An Empirical Study of the Effects of Education and Cognitive Ability at Compulsory Education Levels on Learning, Employment, and Earnings among Youth. Three-years project: 2013–2015 Projects
Research Objectives
Faced by a declining population, it is essential to enhance and maintain individual labor productivity after formal schooling for sustainable growth in the Japanese economy. It is still not fully understood how school education and the family environment are related to continuing incentives for human capital investment while in the labor market. One clear reason is that there has been no systematic data in Japan that allow one to directly analyze the relationship between cognitive development, family background, motivations to learn while in the labor market, and economic well-being. In this study, we conduct a survey that covers the age range from late-teens to early thirties and asks participants about their detailed educational background, family background, labor market experiences, and motivation to study using two samples with distinct characteristics. One sample is of young twins maintained by the Keio Twin Study, and the other is a sample of children from the Japan Household Panel Survey collected by the Panel Data Research Center. Furthermore, we conduct a field experiment in collaboration with private educational companies that examines how differences in learning incentives can emerge. We hope our study will inform education and labor market policy makers of effective policy alternatives that can increase human capital investment among youths.
Funding Organization
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Participants
[Keio Researchers]
- Akabayashi, HideoFaculty of Economics
- Ando, JukoFaculty of Letters
- Higuchi, YoshioFaculty of Business and Commerce
- Naoi, MichioFaculty of Economics
- Ohta, SouichiFaculty of Economics
(Principal Investigator)
[Collaborating Researchers]
- Shikishima, ChizuruTeikyo University
- Yukawa, ShihoTeikyo University
- Yamagata, ShinjiKyushu University
[Collaborating Practitioners]
- Imai, YusukeChance for Children
- Okuno, SatoshiChance for Children