Economic policy summary, must be familiar with economic theory

Answer

                                                     Policy Research Summary:

The Effects of Family Income, Parental Education and Other Background Factors on Access to Post‐Secondary Education in Canada

Recent studies indicate that family income, parental education and other family background factors influence access to post-secondary education in Canada. The price mechanism is an essential investment decision since it determines the choice of schools. However, availability of funds to facilitate the choice of school for kids depends on the level of income of a particular family. Studies also show that non-financial factors such long term family background and short-run factors like constraints of access to credit impacts on post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada. However, research contends that long term factors have a broader impact on PSE as compared to the short-term factors. Therefore, there is need to come up with policies that are directed towards the earlier life with an aim that the long term factors would increase access to PSE. Nonetheless, the financial factors should not be ignored since they also correlate to the ability of students to access PSE. Notably, children from families with higher income have better access to good schools. They also have a higher cognitive ability, therefore, targeting young people after high school may not change anything. Any effective intervention should be targeted at the time when children are developing cognitive ability. This study uses

Finnie and Mueller’s (2008) article entitled ‘The Effects of Family Income, Parental education and Other Factors on Access to PSE in Canada” to examine the relationship between these factors and access to Post-Secondary Education in Canada.

Highlights/Findings

The study discovered that high school academic participation level and higher PISA reading ability are essential factors in determining university education. In other words, hard work, talent and personal responsibility determine university education performance. These factors are associated with parental education level. Parents who are well educated, for example, those with Bachelor’s and above instill responsibility and hard work into their children and this impact on their performance when they join universities (Finnie & Mueller, 2008). The average high school grade has a negative impact on college education and a positive influence on university education. Hence, parental education is an indirect determinant of university education of the children. However, the study failed to approve or disapprove the effects of transmission mechanisms and genetic factors on Post-Secondary Education.

 Although, there is only as small supporting evidence on this, the study suggested that parents who push the children to work hard provide them with rich development experiences. As a result, they tend do better. But, parental behavior is directly connected to the natural skills endowment and the family background. Therefore, family background is an essential factor of PSE.

The study established that family income does not directly influence Post-Secondary Education in Canada. However, parental income influences a child’s development. There is need for further studies to determine the effects of parental income on PSE.  (Keane, 2002).

Background

A standard empirical model was used for the estimation of access to post-secondary education. The access to PSE was considered to be a function of a number of influencing factors. The essential factors included family background variables (smaller regressors). Smaller regressors were used in building more comprehensive regressors that represented other influencing factors measured in YITS-A-. To move from short regressor to longer regressions, the following model was used (Finnie & Mueller, 2008). The regression model was essential in establishing the relationship between the study variables.

Y = X1β1 + X2β2 + X3β3­ + μ

Where:

Y: Represented the access measure of interest (Involvement in the University of a college education.

X1: Represented the vectors of covariates influencing Y.

Βi: Are the coefficients associated with every set of X.

μ is the classical stochastic error term. 

X1 included the most conventional variables of background of the family. These variables comprised of parental education, family income, type of family among others. These variables are essential factors that give families a lot of advantages when it comes to PSE. In other words, people from higher income families and families with highly educated parents are likely to get more access to PSE especially university education. X2 comprises of other variables such as high school education grades and the related factors. X2 included the variables available in YITS. X3 comprised of other factors that influence access to PSE (Cunha & Heckman, 2007). They included factors like students confidence level, the behavior of the parents especially regarding the discipline of their children and the student's self-appraisal. Multinomial logit set-up was used to show the difference that lies in access to college and university in the Canadian context. After indicating the differences, the multimonial set up enables regressors to have different influences on involvement in university and college education while relating the two processes.

The primary method of data collection was used where the Youth in Transition Survey helped in interviewing the first sample of participants (Sample A). Sample A consisted of 15 years old individuals, their high school teachers and parents. Sample A survey was conducted in 2000. It was followed by two more surveys conducted in 2002 and 2004. The latter survey involved an interview of 19 years old who can make choices about joining PSEs. The dependent variable for the study represented the entry into university or college (Finnie & Mueller, 2008). Therefore, it showed the difference between those who had decided to join SPEs and others including those may be interested to join later. Although the study was conducted in national scope, it excluded students in Quebec who only attend high school and individuals who studied outside Canada. This resulted in the final sample which consisted of 7 852 males and 8 211 females.

It is worth noting that comparing the direct income and education was not possible by regression analysis because they are of different nature and metrics of the two variables, for example, one is measured in dollars and the other measured in years (Finnie, Lascelles & Sweetman, 2005). The YITS comprised scale variables which are just indices obtained from a number of questions that were intended to measure different aspects of individual engagements in high school. A full description of data collected through surveys for individuals aged 15 years was represented in tabular form for easy analysis.

Survey was used in the collection of data because it can be developed in less time and it is cost effective. It also provides the researchers with the ability to ask a number of questions, can be conducted remotely and provides the investigator with an opportunity to get information from a huge number of responses. However, the method selected for data collection could also lead to inaccurate information, data errors especially when the respondents fail to understands the issue under investigation.

The policy implications of this research are not straightforward since there is a correlation between parental education and other background variables that are also determinants of involvement in PSE (Finnie & Mueller, 2008). Therefore, the policy is will be unrealistic towards changing parental education. However, it may help change the education of young people in the future when they become parents.

Conclusion

The study addressed various factors related to college and university education in Canada. It was discovered that parental education relates to children education in high school more directly than parental income. However, it was found that the first determinant of PSE is the individual’s score on reading. Therefore, this policy will be effective in influencing the education of young people when they later become parents.abuse cases.

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