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While most empirical studies document that cognitive and social skills are strong predictors of individual earnings, their impact is not homogenous in space. We argue that dense urban settings utilize cognitive and social skills more intensively than rural areas, therefore the labour market return to these skills is higher in cities. Using data from a representative survey recording the skills requirements of Hungarian firms, we show that social skills are rewarded more in dense urban areas. Surprisingly, this pattern is not observed for cognitive skills. We use instrumental variables strategy to correct for measurement errors in skills, and to deal with the endogeneity of agglomeration. Our results are robust to alternative agglomeration measures and a large set of controls, however, returns to skills vary considerably across worker groups and industries.

In this study, we present the first results of a telephone survey that was conducted among families raising a school-age child. Parents and children were asked about their experiences with online teaching following Covid-19 lockdowns. The data collection took place in April 2021, just after one of the compulsory distance learning periods covering the entire education system. We present data on the proportion of households with difficulties in providing an adequate learning environment during distance learning by the labour market situation of carers data on the tools and platforms used by students during distance learning, the changes in teaching time and time spent with learning, what teaching methods were typically used during online education. The study provides a simple descriptive analysis of these issues.

In 2013 the responsibility for school governance and funding has been transferred from local governments to a central government agency in Hungary. The key objectives of this reform, as stated by policy makers, was to mitigate interjurisdictional inequalities in education. This paper explores whether the reform had an equalizing effect on education resources on the one hand, and student achievement on the other. First, we estimate elasticities of per-student school expenditures to average income in municipalities. The results reveal a substantial equalization of school resources: before the reform rich municipalities had spent significantly more on education than poor ones, while after the reform no difference in school spending can be detected. Second, we ask whether the equalization of resources had an effect on inequalities in student achievement. Student achievement is measured by test score in grade 6 and grade 8. The results show no equalization in this respect, suggesting that inequalities in school quality were hardly affected by the reform.

Girls tend to outperform boys in reading tests, while they usually lag behind boys in math. However, the size of the gender gap varies to a great extent between countries. While the existing literature explains these differences as being mainly due to cultural factors, this paper explores whether this cross-country variation is related to educational policies like tracking, grade retention, and individualised teaching practices. The gender test score gap is analysed in math, reading and science using the PISA 2012 dataset. Multilevel models are used in the estimation. The results suggest that the extent of the gender gap is indeed associated with certain characteristics of the various education systems. First, applying a difference-in-differences estimation method, it was found that early tracking has a direct effect on the gender gap in test scores, in favour of girls. Second, suggestive evidence shows that more student-oriented teaching practices also benefit girls relative to boys, both between and within countries, and within schools. Finally, grade retention is correlated with the gender gap, though there is further evidence suggesting that this correlation is very unlikely to represent a causal effect.

We estimate preferences for school tracks in upper secondary education in Hungary. We consider travel time, school SES composition, school level (in terms of peer quality) and school quality (in terms of added value). We find that students have stronger preferences for school SES composition and school level, rather than school quality (which may be harder to observe). Furthermore, these preferences vary between high and low ranked schools, indicating students use heuristics in the process of compiling their ranked preference list.

This paper examines the effect of teacher gender on student achievement in 20 European countries. We employ a student fixed effect approach to account for unobservable subject-invariant student ability and non-random student-teacher sorting. Our results show that female teachers tend to increase students' test scores, especially for girls. However, this effect is far from universal; it is present in half of the countries in our sample. The female effect is likely to reflect selection into the teaching profession, as it is stronger in countries where the teacher wages relative to graduate wages are higher for women than for men. Having a teacher of the same gender also benefits students in Western Europe. We further find that the female teacher effect is more pronounced for low achievers, and in Western Europe for students with an immigrant background.

This paper aims at the evaluation of the reform of vocational education introduced in 1998 in Hungary. The reform extended the duration of education by one year, and increased teaching time spent on non-vocational subjects. The reform affected two of the three tracks in upper-secondary education in Hungary, vocational secondary school and vocational school. We estimate the effect of the reform on educational attainment, employment and wages in a comparative interrupted time series (CITS) framework, using the academic track and secondary school drop-outs as control groups. The results suggest that the reform has had heterogeneous effects. First, we detect no effect for the vocational secondary track, while the reform has improved labour market outcomes of vocational school students. Second, in the vocational school group the reform has increased men's wages, while not affected their employment. For women we found a positive employment effect, while wages have increased only for the younger cohorts.

Tanulmányunkban bemutatjuk a népesség iskolai végzettségének előrejelzésére kidolgozott mikroszimulációs modell (ISMIK) felépítését és jellemzőit, és ismertetjük a modell felhasználásával készített előrejelzés eredményeit. A mikroszimulációs modellben az egyének viselkedését modellezzük, és az egyéni adatok felhasználásával jutunk el az aggregált előrejelzéshez. Az ISMIK modell felhasználásával 2020-ig jeleztük előre a népesség iskolázottsági szintjét. Az előrejelzés alapváltozata mellett további változatok keretében azt vizsgáljuk, hogy milyen lenne a népesség iskolázottsági összetétele abban az esetben, ha a környezet által romának tekintett népességet nem sújtanák speciális iskolázási hátrányok, ha a romának tekintett tanulók iskolai pályafutása nem különbözne a velük megegyező iskolázottságú családból származó, lakóhelyű és más megfigyelt jellemzőiben hasonló, a környezet által nem romának tekintett népesség iskolai pályafutásától. A modell segítségével néhány oktatáspolitikai döntés következményét is elemezzük: a tankötelezettségi kor csökkentésének, a szakiskolai továbbtanulási arány növelésének és az állami finanszírozású felsőoktatási férőhelyek korlátozásának hatását a népesség iskolázottságára. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: C63, J11, J21, I20., The paper describes in detail a dynamic microsimulation model called ISMIK, developed to project the educational participation and attainment of the Hun-garian population over the 20-year period 2001-2020. It presents the results of a base scenario in which all parameters (transition probabilities) are assumed to be time-invariant, i. e. the scenario projects the education level of the population on the assumption that everything continues as it was in the early 2000s. In addition to the base scenario, the authors present the results of alternative scenarios. The first investigates what would have been educational attainment of the population had Roma and non-Roma students had the same opportunities in their school career. Further scenarios measure the effects of actual educational policy changes: reducing the length of compulsory schooling; increasing the proportion of students attending secondary vocational training schools; and reducing the number of state-funded places in higher education.

A tanulmány arra a kérdésre keresi a választ, hogy az általános iskola befejezését követő továbbtanulási döntések meghozatalakor a családok mennyiben veszik figyelembe az iskolázottság várható munkaerő-piaci megtérülését. Az elemzés a kistérségi szintű munkanélküliségi ráta és a továbbtanulás közötti összefüggés keresztmetszeti becslésére épül. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy a munkanélküliség nagyobb mértéke ambiciózusabb továbbtanulási döntésekre ösztönzi a családokat. A hatás erősebb az alacsonyabb iskolai végzettségű szülők gyermekei esetében, ami arra utal, hogy az összefüggés hátterében elsősorban az oktatás eltérő alternatív költsége áll. A hatás nagysága azonban csekély a szülők iskolázottságához - a továbbtanulás elsődleges meghatározójához - mérten. Az eredmények azt is megmutatják, hogy a továbbtanulási arányok településtípusok közötti eltérései jelentős részben a szülők iskolázottság szerinti összetételének tulajdoníthatók. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: I21, J24, R23., The study enquires how far families deciding about further education after the eight years of primary education pay heed to the likely labour-market return on such schooling. The analysis rests on the relation between the unemployment rate at district level and further studies, based on a cross-sectional estimate. It emerges that unemployment prompts families to be more ambitious in their decisions about further education. This effect is stronger for children whose parents have a low level of schooling, which suggests that the differing alternative costs of education is the prime factor behind the relation. The effect is weak, however, in terms of the parents level of schooling - the primary determinant of further studies. The findings show also that differences according to type of settlement found in the proportion of those continuing their studies can be attributed in part to the level-of-schooling structure among the parents.

The paper attempts to identify causal effects of being enrolled in different educational tracks on student achievement in upper-secondary education in Hungary. Rejected and admitted students are compared who applied to the same school and performed similarly in the previous grade. Average treatment effects on the treated are estimated with a matching method. Results indicate that higher track significantly raises student achievement. Beside the effect of tracks, the schools preferred by students within the tracks also provide better educational quality. Comparing the effects of tracks and differences within the tracks reveals that the advantage of the academic track does not differ from that of better schools in general. At the same time, the vocational track incurs substantial losses that are in part specific to that track.

The paper presents a detailed description of the ISMIK model which was developed as a part of "Priority project TÁMOP - 2.3.2-09/1 Establishing labour market forecasts and foreseeing structural changes". The ISMIK model is a dynamic microsimulation model to project individuals' educational participation and qualification. The microsimulation model simulates education events at the individual level. The model projects educational participation and attainment of the population over a period of 20 years (2001-2020) by age, gender, region in 6 qualification categories using a 50 per cent sample of the Hungarian Census of 2001 as the initial model population. We present the results of the base scenario when all parameters (transition probabilities) are assumed to be timeinvariant, that is, this scenario projects education level of the population on the condition that everything continues as in the early 2000s. In addition to the base scenario we present the results of alternative scenarios. The first one investigates what would have been educational attainment of the population had Roma and Non-roma students had the same opportunities in their schooling career. The further scenarios measure the effects of educational policy changes: reducing the duration of compulsory schooling; increasing the share of students in secondary vocational training schools; and reducing the number of state-funded places in higher education.

The paper investigates the effect of teacher characteristics (experience, level of education attainment and credentials, gender) on the achievement of eighth grade students using matched student-teacher data from the 1999, 2003 and 2007 TIMSS surveys. The analysis covers European countries, thus contributing to the existing exclusively US-based literature. Non-random student-teacher matching is present in these countries, as well, similar to the US, and this can lead to biased estimates of teacher effects. We deal with this problem using a rich set of student level controls on the one hand, and applying a student fixed effect specification on the other. The results overall suggest that the lack of experience and a proper teacher education degree might drive down student achievement. However, there is a substantial heterogeneity among countries; teacher characteristics seem to matter only in less than half of the countries analysed. Even within this group the results are not robust in some cases, as the fixed-effect estimates are often non-significant. Nevertheless, where these are present, the teacher experience and credential effects are similar in magnitude to those in the US studies reporting strong effects. For Hungary the impact of teacher characteristics is ambiguous; significant only in some specifications.

Previous research provided ambiguous results on the association between average student performance and inequality of opportunity, as measured by the effect of family background on student achievement. In this paper we explore this association distinguishing between inequality of opportunity at the bottom and the top of the score distribution using a two step method. In the first step, we use quantile regression models to estimate the family background effect at different points of the distribution within each country in PISA 2000-2009. In the second step, we analyse the association between these estimates and the mean achievement of countries. Both cross-section and country fixed-effect estimates indicate that while there is no clear pattern for the bottom of the distribution, lower inequality of opportunity at the top of the distribution goes strongly together with higher mean achievement. In other words, countries where family background has a weaker impact on achievement among the most able students tend to perform better. In short, there is indeed a positive association between equality of opportunity and mean student performance, at least for some groups of students.

The paper analyses disparities in local education expenditures at the settlement and school level n Hungary. It is shown that local average income, which is a major element of the local government budget constraint, has a strong impact on school expenditures, especially in towns. This lack of fiscal neutrality implies that settlements with a higher share of socially disadvantaged children spend somewhat less on education. In case of towns, this between settlement effect is offset by within settlement disparities in expenditures: schools with relatively more disadvantaged pupils tend to have a larger budget compared to other schools of the same town. Considering village and town schools together indicates, that the higher is the share of poor children in a school, the lower are per capita expenditures on average. Though the magnitude of the effect is small, it reveals a fundamental equity problem. While the successful education of disadvantaged pupils might require substantial additional resources, the pubic education system in Hungary can not provide school with these resources now.