Giuseppina Autiero

Social and Personal Identities: Their Influence on Scholastic Effort

When analysing the influence of identity on the motivations of scholastic effort, it is crucial to consider both social and personal identities. A childs social identity can be shaped by family background through the transmission of parental values vis-à-vis educational aspirations and achievements. As to personal identity, children may show a different locus of control over the successes and failures of their scholastic effort. In this paper, I develop an in-depth analysis of these aspects of social and personal identities and the nature of their interaction, and consider their influence on a childs effort in school through a theoretical model. Overall, the results from the model show that a (non-)pro-school social identity influenced by family background and locus of control along with their antagonistic or complementary interaction play a key role in determining childrens scholastic effort by influencing their motivations.

Jailer of Freedom and Enemy of Growth? The Role of Personal and Social Identities in Educational Choices

Abstract This paper develops a theoretical and empirical model on the influence of identity on educational choices which extends the existing literature in several directions. The theoretical model proposed here allows schooling choices to be independently influenced by both personal and social identities and, in contrast to previous work, the proposed empirical counterpart is derived directly from the theoretical model. The use of UK’s British Cohort Study on individuals born in 1970 allows us to identify with precision the relevant explanatory factors and to appropriately control for potentially confounding factors. Both social and personal identities are found to have substantial and statistically significant effects on educational participation decisions and these impacts are robust to a variety of specifications. The key implication is that socio-psychological factors play an important role in children’s school performance through their direct influence on the utility derived from studying.

Government regulation of religion and investments in human and physical capital: Religion versus secularism

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the causal link between government regulation of religion and the choice of investing in human and physical capital. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses an analytical model with a government setting the output quota to transfer to religious activities. This depends on the extent to which it is an ideological government that uses religion either for legitimacy aims or for the ideological control of population. Workers and entrepreneurs observe the quota and simultaneously choose the investment in human and physical capital, which may trigger, Findings - Directing resources to religious activities may be detrimental to output performance. This may occur if an ideological government sets the optimal quota above the quotas preferred by private agents. This negatively affects the investment in physical and human capital and output performance. Originality/value - Despite the importance of government regulation of religion in the literature, its effect on output performance has not been thoroughly analyzed yet. In this respect, the paper aims to further investigate the causal links between religion regulation related to government type and the investments in human and physical capital and the output level.

Secular education and religious values in the formation of human capital

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the causal link between religion and the formation of human capital. It takes into consideration that, though religion may transmit a system of values that positively affect children’s education, it can also be characterized by a traditionalist dimension. The latter may hamper children’s self-determination and their educational achievements. Nevertheless, religious values may adapt to the cultural changes due to economic development and modernization and become less conservative. Design/methodology/approach The above aspects are investigated through an overlapping generations model with human capital where parents’ human capital and the religion in which individuals have been raised, characterize family background. Findings The model’s predictions point to the crucial role that development may play in promoting education. For instance, if a moderate responsiveness of religious institutions to economic and cultural changes is associated with low development, conservative attitudes prevail in society. This undermines individual confidence in improving one’s socio-economic status through education and negatively affects children’s education. Whereas, a development level sufficiently high counterbalances the effects of a low ability of religious institutions to adjust to changes and fosters education. Originality/value Though the empirical literature widely acknowledges that religion affects economic growth, the hypothesis that the link between religion and economic performance may also pass through education has been overlooked. In this respect, the paper investigates on this relationship by taking religion as a force reactive to economic processes.

Ethnic and Academic Identity: What Role for Children’s Scholastic Effort?

AbstractRecent scholarly analysis has focussed on the role that ethnic identity plays in individual economic performances and particularly on how the identification with the culture of home and host countries influences immigrants’ and their children’s labour market outcomes. This paper focuses on the influence of ethnic and personal identity on adolescents’ scholastic effort. We partly draw on Akerlof and Kranton’s contributions in that they recognize the influence of social identity on children’s choice of effort. Nevertheless, in our model, ethnic and personal traits directly determines scholastic effort, which is in line with a strand of the psychology literature. An empirical model consistent with the theoretical one is estimated using the 1970 British Cohort Study, which contains information on how pupils see school and, hence, allows to derive an accurate measures of individual scholastic effort. It provides further useful information in order to identify relevant explanatory factors like the locus...

Religion, human capital and growth

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine how rulers by supporting religion influence the growth of human capital and physical capital. Design/methodology/approach - – The authors consider a model where the government, on the one hand, sets the output quota transferred to religious activities and workers and entrepreneurs, on the other, choose human and physical capital, which are complementary. The findings of the model are used to interpret some historical evidence. Findings - – When a religious denomination puts a strong emphasis on children’s education, the rulers who back religion, may encourage the diffusion of education among the followers of that denomination. Conversely secular rulers may face a religion that they consider a force opposing modernization and may develop a secular system promoting the diffusion of education. In both cases, the diffusion of education triggers the increase in physical capital and economic growth. Originality/value - – The contribution of the paper is to show how religion may be either a progressive force and promote education by contributing to economic growth or present a conservative dimension opposing the diffusion and rise of human capital.