Education, emploi et formation / Education, training and employment 

. Education supérieure, rigidités de marché et croissance, P. Aghion et alii, Cepremap, Paris, Docweb,  n° 0705, 25 p., (2007).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Pays de l'OCDE / OECD countries

. Educational effects of early or later secondary school tracking in Germany, A. Mühlenweg, Centre for European Economic Research, Mannheim, ZEW discussion paper, n° 07-079, 35 p., (2007).

Résumé - Summary : This paper examines educational outcomes of pupils selected to secondary school types by different tracking regimes in a German state: Pupils are alternatively streamed after fourth grade or after sixth grade. Regression results indicate that, estimated on the mean, there are no negative effects of later tracking on educational outcomes in the middle of secondary school. Positive effects are observed for pupils with a less favorable family background. Quantile regressions reveal that the estimated effects of later tracking are positive for the lower quantiles but decrease monotonically over the conditional distribution of test scores.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Allemagne / Germany

. Les élèves de 15 ans : Premiers résultats de l'évaluation internationale PISA 2006 en culture scientifique, G. Bourny et A. Brun, Ministère de l'Education nationale, Paris, Note d'information, n° 07-42, décembre, 6 p., (2007).
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France

. Employment and education policy for young people in the EU : What can new member states learn from member states, F. Pastore, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, IZA discussion paper, n° 3209, December, 20 p., (2007).

Résumé - Summary : The EU experience with youth unemployment has changed over recent years with the launch and re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy and the Bologna process. A dramatic shift has taken place from the 1990s emphasis on labour market flexibility as a tool to abate youth long term unemployment to the more recent stress on the importance of increasing the human capital endowment via a deep reform of education and training systems. This shift is also taking place worldwide, since, as recent studies show, labour market flexibility can increase employability when the human capital level of young people is sufficiently high. To reduce the “experience gap” between young and adult people, the education systems should become of a higher quality, more inclusive to reduce the dropout rate, homogeneous to other EU countries to favour labour mobility, flexible to allow young people to better find the best match, and contemplate the duality principle, by providing training together with education, to favour smoother school-to-work transitions. Apprenticeships schemes, fiscal incentives to hire the youth unemployed as well as on-the-job training schemes should help reach objectives that cannot be guaranteed simply via an increase in labour market flexibility.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe

. Interactions between employment and training policies, F. Oskamp and D. J. Snower, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Kiel, Kiel working paper, n°1389, December, 38 p., (2007).

Résumé - Summary : This paper examines the interactions between employment and training policies. Their effectiveness in stimulating income may be interdependent for various important reasons. For example, the more employment policies stimulate the employment rate, the greater the length of time over which workers use the human capital generated by training policies. Moreover, the greater the government expenditures on employment and training subsidies, the higher the taxes required to finance these expenditures and these higher taxes reduce aggregate income. On account of such effects, employment and training policies may be complementary or substitutable with respect to aggregate income. To analyze these interactions, we construct a simple, dynamic model of hiring decisions, derived from microfoundations. The model is calibrated with German data. Surprisingly, the simulation shows that, for reasonable parameter values, the complementarities are weak or absent. The analysis provides a methodology for examining policy interactions which may be useful well beyond the bounds of employment and training policies.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Allemagne / Germany

. Moins de disparités hommes-femmes en termes de niveaux d'éducation, M. Beck-Domzalska, Eurostat, Luxembourg, Statistiques en Bref, n° 130/2007, 12 p., (2007).
English version "The narrowing education gap between women and men"
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Europe

. Primary and secondary education in the United States, P. Tulip and G. Wurzburg, OECD, Paris, Economic department working paper, n° 585, December, 34 p., (2007).

Summary : The average educational attainment of US students is weak by international comparison. For example, mean results of PISA test scores are below the OECD average. This is despite substantial resources devoted to the schooling system. One partial explanation for this is that academic standards, curriculum and examinations are not sufficiently challenging in most US states. In 2001, Congress enacted the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) to raise achievement levels, especially of certain groups that perform badly. The Act requires states to establish clear content standards as to what students should know, to regularly assess performance and to set thresholds for adequate yearly progress; it also requires schools where students are failing to meet such thresholds to improve or close, while enhancing options for parents of children in such schools to place their children elsewhere. The law appears to be well conceived, addressing key problems in a sensible manner. Preliminary indications are consistent with it raising school performance and closing achievement gaps. The NCLB legislation should therefore be reauthorised. Moreover, the NCLB framework of standards, assessment and accountability should be extended through upper secondary education. That said, there are a number of areas in which improvements could be made. Though the federal government cannot set standards, it could strengthen incentives for more states to make their standards more challenging. As well, the federal government should help states and districts to better test student achievement and assess progress.

Résumé : Le niveau d'instruction moyen des élèves aux États-Unis est faible par rapport à ce qu'il est dans d'autres pays. Les résultats moyens au test du PISA, par exemple, sont inférieurs à la moyenne de l'OCDE en dépit des ressources considérables consacrées au système scolaire. Lune des explications possibles est que les États pour la plupart ne se montrent pas assez ambitieux, qu'il s'agisse du niveau d'acquis exigé, des programmes d'enseignement ou des examens. En 2001, le Congrès a voté la loi baptisée No Child Left Behind (NCLB) afin de relever le niveau des acquis, en particulier parmi certains groupes de population dont les performances laissent à désirer. Cette loi exige des États qu'ils définissent clairement les connaissances que les élèves doivent acquérir, qu'ils évaluent les performances à intervalles réguliers et qu'ils fixent de façon appropriée des objectifs de progression annuelle ; elle exige par ailleurs des établissements scolaires dont les élèves n'atteignent pas ces objectifs, qu'ils s'améliorent ou ferment, et  parallèlement elle donne aux parents dont les enfants fréquentent ces établissements plus de possibilités pour les scolariser ailleurs. Cette loi est, semble-t-il, bien conçue et traite raisonnablement des problèmes essentiels. D'après les premiers constats, elle a permis d'améliorer les performances des établissements scolaires et d'atténuer les écarts de résultats. Cette législation devrait donc être reconduite. De plus, ses dispositions concernant le niveau d'exigence, l'évaluation et l'obligation de rendre compte devraient être appliquées au deuxième cycle de l'enseignement secondaire. Cela dit, des améliorations pourraient être apportées dans un certain nombre de domaines. Sil est vrai que le gouvernement fédéral ne peut fixer de normes en la matière, il pourrait renforcer les mesures incitatives afin qu'un plus grand nombre d'États revoient à la hausse leur niveau d’exigence. De même, il pourrait aider les États et les districts scolaires à améliorer l'évaluation des acquis des élèves et des progrès accomplis.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Etats-Unis  / United States

. Too bad to benefit ? Effect heterogeneity of public training programs, U. Rinne, M. Schneider and A. Uhlendorff, DIW, Berlin, Discussion papers, n° 749, December, 45 p., (2007).

Résumé - Summary : This study analyzes the treatment effects of public training programs for the unemployed in Germany. Based on propensity score matching methods we extend the picture that has been sketched in previous studies by estimating treatment effects of medium-term programs for different sub-groups with respect to vocational education and age. Our results indicate that program participation has a positive impact on employment probabilities for all sub-groups. Participants also seem to find more often higher paid jobs than non-participants. However, we find only little evidence for the presence of heterogeneous treatment effects, and the magnitude of the differences is quite  small. Our results are thus at least in part|conflicting with the strategy to increasingly provide training to individuals with better employment prospects.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : Allemagne / Germany

. Training the unemployed in France : How does it affect unemployment duration and recurrence, B. Crépon, M. Ferracci and D. Fougère, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn, IZA discussion paper, n° 3215, December, 43 p., (2007).

Résumé - Summary : Econometric evaluations of public-sponsored training programmes generally find little evidence of an impact of such policies on transition rates out of unemployment. We perform the first evaluation of training effects for the unemployed adults in France, exploiting a unique longitudinal dataset from the unemployment insurance system. Using the so-called timing-of events methodology to control for both observed and unobserved heterogeneity, we find that training does not accelerate the exit from unemployment, but has a significant and positive effect on the duration of the subsequent employment spell. Accounting for training duration, we find that longer training spells cause longer unemployment spells, but also longer employment spells, suggesting that training improves the matching process between jobseekers and firms.
Zone géographique / Geographical area : France