Publications des chercheurs de PSE

This paper shows that schools can foster the transmission of civic virtues by helping students to develop concrete, democratically chosen, collective projects. We draw on a RCT implemented in 200 middle schools in three countries. The program leads students to conduct citizenship projects in their communities under the supervision of teachers trained in the intervention. The intervention caused a decline in absenteeism and disciplinary sanctions at school, alongside improved academic achievement. It also led students to diversify their friendship network. The program has stronger effects when implemented by teachers who are initially more involved in the life of the school.

Les politiques d’éducation et leur évaluation

This paper shows that schools can foster the transmission of civic virtues by helping students to develop concrete, democratically chosen, collective projects. We draw on a RCT implemented in 200 middle schools in three countries. The program leads students to conduct citizenship projects in their communities under the supervision of teachers trained in the intervention. The intervention caused a decline in absenteeism and disciplinary sanctions at school, alongside improved academic achievement. It also led students to diversify their friendship network. The program has stronger effects when implemented by teachers who are initially more involved in the life of the school.

Though teachers are consistently found to play a major role in determining student achievement, little is known about what teachers can do to increase their instructional productivity. This paper develops a new empirical strategy, based on within-student within math variations in student test scores, to assess the instructional hourly productivity of math teachers in the US. Building on these estimates, we show that teachers’ hourly productivity strongly relates to the use of teaching practices emphasizing student active participation in the lesson (modern practices). One weekly hour of math instructional time increases student test scores by 4.4% of a standard deviation on average, but one hour spent with a teacher above the modern practices index median is more than twice as productive as one hour spent with a teacher under this median (+5.9% vs +2.7% standard deviations). A further investigation suggests that the positive effects associated to modern practices are partially mediated by an improvement in student self-confidence and motivation to learn mathematics.

In France, secondary school teachers are evaluated every six or seven years by senior experts of the Ministry of education. These external evaluations mostly involve the supervision of one class session and a debrie_ng interview, but have nonetheless a direct impact on teachers' career advancement. In this paper, we show that these evaluations contribute to improving students' performance, especially in math. This e_ect is seen not only for students taught by teachers the year of their evaluations but also for students taught by the same teachers the subsequent years, suggesting that evaluations improve teachers' core pedagogical skills. These positive e_ects persist over time and are particularly salient in education priority schools, in contexts where teaching is often very challenging.

Initiée dans les années 1960 par l’économiste américain Gary Becker, le développement de la théorie du capital humain a considérablement ouvert le champ d’investigation de la science économique. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, de nombreux travaux de recherche en économie de l'éducation ont cherché à identifier les caractéristiques du système ou de l’environnement scolaire qui permettent aux individus d’acquérir un maximum de compétences, de savoirs et d'informations au cours de leur scolarité. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans ce courant de recherche et étudie plus spécifiquement deux aspects de l’environnement scolaire qui ont retenu l’attention des économistes : la productivité des enseignants et l’influence des camarades de classe. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse étudie dans quelle mesure les pratiques pédagogiques des enseignants aux États-Unis permettent d’expliquer les différences de performances de leurs élèves en mathématiques. Dans un premier temps, nous montrons que chaque heure passée en classe à étudier les mathématiques engendre une progression significative des élèves dans cette discipline. Nous montrons ensuite que la productivité de l’heure d’enseignement est très fortement corrélée avec la mise en place de pratiques pédagogiques interactives, qui requièrent une participation active de la part des élèves. Plus spécifiquement, chaque heure passée avec un enseignant mettant l'accent sur ce type de pratiques est 2 à 3 fois plus productive qu'une heure passée avec un enseignant mettant l'accent sur des pratiques plus traditionnelles telles que le cours magistral.Le deuxième chapitre de cette thèse étudie l’impact d’une politique publique visant à améliorer les pratiques des enseignants, à savoir le système d’inspection individuelle des enseignants du second degré en France. Dans ce chapitre, nous montrons que les performances des élèves en maths au Diplôme National du Brevet (DNB) s’améliorent significativement à la suite d’une inspection de leur enseignant de mathématiques, non seulement pour les élèves assignés à l’enseignant l’année de l’inspection, mais également pour les élèves assignés à cet enseignant les années suivantes, suggérant une amélioration durable de ses compétences pédagogiques. De surcroît, l’inspection des enseignants de maths de 3ème produit des effets bénéfiques persistants chez les élèves, qui se traduisent par une augmentation de leur probabilité de choisir une filière scientifique en première et d’obtenir un baccalauréat scientifique au cours des années suivantes. Finalement, les effets bénéfiques d’une inspection sur les performances des élèves en maths et sur leur trajectoire scolaire sont particulièrement marqués pour les enseignants de l’éducation prioritaire, lesquels font face à des contextes d’enseignement plus difficiles.Le troisième et dernier chapitre de cette thèse étudie les effets du genre des camarades de classe de 3ème sur le parcours scolaire des élèves en France. Deux ensembles de résultats se dégagent de l’analyse. D’une part, l’influence des camarades de classes est persistante au cours du temps, puisque la proportion de filles parmi les camarades de classes en 3ème influence non seulement la réussite au brevet, mais également le taux de décrochage scolaire, le choix des filières après le collège et le taux d’obtention du baccalauréat. D’autre part, la proportion de filles parmi les camarades de classes en 3ème a des effets bénéfiques sur la scolarité des filles alors qu’elle a des effets négatifs sur celle des garçons. Plus spécifiquement, cette proportion réduit le taux de décrochage scolaire des filles après la 3ème et augmente leur taux d’obtention d’un baccalauréat général, particulièrement dans la filière scientifique. A l’inverse, elle augmente la proportion de garçons choisissant une filière technique après le collège et réduit leur taux d’obtention d’un baccalauréat général.

Though it is largely admitted that non-cognitive skills matter for adult outcomes, little is known about how the family environment affects their formation. In this paper, we use a cohort study of children born in 2000-2001 in the U.K. (Millennium Cohort Study) to estimate the effect of family size on socio-emotional skills, measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. To account for the endogeneity of fertility decisions, we use a well-known instrumental approach that exploits parents' preference for children's gender diversity. We show that an increase in family size negatively affects the socioemotional skills of the two first children in a persistent manner. However, we show that this negative effect is entirely driven by girls. We provide evidence that this gender effect is partly driven by an unequal response of parents' time investment in favor of boys and, to a lesser extent, to an unequal demand for household chores.

Entitlement conditions are a little explored dimension of unemployment insurance (UI) schemes. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive evaluation of a reform that softened the minimum employment record condition to qualify for UI benefits in France after 2009. Using administrative panel data matching employment and unemployment spells, we first provide clear evidence that the reform induced a separation response at the eligibility threshold. It appears both at the micro level – through a jump in transitions from employment to unemployment – and at the macro level – through the scheduling of shorter contracts, in line with the new eli- gibility requirements. Exploiting the reform as well as relevant sample restrictions, we then estimate the effects of receiving UI benefits on subsequent labour market outcomes using a regression discontinuity design. Our findings point to a large negative impact of UI benefits receipt on employment probability up to 21 months after meeting the eligibility criterion, which is not counterbalanced by an increase in job quality.

Although it is widely acknowledged that non-cognitive skills matter for adult outcomes, little is known about the role played by family environment in the formation of these skills. We use a longitudinal survey of children born in the UK in 2000–2001, the Millennium Cohort Study by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, to estimate the effect of family size on socio-emotional skills, measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. To account for the endogeneity of fertility decisions, we use a well-known instrumental approach that exploits parents’ preference for children’s gender diversity. We show that the birth of a third child negatively affects the socio-emotional skills of the first two children in a persistent manner. However, we show that this negative effect is entirely driven by girls. We provide evidence that this gender effect is partly driven by an unequal response of parents’ time investment in favour of boys and, to a lesser extent, by an unequal demand for household chores.

This paper exploits idiosyncratic variations in school cohorts’ gender composition to investigate the short and long-term effects of school peers’ gender. Using French administrative data over the 2008–2012 period, it shows that the proportion of female peers’ in middle school not only affects students’ contemporaneous performance but also influences their subsequent educational attainment. More specifically, a larger share of girls among school peers increases girls’ test scores, reduces their dropout rates and increases their probability to graduate from high school several years later, especially in the scientific track. By contrast, it increases boys’ probability to attend a vocational school and decreases their high school graduation rate. I find suggestive evidence that these effects partially operate through a negative effect of opposite-gender peers on students’ school behaviour and through an adjustment of teacher behaviour based on the gender composition of the classroom.

In France, secondary school teachers are evaluated every five to six years by senior experts from the Ministry of Education. These evaluations involve the supervision of one class session, a debriefing interview and the writing of an official evaluation report. Their results are used to determine teachers' career advancement. We show that these repeated evaluations help improve teacher effectiveness (as measured by their students' performance) at all stages of their career. The impact on student performance is particularly strong in priority education schools and remains significant several years after students leave middle school. Evaluators' feedback likely plays a key role in improving teacher effectiveness.