Gone for Good? Determinants of School Dropout in Southern Italy

Shane Niall O'Higgins, Marcello D'Amato, Floro Caroleo () and Adriana Barone

No 3292, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to gain some insight into the causes of dropping out of school and, more generally, of the factors that induce parents to review their choices about their child’s schooling careers. To this end we apply to data from a school dropout survey insights from a model of sequential decision making by parents, where the initial decision can be reviewed in the light of new information emerging about the ability and opportunities of the child in benefitting from education relative to her outside (in the unskilled market). Analysis of the data confirms the role of both economic capacity (opportunity costs) and cultural capacity (ability to disentangle signals about future opportunities) of the family of origin shape observed choices about drop-out and return to school by individuals in our sample. Dropping out behaviour also appears to be strongly influenced by mismatches between school and student, however, and many of those who leave are not “gone for good”.

Keywords: human capital; school dropout; young people (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J13 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2008-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-lab and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia, 2007, 66(2), 207-246

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Related works:
Working Paper: Gone for Good? Determinants of School Dropout in Southern Italy (2008)
Journal Article: Gone for Good? Determinants of School Dropout in Southern Italy (2007)
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