Dr. Panu Pelkonen
Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Sussex
Research Fellow, IZA

Address: Department of Economics, University of Sussex, Jubilee Building, Brighton, BN1 9SL, UK
E-mail: p.o.pelkonen@sussex.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1273 678628
X: www.twitter.com/ppelk

Work in Progress:

1. Teacher Allocation and Learning in India [paper]

2. Growth Mindset RCT in China [paper][tables]

3. Spatial inequality of primary schooling in Peru (British Academy -funded)

Publications:

Economics of minority groups: Labour-market returns and transmission of indigenous languages in Mexico

(with Diego De La Fuente Stevens)

World Development, vol 162, February 2023 [Elsevier]

This study demonstrates a series of links between minority language skills, their economic return, and transmission across generations among Indigenous Mexican groups. We begin by estimating the differential in employment likelihood and wages between monolinguals of the dominant language (Spanish), relative to bilinguals who also know a local minority language. This effect of bilingualism on labour-market outcomes is identified using census and labour survey microdata and a matching procedure that ties individuals closely by ethnicity and socioeconomic cline. This enables us to separate language from ethnicity and reduce the bias driven by unobservable factors, compared to existing research. We find that, for indigenous Mexicans, retaining the minority language along with Spanish improves employment prospects, overturning earlier results. Next, we investigate whether languages that are associated with larger labour-market benefits are also more likely to be passed on from parents to children, using intergenerational microdata. We find this to be the case, even after a rich set of controls on socio-economic environment. The results support a view that even in the absence of institutional support, minority languages may sustain themselves over generations in an ecological niche supported by labour-market specialisation.

 

Teachers, Electoral Cycles and Learning in India

(with Sonja Fagernäs)

Journal of Human Resources, vol 55(2), pp 699-732, 2020 [UW Press] Blog and video of the results

Abstract:

Teachers are central for learning, but their hiring and management can be influenced by political factors, especially when they are civil servants. Using an administrative school-level panel data set for India, we find significant increases in teacher transfers and moderate increases in hiring after state elections. The timing of these elections is pre-determined and staggered across states. The reorganization of teachers is partly related to political turnover. Pupils’ test scores are also up to 0.15 standard deviations lower in the post-election phase. Following a range of estimations for alternative explanations, we conclude that the reorganization of teachers can disrupt learning.

 

Area Disparities in Britain: Understanding the Contribution of People Versus Place Through Variance Decompositions
(with Steve Gibbons and Henry Overman)  [working paper] [Wiley]

Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, vol 76(5), pp 745–763, October 2014

Abstract:

This paper considers methods for decomposing variation in wages into individual and group specific components and applies these to British labour market areas. We discuss the relative merits of these methods, which are applicable to variance decomposition problems generally. We show how the relative magnitudes of the measures depend on the underlying variances and covariances, discuss how the measures should be interpreted and consider how they might relate to structural parameters of interest. We highlight that a clear-cut division of variation into components is strictly speaking impossible. The findings from the empirical work show that, independent of the choice of decomposition, area effects contribute a very small percentage to the overall variation of wages in Britain.

 

Preferences and Skills of Indian Public Sector Teachers
(with Sonja Fagernäs)  [Springer IZAJOLD]

IZA Journal of Labor and Development, 2012, 1:3.

Abstract:

With a sample of 700 future public sector primary teachers in India, a Discrete Choice Experiment is used to measure job preferences, particularly regarding location. General skills are also tested. Urban origin teachers and women are more averse to remote locations than rural origin teachers and men respectively. The joint analysis of preferences and skills suggests that existing caste and gender quotas can be detrimental for the objective of hiring skilled teachers willing to work in remote locations. The most preferred location is home, which supports decentralised hiring, although evidence suggests that in remote areas this could compromise skills.

The Length of Compulsory Education and Voter Turnout - Evidence from a Staged Reform.
Public Choice, vol. 150 (2012), 1-2, pp. 51-75. [working paper] [Springer online first]
Abstract:

This study estimates the impact of education on voter turnout. The identification relies on a reform, which increased the length of compulsory schooling in Norway from seven to nine years. The impact is measured both at the individual, and the municipality level. Both sets of analysis suggest that additional education has no effect on voter turnout. The impact of education on various measures of civic outcomes is also estimated. Of these, only the likelihood of signing a petition is found to be positively affected by education.

Education and Mobility
(with Steve Machin and Kjell Salvanes)
The Journal of The European Economic Association, vol. 10 (2012), issue 2, pp. 417-450. [working paper] [Wiley Early View]
Abstract:
We show that the length of compulsory education has a causal impact on regional labour mobility. We reach this conclusion from an analysis of a quasi-exogenous staged Norwegian school reform, using register data on the whole population. Based on the results, we conclude that part of the US-Europe difference, as well as the European North-South difference in labour mobility, is likely to be due to differences in levels of education in the respective regions.

The Wage Effects of Computer Use: Evidence from WERS 2004
(with Peter Dolton)
British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 46 (2008), issue 4, pp. 587-630. [working paper]
Abstract:

Computers and ICT have changed the way we live and work. The latest Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2004 provides a snapshot of how using ICT has revolutionized the workplace. Various studies have suggested that the use of a computer at work boosted earnings by as much as 20 per cent. Others suggest this reported impact is due to unobserved heterogeneity. Using excellent data from the WERS employer-employee matched sample, we compare ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates with those from alternative estimation methods and those which include controls for workplace and occupation interactions. We show that OLS estimates overstate the return to computer use but that including occupation and workplace controls, reduces the return to around 3 per cent. We explore the return on different IT skills and find a small return to the use of the office IT function and the intensity of computer use as measured by the number of tasks a computer is used for.