Cain Polidano

Explaining the socio-economic status school completion gap

Relatively low rates of school completion among students from low socio-economic backgrounds is a key driver of intergenerational inequality. Linking data from the Programme for International Student Assessment with data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth, we use a decomposition framework to explain the gap in school completion rates by socio-economic status (SES). The two most important contributing factors are found to be lower educational aspirations of low SES students and their parents and lower numeracy and reading test scores at age 15. Differences in school characteristics by SES are estimated to be relatively unimportant.

Differential Labour Market Impacts from Disability Onset

We estimate the causal labour market impacts of disability onset by gender, age and education levels up to 4 years after onset using longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Australia survey and difference-in-difference propensity score matching techniques. We find lasting negative impacts on employment, especially full-time employment, which is due more to reduced movement into full-time employment than downshifting from full-time to part-time work following onset. Those without post-school education qualifications are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of onset and are more likely to be out of work and on income support than those with qualifications up to 4 years after onset, due in part because they have greater difficulty adjusting.

Participation in and Completion of Vocational Education and Training for People with a Disability

Improving the educational outcomes of people with a disability is seen as key in helping improve their employment and life prospects. This article uses Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey data and multivariate estimation to examine whether people with a disability face barriers in participating in and completing a vocational education and training qualification, a highly accessible and flexible mode of education. Overall, we find that people with a disability are not disadvantaged in terms of participation, but are disadvantaged in terms of completion, especially those with more limiting conditions and those with mental health issues who have low levels of social support.

A Second Chance at Education for Early School Leavers

Despite efforts to engage youth in education, there have been only modest improvements in the rates of school completion across OECD countries since the mid-1990s. These modest improvements underline the importance of programs that encourage early school leavers to return to post-school education. The objective of this paper is to better understand the factors that affect the chances of re-engaging early school leavers in education, with a particular focus on the importance of time out from school (duration dependence) and school-related factors. Using data from three cohorts of the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth and duration models that control for unobserved heterogeneity, our results suggest that programs that encourage an early return to study and programs that develop post-school career plans may be more effective than programs that concentrate on improving numeracy and literacy scores.

The Re-Engagement in Education of Early School Leavers

By OECD standards, the share of the Australian labour force with at least a secondary school qualification is low. One way to rectify this shortfall is to improve rates of re-engagement in education among early school leavers. This paper examines the patterns of re-engagement among early school leavers in the HILDA sample. A key finding is that the early years after leaving school are crucially important, with rates of re-engagement dropping dramatically in the first three years out from school. For those who enter the labour market after school, results suggest that finding work, especially satisfying work, is an important driver for returning to study.

The relation between cesarean birth and child cognitive development

This is the first detailed study of the relation between cesarean birth and child cognitive development. We measure differences in child cognitive performance at 4 to 9 years of age between cesarean-born and vaginally-born children (n = 3,666) participating in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). LSAC is a nationally representative birth cohort surveyed biennially. Using multivariate regression, we control for a large range of confounders related to perinatal risk factors and the socio-economic advantage associated with cesarean-born children. Across several measures, we find that cesarean-born children perform significantly below vaginally-born children, by up to a tenth of a standard deviation in national numeracy test scores at age 8–9. Estimates from a low-risk sub-sample and lower-bound analysis suggest that the relation is not spuriously related to unobserved confounding. Lower rates of breastfeeding and adverse child and maternal health outcomes that are associated with cesarean birth are found to explain less than a third of the cognitive gap, which points to the importance of other mechanisms such as disturbed gut microbiota. The findings underline the need for a precautionary approach in responding to requests for a planned cesarean when there are no apparent elevated risks from vaginal birth.

Explaining the SES School Completion Gap

Relatively low rates of school completion among students from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds is a key transmission mechanism for the persistence of intergenerational inequality. Using a rich dataset that links data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) with data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY), we use a decomposition framework to explain the gap in school completion between low and medium SES and between low and high SES. The two most important factors found to explain the gap are lower educational aspirations of low SES students and their parents (over 30% of the gaps) and lower numeracy and reading test scores at age 15 (over 20% of the gaps). Differences in the characteristics of schools (including resources, governance, teachers and peers) attended by low and higher SES students is estimated to be relatively unimportant, explaining only around 6% of the gaps.

Labour Market Impacts from Disability Onset

In this paper we estimate the causal labour market impacts of disability onset up to four years after onset using longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) survey and difference-in-difference propensity score matching techniques. We find lasting negative impacts on employment, especially full-time employment, which is linked more to reduced movement into full-time employment than to downshifting from full-time to part-time work. Longer-term, impacts on employment and income support reliance are greater for those without post-school qualifications, which points to differential social costs of onset by education. Therefore, to be cost-effective, prevention and vocational rehabilitation measures should be targeted at low-skilled workers.

Improving the Employment Rates of People with Disabilities Through Vocational Education

During the 2001-2008 period, the employment rate of people with a disability remained remarkably low in most western economies, hardly responding to better macro-economic conditions and favourable anti-discrimination legislation and interventions. Continuing health and productivity improvements in the general population are leaving people with disabilities behind, unable to play their role and have their share in the increasing productive capacity of the economy. This paper combines dynamic panel econometric estimation with longitudinal data from Australia to show that vocational education has a considerable and long-lasting positive effect on the employment participation and productivity of people with disabilities.

Long-Run Effects of Catholic Schooling on Wages

Previous studies have linked Catholic schooling to higher academic achievement. We add to the literature on Catholic schooling by examining its effect on long-term wage rates in Australia, independent of effects on academic achievement. Using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) Survey and fixed effects estimation, we find that during the prime-time of a career, wage rates for Catholic school graduates progress with labor market experience at a greater rate, on average, than wage rates for public school graduates. Importantly, we find no evidence to suggest that these benefits are peculiar to Catholic schooling, with similar benefits estimated for graduates of independent private schools. These findings suggest that private schooling may be important in not only fostering higher academic achievement, but also in better preparing students for a working life.