Paul W. Grimes

Dishonesty in Academics and Business: A Cross-Cultural Evaluation of Student Attitudes

This study presents the findings from aninternational survey of college students whichexamined perceptions and attitudes towarddishonesty in academic and business contexts. Data were collected from undergraduate studentsstudying business and economics in eighttransitional economies of Eastern Europe andCentral Asia and from students in the UnitedStates. The results indicate that academiccheating is a common activity in all of thecountries surveyed. Even though most studentsreported fearing the punishment of beingcaught, substantial numbers of studentsindicated that academic cheating is sociallyacceptable and not ethically wrong. When askedto rate their perceived degree of dishonestywith respect to behavior in an academic settingrelative to analogous behavior in a businesssetting, students in both the United States andthe transitional economies viewed dishonesty ina business context more severely thandishonesty in an academic context. Theevidence also suggests that when compared tostudents in the transitional economies,American students apply a relatively higherstandard of honesty toward behavior in both theacademic and business settings.

The Overconfident Principles of Economics Student: An Examination of a Metacognitive Skill

Abstract Students in a large principles of macroeconomics class were asked to predict their performance on a regularly scheduled midterm examination. The author collected and analyzed data to examine the effect of various demographic characteristics, academic endowments, course preparation, and course performance variables on the accuracy of pretest expectations. A two-equation recursive model was estimated by the author to determine which factors influenced the accuracy of student expectations (predictive calibration). The results indicated that a pervasive degree of overconfidence existed within the sample. Although age and overall academic performance were found to temper overconfidence, students with credit in a previous economics course had a greater probability of reporting overconfident expectations. Overconfidence was found to be associated with lower degrees of predictive calibration. Misjudgments concerning the scope of the midterm were found to lower predictive calibration scores, ceteris paribus. These and other results indicate that unmet student performance expectations may be a root cause for the routinely observed student dissatisfaction within the traditional principles course.

Adolescent Drug Use and Educational Attainment

Recent studies investigating the labor-market effects of illicit drug use have consistently found a positive relation between drug use and earnings. These analyses have, however, ignored the potential relationship between drug use and human-capital formation. This paper examines the effect of drug use during adolescence on formal educational attainment using a sample drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort. The probability of drug use is estimated across racial groups according to three categories; use of any illicit drug, use including hard drugs, and use of only marijuana. Fitted values for the probability of drug use are calculated and entered into a regression framework to estimate the number of school years completed. The empirical results indicate that all three categories of drug use are associated with significant negative impacts on educational attainment after controlling for individual differences in personal endowments and socioeconomic characteristics. On average, adolescent drug use is found to reduce eventual educational attainment by about 1 year, ceteris paribus . These findings suggest that previous studies that focus only on the direct effects of drug use on earnings may reflect a statistical bias that leads to an overstatement of the positive effects of drug use on earnings.

A Short-Run Cost-Benefit Analysis of Community-Based Interventions for Juvenile Offenders:

Recent empirical research indicates that for juvenile offenders various community-based intervention techniques result in significantly greater positive effects when compared to more traditional approaches. This article presents a cost-benefit evaluation of two such techniques: intensive supervision and monitoring (ISM) and intensive outpatient counseling with cognitive behavioral therapy (CB). A two-equation regression model that controlled for differences in demographic characteristics, personality traits, behavior, and the home environment of the subjects was estimated. The results indicate that, relative to those on probation, participants in the CB program imposed significantly fewer costs on the justice system during the investigative period. No significant difference in justice system expenditures was demonstrated by the ISM group. Comparing the reduced costs of the CB program to the marginal cost of administering the program revealed a net saving of

The Effectiveness of "Economics U

1,435 in justice system expenditures per youth offender served for the sample period.

A" on Learning and Attitudes.

Using a standard economics course as a control group, the authors tested the relative effectiveness of this television course on student achievement and attitudes.

Teachers' Unions and Student Achievement in High School Economics.

High school students in unionized schools score higher on the Test of Economic Literacy than students in nonunion districts, ceteris paribus.

Collective bargaining, teachers, and student achievement

Approximately two-thirds of the nation’s elementary and secondary schoolteachers are represented by the American Federation of Teachers or the National Education Association. Surprisingly, however, relatively little is known of the impact of teachers’ unions on student achievement. The authors offer evidence on this point by estimating “college entrance exam production functions” for a national sample of 2,360 students. Of particular importance, the estimation includes a correction for the selectivity bias inherent if the analysis considers only the performance of test-takers. Results indicate that students in a unionized environment score about 4.7 percent higher on their college entrance exams (SAT and ACT) than their counterparts from a nonunion environment.

Public versus Private Secondary Schools and the Production of Economic Education.

Public schools are shown to do a better job than private schools at generating economic knowledge, given their existing inputs.

The effectiveness of microcomputer simulations in the principles of economics course

Abstract This paper reports a controlled experiment investigating the instructional effectiveness of a textbook-based microcomputer simulation program in the traditional Principles of Economics course. A group of economics students at Mississippi State University were required to work through a macroeconomic policy simulation program as part of their course of study. These students were pre- and post-tested using the Revised Test of Understanding College Economics and the Attitude Towards Economics dimension of the Survey of Economic Attitudes. Changes in their test scores are compared to those of students in a traditional lecture class not exposed to the simulation program. A MANOVA analysis of the data indicates a difference in economic learning and attitude formation between the class groups. The results suggest that students using the computer simulation significantly improved their ability to solve implicitly stated problems in economics and left the class with more positive attitudes toward the discipline than students who did not use the simulation. The authors conclude that computerized simulations can be an effective instructional device in the Principles of Economics course.