In this paper we examine the effect of birth order on human capital development in Ecuador using a large national database together with self-collected survey data. Using family fixed effects models we find significant positive birth order effects; earlier born children stay behind in their human ca
A large school consolidation reform in the Netherlands changed minimum school size rules underlying public funding. The supply of schools decreased by 15 percent, but this varied considerably across municipalities. We find that reducing the number of schools by 10 percent increases pupils' achieveme
In this paper we estimate the impact of parental schooling on child schooling, focus on the problem that children who are still in school constitute censored observations, and evaluate three solutions to it: replacement of observed with expected years of schooling, maximum likelihood approach, and e
A positive relation between parents’ schooling and child’s schooling does not necessarily reflect a causal relation. This article uses a new approach to identify intergenerational schooling effects: a nonparametric bounds analysis. By relying on relatively weak and in part testable assumptions, this
De grote daling in het aanbod van scholen als gevolg van een stijging in de opheffings-normen in 1994 heeft een positief effect gehad op leerprestaties in het primair onderwijs. Dit resultaat kan verklaard kan worden door schaalvoordelen die de effecten van minder schoolkeuze en competitie domineerd
This paper investigates the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment. An instrumental variables approach is used to identify the effect of family size. Instruments for the number of children are twins at last birth and the sex mix of the first two children. The effect of birth
We analyze the usefulness of the first stage F-statistic for detecting weak instruments in the IV model with a nonscalar error covariance structure. More in particular, we question the validity of the rule of thumb of a first stage F-statistic of 10 or higher for models with correlated errors arisin
A strong positive relation between parents' schooling and child's schooling does not necessarily reect a causal relation. The recent empirical literature has used dierent approaches to identify intergenerational schooling eects and produces contradictory ndings. This paper uses a new approach to inv
This paper presents estimates of the general equilibrium effect of school choice and competition on achievement of primary school pupils in the Netherlands. For identification we exploit a change in the rule that determines schools' minimum required size. Before the change this size was a step-funct
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