing targeted measures to enhance speed can contribute to overall operational improvement, meeting the time-sensitive needs of importers and further strengthening the reputation of customs brokers. These findings have practical implications for developing a strategy to enhance the operational performance of customs broker services. By recognizing their strong performance in quality, dependability, flexibility, and cost, customs brokers can continue to prioritize and maintain high standards in these areas, thereby improving overall service delivery.

Women’s educational attainment, marriage, and fertility: Evidence from the 1944 G.I. Bill

In contemporary settings, greater earnings among women are typically associated with reduced marriage rates and lower fertility. One way that women’s earnings may increase is via changes in educational attainment. To study whether educational attainment affects marriage and fertility choices in a historical setting, I rely on the variation in educational attainment among female WWII veterans created by the 1944 G.I. Bill. Using data from the long-form 1980 census, I first show that WWII veteran status is associated with reduced rates of marriage, increased age at first marriage, and lower fertility, which suggests that G.I. Bill-related education could have had an important effect for veteran women. I then use age at the time of the G.I. Bill announcement as an instrument to establish a causal effect of educational attainment on marriage and fertility outcomes among female veterans. My instrumental variable estimates suggest that each year of G.I. Bill-induced educational attainment is associated with an 8 percentage point decrease in the probability of ever getting married, a 4.7 year increase in age at first marriage, and a 0.67 reduction in the number of children. Using age at the time of the G.I. Bill announcement as an instrument is valid because the benefits could not have been easily anticipated, women had to be 21 to enlist, and the generosity of one’s G.I. Bill benefits depended on the number of years of WWII service.

Rethinking “Educación Diversificada” for Afro-Descendants in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a Central American country known for its commitment to education and environmental conservation. Educación Diversificada in Costa Rica refers to a system of education that offers a variety of options and programs, seeking to accommodate the diverse interests, needs, and abilities of students. Despite these efforts, challenges remain, including limited funding, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of awareness among students and their families about the benefits of a diversified education. Nevertheless, there is a growing consensus that a diversified education system is crucial for the long-term development and competitiveness of Costa Rica. This paper provides an overview of the variations in educational attainment in Costa Rica and points to differences in socioeconomic status (SES) as a significant contributor to disparities in academic success. However, historically, the research suggests multiple dimensions of inequality and captures relevant but limited aspects of this phenomenon. Research is needed that will comprehensively illustrate the critical factors that impact educational success for people of African descent in Costa Rica and how these factors combine to affect the economic success of Afro-Costa Ricans. Immigration and migration history, for example, have been important predictors of the educational success of Afro-descendants in Costa Rica. Further research is needed to highlight the complex ways in which SES, race, migration, and immigration combine to affect educational success. Fully capturing the role of race in education also requires examining the conditions under which racial discrimination in education persists. The paper identifies research priorities in all these areas. Keywords: Ethnic and Racial Studies, Education, Costa Rica, Social Anthropology, Social Sciences, Afro-Descendants DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-4-07 Publication date: February 28 th 2023

More education, less prejudice against sexual minorities? Evidence from compulsory schooling reforms

ABSTRACT Utilizing exogenous variation in educational attainment induced by compulsory schooling reforms in 15 European countries, this study estimates the causal effect of education on individuals’ attitudes towards sexual minorities with a regression discontinuity design. Using data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, this study finds more education reduces individuals’ prejudice against sexual minorities. The findings imply minimum schooling policies can help to build a culture that is more tolerant of sexual minorities, which is beneficial to the minorities’ wellbeing and social cohesion.

Why Are Some Immigrant Groups More Successful Than Others?

The composition of immigrants depends not only on immigrant choice but also on immigration policy, because slots are rationed. Policy determines immigrant attainment, as evidenced by immigrants from Algeria having higher educational attainment than those from Israel or Japan. Theory predicts and evidence confirms that immigrant attainment is inversely related to the number admitted from a source country and positively related to population and education levels at home. A parsimonious specification has only two variables yet explains a majority of the variation in educational attainment of US immigrant groups. The theory and predictions are bolstered by Swedish data.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Risk and Protective Factors of Dementia and CIND in the United States

Recent population-based studies have shown declines in dementia prevalence in high-income countries, suggesting that improved population cardiovascular health and rising levels of education in the past 25 year were associated with reduction of dementia risks. However, in the US, there are variations in educational attainment, prevalence and management of chronic diseases, and behaviors associated with poor cardiovascular health among racial and ethnic groups. We performed a retrospective analysis of 3,495 older individuals (65+) in 2016 who participated in Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP) subsample of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), to examine racial/ethnic differences in risk and protective factors associated with dementia and cognitive impairment. Linking HCAP to HRS, we traced individuals back to 2000 and created a longitudinal data of HCAP population (2000-2016). We found that racial/ethnic differences in risk and in protective factors throughout the life-course were associated with racial and ethnic disparities in dementia prevalence.

How Education Empowers Women in Developing Countries

Abstract This paper evaluates the impacts of education on women’s relational empowerment, within a context of 70 developing countries across the world. Exploiting the variation in educational attainment between biological sisters, we find that education is positively associated with women’s intra-household decision making authority in both financial and non-financial domains. Moreover, education reduces relational friction, especially women’s exposure to psychological abuse. Our mechanism analyses provide suggestive evidence that these improvements could be attributed to increased access to information, assortative matching, and better labor market outcome.

The Potential Causal Effect of Hukou on Health Among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

A number of economic studies have shown a strong positive correlation between urban household registration status (hukou) and better health outcomes in China. The question at the center is whether the correlation implies causation. Change in the hukou system, in 1964, is used to test the causality between hukou and health. The regression-discontinuity (RD) design estimates suggest that urban hukou citizens have a much better chance of being in good health. The deleterious effects of rural hukou on health possibly work through mechanisms of income disparity, variations in educational attainment, and availability of health insurance.

Genetic and environmental variation in educational attainment: an individual-based analysis of 28 twin cohorts

We investigated the heritability of educational attainment and how it differed between birth cohorts and cultural–geographic regions. A classical twin design was applied to pooled data from 28 cohorts representing 16 countries and including 193,518 twins with information on educational attainment at 25 years of age or older. Genetic factors explained the major part of individual differences in educational attainment (heritability: a2 = 0.43; 0.41–0.44), but also environmental variation shared by co-twins was substantial (c2 = 0.31; 0.30–0.33). The proportions of educational variation explained by genetic and shared environmental factors did not differ between Europe, North America and Australia, and East Asia. When restricted to twins 30 years or older to confirm finalized education, the heritability was higher in the older cohorts born in 1900–1949 (a2 = 0.44; 0.41–0.46) than in the later cohorts born in 1950–1989 (a2 = 0.38; 0.36–0.40), with a corresponding lower influence of common environmental factors (c2 = 0.31; 0.29–0.33 and c2 = 0.34; 0.32–0.36, respectively). In conclusion, both genetic and environmental factors shared by co-twins have an important influence on individual differences in educational attainment. The effect of genetic factors on educational attainment has decreased from the cohorts born before to those born after the 1950s.

Comparison of Adopted and Nonadopted Individuals Reveals Gene–Environment Interplay for Education in the UK Biobank

Polygenic scores now explain approximately 10% of the variation in educational attainment. However, they capture not only genetic propensity but also information about the family environment. This is because of passive gene–environment correlation, whereby the correlation between offspring and parent genotypes results in an association between offspring genotypes and the rearing environment. We measured passive gene–environment correlation using information on 6,311 adoptees in the UK Biobank. Adoptees’ genotypes were less correlated with their rearing environments because they did not share genes with their adoptive parents. We found that polygenic scores were twice as predictive of years of education in nonadopted individuals compared with adoptees (R2s = .074 vs. .037, p = 8.23 × 10−24). Individuals in the lowest decile of polygenic scores for education attained significantly more education if they were adopted, possibly because of educationally supportive adoptive environments. Overall, these results suggest that genetic influences on education are mediated via the home environment.

The influence of educational attainment on intelligence

Education has been found to have a positive influence on intelligence, but to be able to inform policy, it is important to analyse whether the observed association depends on the educational duration and intelligence prior to variations in educational attainment. Therefore, a longitudinal cohort study was conducted of all members of the Metropolit 1953 Danish Male Birth Cohort who were intelligence tested at age 12 and appeared before the Danish draft boards (N = 7389). A subpopulation also participated in the Copenhagen Aging and Midlife Biobank (N = 1901). The associations of educational attainment with intelligence in young adulthood and midlife were estimated by use of general linear regression with adjustment for intelligence test score at age 12 and family socioeconomic position. Results showed a positive association of educational attainment with intelligence test scores in both young adulthood and midlife after prior intelligence had been taken into account. The marginal cognitive benefits depended on the educational duration but did not reach a plateau until 17 years. Further, intelligence test score at age 12 was found to modify the association, suggesting that individuals with low intelligence in childhood derive the largest benefit from education. Comparing the strength of the association observed among participants and non-participants in our midlife study, we showed that selection due to loss to follow-up might bias the investigated association towards the null. This might explain previous studies' findings of relatively small cognitive benefits. In conclusion, education seems to constitute a promising method for raising intelligence, especially among the least advantaged individuals.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Disruptions to Education, and the Returns to Schooling in Urban China

In determining whether a country's higher education system should be expanded, it is important for policymakers first to determine the extent to which high private returns to post-secondary education are an indication of the scarcity of graduates instead of the high unobserved ability of students who choose to attend post-secondary education. To this end, the paper identifies the returns to schooling in urban China using individual-level variation in educational attainment caused by exogenous city-wide disruptions to education during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. For city-cohorts who experienced greater disruptions, children's educational attainment became less correlated with that of their fathers and more influenced by whether their fathers held administrative positions. The analysis calculates returns to college education using data from the China Urban Labor Survey conducted in five large cities in 2001. The results are consistent with the selection of high-ability students into higher education. The analysis also demonstrates that these results are unlikely to be driven by sample selection bias associated with migration, or by alternative pathways through which the Cultural Revolution could have affected adult productivity.

Education and Wealth Accumulation: Evidence from Sweden

This paper studies the effect of education on wealth and wealth accumulation over the life cycle. The analysis relies on an administrative panel that reports educational attainment and detailed information on assets and liabilities of Swedish residents. To identify the causal effect of education, I employ three alternative identification strategies which rely on controlling for predetermined family background and ability, within-siblings variation in educational attainment, and a compulsory schooling reform. I find that education has a positive, large, and long-lasting effect on net worth. I further show that it affects all balance sheet components and that these effects vary over the life cycle. Finally, I document that the differences in wealth are driven by both higher savings and higher portfolio returns among the more educated, although their relative importance varies over time. My results have implications for theoretical work on optimal consumption-saving behavior and portfolio choice, as well as for fiscal and social security policy. Overall, the findings suggest that considering only wage returns to education greatly understates its economic implications.

Polarization During Institutional Decline: Variation in Educational Attainment in Post-Soviet Central Asia in 1991–2006

This article investigates the contours of inequality in the context of institutional decline and polarization in educational attainment. Using household survey data collected in 2005–2006 by UNICEF, we conduct synthetic cohort analyses estimating the likelihood of transitioning to secondary and higher education for men and women; urban and rural residents; poor and wealthy; and ethnic majority and minority citizens. Overall, gender and ethnic differences appear to contribute most to the polarization, although poverty and rural residence play a role in some contexts.

Does education foster trust? Evidence from compulsory schooling reform in the UK

Although many studies document that education and trust are positively correlated, few studies examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect. This paper fills in the gap with data from the British Social Attitudes Survey. Firstly, using the OLS method, this paper finds that education and the three measures of trust—trust in people, trust in politicians, and trust in government—are all positively and significantly correlated. Secondly, to examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect, this paper exploits exogenous variation in educational attainment induced by the compulsory schooling reform in 1972. The regression discontinuity estimates suggest that the effects of education on the three measures of trust are all small and statistically insignificant. The findings imply that the OLS estimates may suffer from omitted variable bias and the effects of education on trust may be small.

Genomic variation in educational attainment modifies Alzheimer disease risk.

ObjectiveTo determine the putative protective relationship of educational attainment on Alzheimer disease (AD) risk using Mendelian randomization and to test the hypothesis that by using genetic regions surrounding individually associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as the instrumental variable, we can identify genes that contribute to the relationship.MethodsWe performed Mendelian randomization using genome-wide association study summary statistics from studies of educational attainment and AD in two stages. Our instrumental variable comprised (1) 1,271 SNPs significantly associated with educational attainment and (2) individual 2-Mb regions surrounding the genome-wide significant SNPs.ResultsA causal inverse relationship between educational attainment and AD was identified by the 1,271 SNPs (odds ratio = 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.54–0.74; p = 4.08 x 10−8). Analysis of individual loci identified 2 regions that significantly replicated the causal relationship. Genes within these regions included LRRC2, SSBP2, and NEGR1; the latter a regulator of neuronal growth.ConclusionsEducational attainment is an important protective factor for AD. Genomic regions that significantly paralleled the overall causal relationship contain genes expressed in neurons or involved in the regulation of neuronal development.

Enhancing Electoral Equality: Can Education Compensate for Family Background Differences in Voting Participation?

It is well documented that voter turnout is lower among persons who grow up in families from a low socioeconomic status compared with persons from high-status families. This paper examines whether reforms in education can help reduce this gap. We establish causality by exploiting a pilot scheme preceding a large reform of Swedish upper secondary education in the early 1990s, which gave rise to exogenous variation in educational attainment between individuals living in different municipalities or born in different years. Similar to recent studies employing credible identification strategies, we fail to find a statistically significant average effect of education on political participation. We move past previous studies, however, and show that the reform nevertheless contributed to narrowing the voting gap between individuals of different social backgrounds by raising turnout among those from low socioeconomic status households. The results thus square well with other recent studies arguing that education is particularly important for uplifting politically marginalized groups.

The Shared Genetic Basis of Educational Attainment and Cerebral Cortical Morphology.

Individual differences in educational attainment are linked to differences in intelligence, and predict important social, economic, and health outcomes. Previous studies have found common genetic factors that influence educational achievement, cognitive performance and total brain volume (i.e., brain size). Here, in a large sample of participants from the UK Biobank, we investigate the shared genetic basis between educational attainment and fine-grained cerebral cortical morphological features, and associate this genetic variation with a related aspect of cognitive ability. Importantly, we execute novel statistical methods that enable high-dimensional genetic correlation analysis, and compute high-resolution surface maps for the genetic correlations between educational attainment and vertex-wise morphological measurements. We conduct secondary analyses, using the UK Biobank verbal-numerical reasoning score, to confirm that variation in educational attainment that is genetically correlated with cortical morphology is related to differences in cognitive performance. Our analyses relate the genetic overlap between cognitive ability and cortical thickness measurements to bilateral primary motor cortex as well as predominantly left superior temporal cortex and proximal regions. These findings extend our understanding of the neurobiology that connects genetic variation to individual differences in educational attainment and cognitive performance.