Essays on Economics of Education

University/Department: Universitat de Barcelona. Facultat d'Economia i Empresa

Vall Castello, Judit; Ruiz Valenzuela, Jenifer

Universitat de Barcelona, 2024.

2024

[eng] This dissertation explores how changes in society and the family shape educational outcomes, from the perspective of gender inequalities and spillover effects of health shocks. In the first chapter, I provide an introduction to the topic and summarize the empirical chapters. The second chapter analyzes the gender gaps in children's online learning – a technological advancement that recently has become very common. Using data for Spain at the individual level from an online math learning platform, I quantify the gender gaps in effort and relative performance outcomes and analyze whether the gaps differ by the gender of the parent who mainly supervises the children. The main results point towards significant gender gaps in the relative performance outcomes in favor of boys, while the evidence for the effort gender gaps is only significant and economically meaningful when we compare the siblings of the opposite gender. Moreover, the effort gaps are narrower or positive in favor of girls for children mainly supervised by their mothers. This chapter addresses the understudied gender gap in online learning outcomes, providing important information considering the increased use of online learning technologies in recent years. Shifting the focus to societal changes, the third chapter investigates the impact of the social movements on women’s economic empowerment through improved education. I investigate the impact of the Arab Spring movements — a series of pro-democracy uprisings and protests in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) — on the economic empowerment of young immigrant women in Spain with MENA-origin parents. I first show that female MENA immigrants become more progressive in their beliefs and aspirations, compared to their non-MENA counterparts, after the Arab Spring. Then, I focus on second-generation immigrants in Spain to explore the impact of the Arab Spring movements on their education and labor market outcomes, isolated from the institutional changes in the MENA region, and driven by shifts in beliefs and aspirations. Findings suggest an increase in educational attainment and the probability of being in formal education for second-generation MENA females living in Spain after the Arab Spring, substantially closing the gaps between second-generation female immigrants from MENA and non-MENA countries. This chapter provides important contributions by showing the effects of social movements and protests going beyond regional borders, changing beliefs and aspirations, and consequently having economic implications for individuals. The fourth chapter delves into the effects of changes in the family, by exploring the impact of a sibling loss on the educational outcomes of surviving children. Despite how devastating the death of a child is for the entire family, very little is known about its consequences for the human capital accumulation of surviving siblings. To study this question, I use detailed register data from the entire population of Finland, spanning 24 birth cohorts. By focusing on unexpected child deaths caused by traffic accidents and exploiting the timing of sibling loss relative to the time of 9th-grade GPA measurement, I find that losing a sibling 2 years before the 9th grade has a negative impact on the 9th-grade GPA. The effect is more pronounced and significant across several ages at the time of sibling loss for children with a lower socioeconomic background. Findings also suggest a decrease in the probability of general track choice in the upper-secondary school following a sibling loss. Examining potential mechanisms, the chapter documents significant increases in the probability of antidepressant prescriptions for the surviving children and their parents. Further, a child loss increases the probability of taking sick leave and decreases the probability of employment for mothers. Considering that these negative effects could potentially be followed by severe social and economic implications, this chapter highlights the need for targeted policies to minimize the long-term costs of such events.

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