Chris van Klaveren

Collective Labor Supply of Native Dutch and Immigrant Households in the Netherlands

We estimate a collective time allocation model, where Dutch, Surinamese/Antillean and Turkish households behave as if both spouses maximize a household utility function. We assume that paid labor and housework are the endogenous choice variables and furthermore consider household production. Surinamese/Antillean and Turkish women differ from Dutch women because they value (joint) household production more in their utility function. Surinamese/Antillean and Turkish men, on the other hand, value joint household production less then Dutch men. Turkish households are the more traditional households, in the sense that the woman is more oriented on household production, while the man is oriented on paid labor. It is often believed that the bargaining power of women in more traditional households is relatively low, but our estimation results do not support this idea. In general, the wage elasticities of Dutch, Turkish and Surinamese/Antillean households are comparable. Men and women replace housework hours by paid labor if their hourly wage rate increases but do the opposite when the hourly wage rate of the partner increases.

Comparing Students by a Matching Analysis { On Early School Leaving in Dutch Cities

In case of regional discretionary on the implementation of policy measures, central governments often consider differences in outcomes as an indication that one policy was more effective than another policy. If uniform incentives are provided to motivate regional policy makers, these incentives can be discouraging when the underlying populations differ. Empirically, this study compares early school leaving between the four largest Dutch cities. It shows that considering regional differences as performance measures can be dangerous if differences in population characteristics are not properly taken into account. Methodologically, this study contrasts the use of a traditional probit model with a more advanced iterative matching procedure.In case of regional discretionary on the implementation of policy measures, central governments often consider differences in outcomes as an indication that one policy was more effective than another policy. If uniform incentives are provided to motivate regional policy makers, these incentives can be discouraging when the underlying populations differ. Empirically, this study compares early school leaving between the four largest Dutch cities. It shows that considering regional differences as performance measures can be dangerous if differences in population characteristics are not properly taken into account. Methodologically, this study contrasts the use of a traditional probit model with a more advanced iterative matching procedure.

How are teachers teaching? A nonparametric approach

This paper examines which configuration of teaching activities maximizes student performance. For this purpose a nonparametric efficiency model is formulated that accounts for (1) self-selection of students and teachers in better schools and (2) complementary teaching activities. The analysis distinguishes both individual teaching (i.e., a personal teaching style adapted to the individual needs of the student) and collective teaching (i.e., a similar style for all students in a class). Moreover, we examine to which group of students the teacher is adapting his/her teaching style. The model is applied on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003 data. The main results show that high test scores are associated with teaching styles that emphasize problem solving and homework. In addition, teachers seem to adapt their optimal teaching style to the 70% least performing students.This paper examines which configuration of teaching activities maximizes student performance. For this purpose a nonparametric efficiency model is formulated that accounts for (1) self-selection of students and teachers in better schools and (2) complementary teaching activities. The analysis distinguishes both individual teaching (i.e., a personal teaching style adapted to the individual needs of the student) and collective teaching (i.e., a similar style for all students in a class). Moreover, we examine to which group of students the teacher is adapting his/her teaching style. The model is applied on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2003 data. The main results show that high test scores are associated with teaching styles that emphasize problem solving and homework. In addition, teachers seem to adapt their optimal teaching style to the 70% least performing students.

Intra-Household Work Time Synchronization - Togetherness or Material Benefits?

If partners derive utility from joint leisure time, it is expected that they will coordinate their work schedules in order to increase the amount of joint leisure. In order to control for differences in constraints and selection effects, this paper uses a new matching procedure, providing answers to the following questions: (1) Do partners coordinate their work schedules and does this result in work time synchronization?; (2) which partners synchronize more work hours?; and (3) is there a preference for togetherness? We find that coordination results in more synchronized work hours. The presence of children in the household is the main cause why some partners synchronize their work times less than other partners. Finally, partners coordinate their work schedules in order to have more joint leisure time, which is evidence for togetherness preferences.

Community Schools What We Know and What We Need to Know

Community schools offer children an integrated set of educational and social services, but sound scientific evidence on their effectiveness is lacking. Therefore, this study reviews the literature on community schools. First, we characterize community schools and find that their key activities are cooperating with other institutions, involving parents, and offering extracurricular activities. Second, we describe an exemplary community school for which causal evidence shows improved academic achievement. Third, we explore whether the three main activities of community schools influence academic performance, dropout, and risky behavior. Academic performance does not appear to be influenced by extracurricular activities. On the other hand, extracurricular activities do appear to be related to reduced dropout and risky behavior. In addition, there is a positive association of cooperation and parental involvement with academic achievement, and a negative correlation of these two factors with dropout and risky behavior. However, more causal evidence is needed before it can be concluded that community schools are effective.

Football to improve math and reading performance

Schools frequently increase the instructional time to improve primary school childrens math and reading skills. There is, however, little evidence that math and reading skills are effectively improved by these instruction-time increases. This study evaluates ‘Playing for Success’ (PfS), an extended school day program for underachieving pupils that uses the football environment as a motivating force. Primary school pupils with low motivation and self-esteem are offered practical and sports-related teaching content for 30 additional hours. The evaluation results of a randomized experiment suggest that PfS does not significantly improve math and reading performance of primary school students.

Consumers and households: Materialism, nonmaterialism, and subjective well-being

Each day, individuals face numerous decisions and choose between many consumption alternatives based on their values and preferences to increase their subjective well-being (SWB). Therefore, it is important to understand decision-making processes as they determine to a large extent the level of SWB or satisfaction resulting from decisions. Up to now, the literature has mainly focused on the role of materialistic factors, while a common finding is that increases in income, or consumption, contribute to increases in SWB only up to a certain level (Delhey, 2009; Inglehart and Baker, 2000; Kahneman and Deaton, 2010). Once this level is reached, nonmaterialistic factors become increasingly important. This situation reflects the importance of higher needs in the determination of levels of SWB, once lower needs have been satisfied. A plethora of research findings on consumer behavior obtained in the last few decades, and especially in the areas of behavioral economics and economic psychology, shows the importance of nonmaterialistic factors in individual decision-making processes (see, for example, Altman, 2015; Antonides, 2008), and the evaluation of experienced outcomes. This chapter summarizes these findings and outlines which nonmaterialistic factors are of importance in the decision-making process, which may in turn affect levels of well-being. Although earlier the literature has shown the existence of a number of anomalies in economic behavior, the more recent literature has focused more on the implications for such anomalies for the well-being of consumers and households, which explains the focus of this chapter. The findings can be classified into the following three categories: reference effects, effort reduction, and values and experiences. Studies included in the first category suggest that relative outcomes can be more important for individuals than absolute outcomes. Studies in the second category recognize that much of the implemented innovations have the objective to establish effort reductions and therefore increase well-being. Finally, studies included in the third category suggest that individuals may, at a given point, derive well-being from experiences rather than from the (materialistic) consumption itself. This chapter focuses not only on the individual decision-making process, but also on how nonmaterialistic factors influence this decision-making process within multiperson households. This is of importance, since nonmaterialistic factors can affect the household decision process itself or may lead to a more effective or efficient decision process when choosing between consumption alternatives.

TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON STUDENT TEST SCORES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

It has become widely accepted that teachers are important in facilitating student learning. Hundreds of empirical studies have tried to explain differences in student performance by evaluating the impact of particular teacher characteristics. Yet, this topic has not been the subject of a systematic review for more than 10 years, even though most of the empirical evidence has emerged over the past decade. This study provides an up-to-date review, drawing on empirical findings from several countries and distinguishing between acquired and sociodemographic teacher characteristics. This review confirms the existing consensus that subject-related degrees and knowledge, and not general teacher certifications, are positively related to student performance and particularly so for Masters degrees in math and science. A new insight is that recent findings point out that teacher experience continues to contribute to student test scores throughout a teachers career, instead of merely the first few years. An important future research avenue would be to examine which mechanisms can explain these teacher characteristic effects.

“Investigating the relationships between online activity, learning strategies and grades to create learning analytics-supported learning designs.”

Learning analytics offers the opportunity to collect, analyse and visualise feedback on learning activities using authentic data in real-time. The REFLECTOR project was used to investigate whether there are correlations between students learning strategies, their online activity and their grades. Information about the learning strategies was obtained using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. The grades and the online activity of students for two pilot courses was collected from the log data of the learning management system. Analysis of the collected data showed that there are moderate correlations to be found, for instance between metacognitive self-regulation, documents that are related to planning and grades. The pilot sessions taught us that there are practical issues with regards to data storage location as well as data security that need to be taken into account when learning analytics is integrated into existing learning designs. Overall, the project results show that a close relationship between learning analytics and the learning design of courses is urgently needed to make learning analytics effective.

Can cities be held responsible for early school leaving? Evidence from the Netherlands

This paper examines if ‘naming and shaming’ is an effective tool to increase accountability in school dropout for cities with disadvantaged student populations. It argues that a comparison with other cities might be unfair if regional and population characteristics differ. It discusses the example of two Dutch new towns. The new town policy deliberately attracted low- and medium-income households in the past, such that today the population of those cities differs from other cities. We use a matching analysis to account for observed differences in population and regional characteristics. The results point out that ‘naming and shaming’ may be a dangerous policy to increase accountability: early school leaving differences are driven, to a large extent, by observed differences in population and regional characteristics.