Victor Lavy

New Evidence on Classroom Computers and Pupil Learning

How technology affects learning has been at the centre of recent debates over educational inputs. In 1994, the Israeli State Lottery sponsored the installation of computers in many elementary and middle schools. This programme provides an opportunity to estimate the impact of computerisation on both the instructional use of computers and pupil achievement. Results from a survey of Israeli school-teachers show that the influx of new computers increased teachers’ use of computer-aided instruction (CAI). Although many of the estimates are imprecise, CAI does not appear to have had educational benefits that translated into higher test scores.

Multiple Experiments for the Causal Link between the Quantity and Quality of Children

This article presents evidence on the child-quantity/child-quality trade-off using quasi-experimental variation due to twin births and preferences for a mixed sibling sex composition, as well as ethnic differences in the effects of these variables. Our sample includes groups with very high fertility. An innovation in our econometric approach is the juxtaposition of results from multiple instrumental variables strategies, capturing the effects of fertility over different ranges for different sorts of people. To increase precision, we develop an estimator that combines different instrument sets across partially overlapping parity-specific subsamples. Our results are remarkably consistent in showing no evidence of a quantity-quality trade-off.

Quality of health care, survival and health outcomes in Ghana

This paper analyzes the effect of quality and accessibility of health services and other public infrastructure on the health of children in Ghana. We focus on child survival, child height and weight using data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey. The results suggest an important role for public health policy in eliminating the rural-urban disparities in health status and particularly in improving the health status of rural children and reducing their mortality rates. Increased availability of birth services and other related child programs, as well as Improved water and sanitation infrastructure would have an immediate payoff.

Does Teacher Training Affect Pupil Learning? Evidence from Matched Comparisons in Jerusalem Public Schools

Most research on the relationship between teacher characteristics and pupil achievement focuses on salaries, experience, and education. The effect of in‐service training has received less attention. We estimate the effect of in‐service teacher training on achievement in Jerusalem elementary schools using a matched‐comparison design. Differences‐in‐differences, regression, and matching estimates suggest training in secular schools led to an improvement in test scores. The estimates for religious schools are not clear cut, perhaps because training in religious schools started later and was implemented on a smaller scale. Estimates for secular schools suggest teacher training provided a cost‐effective means of increasing test scores.

School supply constraints and children's educational outcomes in rural Ghana

Abstract Studies of school attainment often fail to acknowledge the possibility that prices for all schooling levels affect the decision to attend any one schooling level. In developing countries the assumption that schooling costs are constant throughout the education cycle is manifestly untrue. This paper concentrates on the empirical implications of introducing schooling costs that increase with schooling level. The results suggest that the cost of advanced levels of education influences decisions at the primary-school level. The relative magnitude of the cross-price elasticities suggests that cross-price effects should not be ignored when designing educational user fees.

Inside the Black Box of Ability Peer Effects: Evidence from Variation in the Proportion of Low Achievers in the Classroom

We estimate the extent of ability peer effects and explore the mechanisms through which they operate. Using within-school variation in the proportion of low-ability students in Israeli schools, we find that the proportion of low-ability peers has a negative effect on the performance of regular students. An exploration of the underlying mechanisms show that, relative to regular students, low-ability students report higher levels of satisfaction with their teachers. However, a higher proportion of low-ability students has detrimental effects on teachers’ pedagogical practices and on the quality of inter-student and student–teacher relationships, and increases the level of violence and classroom disruptions.

The Effect of a Change in Language of Instruction on the Returns to Schooling in Morocco

Until 1983, the language of instruction for most subjects in grades 6 and above in Moroccan public schools was French. Beginning in 1983, the language of instruction for new cohorts of Moroccan sixth graders was switched to Arabic. We use this policy change to estimate the effect of French language skills on test scores and earnings. The estimates suggest that the elimination of compulsory French instruction led to a substantial reduction in the returns to schooling for Moroccans affected by the change. This reduction appears to be largely attributable to a loss of French writing skills.

Do Students Care about School Quality? Determinants of Dropout Behavior in Developing Countries

School quality and grade completion by students are shown to be directly linked. Unique panel data on primary school–age children in Egypt permit estimation of behavioral models of school leaving that incorporate output‐based measures of school quality. With the student’s own ability and achievement held constant, a student is much less likely to remain in school if attending a low‐quality school rather than a high‐quality school. This individually rational behavior suggests that common arguments about a trade‐off between quality and access to schools may misstate the real issue and lead to public investment in too little quality.

Immigrating to Opportunity: Estimating the Effect of School Quality Using a Natural Experiment on Ethiopians in Israel

In May 1991, 15,000 Ethiopian Jews were brought to Israel in an overnight airlift and sorted in a haphazard and essentially random fashion to absorption centres across the country. This quasi-random assignment produced a natural experiment whereby the initial schooling environment of Ethiopian children can be considered exogenous to their family background and parental decisions. We examine the extent to which the initial elementary school environment affected the high school outcomes of Ethiopian children, using administrative panel data on the educational career of each child in Israel through much of the 1990s. The results show that the early school environment has an important effect on high school dropout and repetition rates and on end-of-high-school matriculation exams. The results are robust to controlling for observable characteristics of the community, suggesting that characteristics of the elementary school itself, such as the quality of instruction and peer effects, are important for high school success.

The Good, the Bad, and the Average: Evidence on Ability Peer Effects in Schools

We study ability peer effects in English secondary schools using data on four cohorts of students taking age-14 national tests and measuring peers’ ability by prior achievements at age 11. Our identification is based on within-pupil regressions exploiting variation in achievements across three compulsory subjects tested at age 14 and age 11. Using this novel strategy, we find significant and sizable negative effects arising from bad peers at the bottom of the ability distribution but little evidence that average peer quality and good peers matter. However, these results are heterogeneous, with girls benefiting from academically bright peers and boys not.