Alessandra Michelangeli (p), Giorgia Casalone, Kateryna Tkach

Sauveur Giannoni

While education is a fundamental right protected by the Italian Constitution, significant territorial disparities in learning outcomes persist and have been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds and certain regions experienced more substantial learning losses.
This paper examines educational inequality in the first two educational cycles (primary and lower secondary school) by analyzing individual results from the national standardized tests administered by the National Institute for the Evaluation of the Education and Training Educational System (INVALSI). We compare the 2021 INVALSI test results with those from previous years to assess the impact of distance learning on educational disparities. Additionally, we identify the regions where students demonstrated greater resilience to pandemic’s effects.
Educational inequality is measured using Generalized Entropy Indexes (GE), which are then decomposed across different socio-demographic subgroups.
Our results reveal that stronger educational outcomes are concentrated in wealthier regions, while poorer outcomes are more prevalent in areas marked by social marginalization, including high percentages of low-income households, including single-parent families and foreign-born residents.

Sauveur Giannoni (p)

Jurgena Myftiu

A substantial body of literature demonstrates the positive impact of tourism activity on the economic growth of many countries and regions (Paci and Maroccu 2014, Radić-Matošević et al. 2021). This represents a significant economic opportunity, particularly for less developed regions.

At the same time, the literature has long established the importance of educational attainment in driving economic growth. This article aims to investigate the interactions between tourism, the education level of the population, and the economic growth of regions within the European Union.

More specifically, highly touristic regions often face an issue of under-education among young people. The employment opportunities provided by the tourism sector incentivize a portion of the population to leave the education system prematurely, often without obtaining a diploma.

Thus, while tourism may promote regional economic growth by offering local populations economic opportunities, it may simultaneously contribute to a decline in educational attainment. Ultimately, this raises the question of whether regions that choose to promote tourism as a pillar of their economic development strategy might inadvertently find themselves on a growth trajectory where education plays a diminished role and investment in education is lower.

In this article, we seek to empirically evaluate the following three hypotheses:
- H1: Tourism fosters economic growth in EU regions.
- H2: The positive effect of education on growth is weaker in the most touristic regions.
- H3: Investment in education is lower in the most touristic regions.

To test these hypotheses, we use EUROSTAT education data for NUTS2 regions of the European Union over the period 2012–2023. As this paper is still in progress, the econometric specifications employed may evolve. However, to test hypotheses H1 and H2, we rely on a standard Mankiw-Romer-Weil (1992) specification and a two-way fixed-effects panel model. Hypothesis H3 will be tested using a two-way fixed-effects panel specification, with robustness checks performed via a panel Granger causality test.

Giorgia Casalone, Alessandra Michelangeli, Jurgena Myftiu (p)

Ruoshui He

This study investigates the factors behind the "school effect" or "school value added", defined as the difference between students' actual performance and their predicted performance based on background characteristics. Analysing a nationally representative sample of Italian students who took standardized academic achievement tests in grades 2, 5, and 8 (INVALSI), the paper explores the impact of factors beyond individual characteristics, including the quality of classmates and the attributes of teachers and principals. Regarding teachers, the study examines gender, educational qualifications, experience, and contract type (fixed-term or permanent). For school principals, it considers leadership style (autocratic or democratic), organizational approach, and the school climate they help foster, assessing how these factors may affect students' learning achievements. The literature concerning the teacher value added is extensive (Carrel et al. 2010, Chetty et al. 2014, Barrios- Fernández and Riudavets-Barcons, 2024), whereas the contribution of school principals is less explored, especially in Italy. Utilizing multilevel regression models and factor analysis to uncover latent dimensions such as leadership style and school climate, the analysis investigates how these variables influence student outcomes and reduce the unexplained variance in learning achievements across classes and schools. The findings provide insights into the determinants of school effectiveness, thereby informing educational policy and school management strategies.

Ruoshui He (p), Honghong Wei

Alessandra Michelangeli

Between 1978 and 1998, China experienced the Gaokao reintroduction, the One-Child Policy, and higher education initiatives, creating an intensely competitive educational environment for the post-1980 cohorts. This paper investigates the effects of peer competition on schooling outcomes, mainly referring to the final educational attainment in China, using a cohort-based Difference-in-Differences (DID) approach. Our analysis finds that individuals from high-competition regions receive 0.42 fewer years of schooling than those from low-competition regions. The negative impact is especially pronounced among rural and male students. Regarding the individual incremental effects, for every 0.01 increase in the acceptance rate, the number of years of schooling increases by about 0.052 years (about 20 days). There is an increase in years of schooling by up to 1.22 years from the most competitive regions to the least competitive regions. The findings highlight the concept of educational involution, where increasing competition leads to social waste and diminishing returns of efforts without proportional gains in education outcomes. This study suggests policy interventions to mitigate these negative effects, advocating for equal access to educational resources.