Jorge Calero

Exploring Educational Mobility in Europe

This paper is concerned with the investigation of the intergenerational mobility of education in several European countries and its changes across birth cohorts (1940-1980) using a new mobility index that considers the total degree of mobility as the weighted sum of mobility with respect to both parents. Moreover, this mobility index enables the analysis of the role of family characteristics as mediating factors in the statistical association between individual and parental education. We find that Nordic countries display lower levels of educational persistence but that the degree of mobility increases over time only in those countries with low initial levels. Moreover, the results suggest that the degree of mobility with respect to fathers and mothers converges to the same level and that family characteristics account for an important part of the statistical association between parental education and children’s schooling; a particular finding is that the most important elements of family characteristics are the family’s socio-economic status and educational assortative mating of the parents.

The efficiency of public and publicly subsidized high schools in Spain: Evidence from PISA-2006

This paper compares the efficiency of Spanish public and publicly subsidized private high schools by data envelopment analysis (DEA), employing the results provided by a hierarchical linear model (HLM) applied to PISA-2006 (Programme for International Students Assessment) microdata. The study places special emphasis on the estimation of the determinants of school outcomes. The educational production function is estimated through an HLM that takes into account the nested nature of PISA data. Inefficiencies are then measured through DEA and decomposed into two types: managerial (related to individual performance), and programme (related to structural differences between management models), following the approach adopted by Silva Portela and Thanassoulis. Once differences in students’ backgrounds, school resources and individual management inefficiencies are removed, the results reveal that Spanish public high schools are more efficient than their publicly subsidized private equivalents.

Problemas en el acceso a la educación postobligatoria en España

La participacion de los jovenes en la educacion secundaria postobligatoria (Bachillerato y Ciclos Formativos de Grado Medio) en Espana es sustancialmente inferior a la que se produce en los paises de nuestro entorno. Esta situacion constituye un lastre notable para el sistema productivo: la llegada al mercado de trabajo de jovenes muy poco cualificados y, ademas, con competencias vocacionales muy limitadas, supone una desventaja competitiva con repercusiones graves, especialmente en un contexto internacional muy exigente.

The Distribution of Skills Among the European Adult Population and Unemployment: A Comparative Approach

The most painful effect of the Great Recession in European countries has been the surge in unemployment rates during a period that has been characterised most notably by an increase in income inequality and the heterogeneous pattern of this inequality by educational level. Thus, workers with low levels of educational attainment were among the first to lose their jobs. This paper addresses two main research questions: first, it estimates the importance of the level of skills and education on the probability of being unemployed; and, second, it provides evidence of the impact of inequalities in the previous socioeconomic and cultural background of individuals on the probability of being unemployed. These two objectives are assessed using data for 24 jurisdictions participating in the first round of the OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). Skill levels play a central role in explaining unemployment in Europe and act as an indirect channel via which a family’s sociocultural background has an impact on its labour market status.

The contribution of the population of disabled people to the attainment of Europe 2020 Strategy headline targets

This study seeks to quantify the potential contribution of one of the most disadvantaged groups in Europe, namely Europe’s population of disabled people, to the attainment of the Europe 2020 Strategy targets via the monitoring of a number of indicators, at a time when, given the current economic crisis, the majority of European countries are struggling to attain these goals. The impact of changes in the situation of disabled people is simulated using micro data drawn from the 2009 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Our results show that improving the socio-economic situation of the disabled population could be crucial for attaining Europe 2020 targets. However, future policy designs at national level will need to take into account the actual definition of disability that is employed, the heterogeneity of circumstances to be found within such a definition, and the gap between the situation of the disabled and non-disabled populations.

What happens after compulsory education? Problems of continuity and possible policies in the case of Spain

Abstract The lack of opportunities to enter post-compulsory education in Spain and other countries in southern Europe is a serious problem from the point of view of the requirements of the productive system as well as the social inequality that it creates. This article analyses the effect of a range of variables on that lack of opportunity and various public policy measures are proposed that are directed towards reinforcing the continuity of young people in the education system. The analysis is carried out through the proposal and estimation of a multinomial logistic regression model that permits the identification of factors associated with the process of passing from compulsory education to the possibilities that are open when this finishes (with regard to the education system and the labor market). The model is applied to a sample of individuals of 16 and 17 years of age from the European Community Household Panel in the year 2000 wave. The analysis allows the identification of two groups of variables that affect the probability of following the different paths that are open at the end of compulsory education. On the one hand, there is social and cultural background (reflected in variables such as the social class and education of the parents) and on the other, there is the region of residence, the effect of which derives essentially from the differences that exist between the labor markets. The article concludes by putting forward a set of mainly educational public policies that have the object of increasing access to post-compulsory education. These policies are mostly equity oriented.

An Assessment of Educational Equity and Policy in Spain

The Spanish education system faces a series of major issues in the domain of equity.Some of these are common to European countries, but others are specific to Spain or have a particular acuteness in the Spanish context. Education policies since the 1970s have brought wider and wider sections of the population into the education system, with successive reforms extending compulsory schooling up to 16 years of age. However, despite this progress, levels of access and student achievement in fact remain strongly marked by socio-economic status, ethnicity and region.

Early School Dropout in Spain: Evolution During the Great Recession

Spain provides a prime example of the difficulties faced by early school leavers during the Great Recession. Their low activity rates, high levels of unemployment and poor working conditions would appear to be closely related to their low levels of skills and competencies. All in all, these circumstances mean early school leavers are at a high risk of social exclusion. Following on from a review of the determinants and economic consequences of early school dropout, this chapter discusses the need for introducing policy reforms both in the education system and in the labour market. However, the effectiveness of such reform measures is conditioned by the evolution of a set of labour demand factors. The Spanish case illustrates how policymakers should no longer consider early school dropout as being a problem exclusive to the education system.

Efficiency in the Transformation of Schooling into Competences: A Cross-Country Analysis Using PIAAC Data

This study (i) compares the competence levels of the adult population in a set of OECD countries; (ii) assesses the comparative efficiency with which the education system in each country transforms schooling into competences, distinguishing by educational level, and (iii) tracks the evolution of this efficiency by birth cohorts. Using PIAAC data, the paper applies standard parametric frontier techniques under two alternative specifications. The results obtained under both specifications are similar and identify Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Japan as being the most efficient and Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Ireland and Poland as the least efficient. The evolution of the efficiency levels by age cohorts shows that higher education is more efficient for younger cohorts, while lower and upper secondary education present a stable trend over cohorts.

Education, age and skills: an analysis using the PIAAC survey

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of adult skills, as captured by cognitive competencies assessed in the PIAAC, across age cohorts, explicitly taking into account that the quality of schooling might change from one cohort to another. We estimate a model that relates numeracy and literacy competencies to age, schooling, gender and variables related to both family background and labour market performance. The specification allows us to control for changes in the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into competencies when drawing age-skill profiles. Our results show that the effect of ageing on skills, once isolated from cohort effects related to schooling, decreases monotonically across consecutive cohorts. The evolution of the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into both numeracy and literacy skills shows a remarkably similar pattern. Nonetheless, this evolution differs substantially between education levels, with the efficiency of the transformation of schooling into skills showing a steadier profile for intermediate than it does for higher education. Finally, empirical evidence is provided for the decomposition of the differences in the skill levels of the older vs. the prime age generations. The results suggest that the progressive expansion of schooling across younger generations partially offsets the negative effect of the irrepressible ageing of society on skills.