Darragh Flannery

Using data on over 85,000 15-years-olds from 18 countries across Europe, we examine the gender gap in ideology between young girls and boys through their self-reported attitudes towards immigration and immigrants, a strong predictor of right-wing political leaning. After controlling for a range of socioeconomic, non-cognitive, cognitive and country level controls, we find a significant gender gap in these attitudes, with teenage boys more likely to have a negative attitude towards immigrants. Separate analyses show that this result holds across all 18 countries, with varying magnitudes. We then decompose gender differences in these attitudes and find that close to one third of the gap can be explained by differences in observed characteristics, particularly those related to levels of empathy, proxied by anti-bullying values. We also find that the differences in the returns to these characteristics account for around two-thirds of the observed gap with factors such as literacy levels, life satisfaction and gender inequality levels having a prominent role in these gendered differences. Finally, we find evidence of the intergenerational transmission of attitudes in a sub-sample of countries, but this is concentrated in girls. Our results highlight a consistent gender gap in a politically divisive topic such as immigration at a young age across Europe, a gap that may persist given the potential rigidity of the factors helping to explain them.

We examine the relationship between the assignment of homework and student achievement among 8th grade students across 23 countries using the TIMSS 2019 dataset. Exploiting within‐student, between‐subject variation in homework assignment, we find a small but statistically significant positive relationship between homework and achievement. This benefit is driven primarily by the frequency with which homework is assigned rather than its volume. Heterogeneity analyses suggest larger benefits for students with more highly qualified or more experienced teachers, while effects are broadly uniform across the performance distribution except among particularly weak students. We also document substantial cross‐country variability in these estimated effects.

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in significant disruptions to both international student mobility and labour markets. Against this background, this scoping review documents findings from 35 studies, published between January 2020 and February 2024, that focused on international student mobility, Covid-19, labour market outcomes, and related regulations. The review shows that the Covid-19 pandemic negatively impacted (1) the labour market outcomes of international students before studying abroad, through changes in visa regulations, (2) skill acquisition during their mobility, (3) the duration of their studies, and (4) the availability of jobs during and after their mobility period. These negative impacts occurred at a time when international students’ needs for work were heightened. This ‘double whammy’ was more pronounced among international students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, increasing pre-existing inequalities. It was also affected by students’ residency status and policy changes. These findings underline the critical role that temporality plays in shaping the returns to international student mobility. However, the existing literature on the topic is relatively sparse and has primarily relied upon qualitative approaches and rapid research. Future studies are needed to better understand the impact of Covid-19 on the labour market outcomes of international students.

A common decision parents face is the choice of school for their children. In Ireland, somewhat uniquely in an international context, this choice includes a large number of state-funded single-sex schools, to the point that this can be considered a realistic option for many parents. Focusing on secondary-level education and using the PISA 2018 dataset, we examine whether different parental attitudes help explain the selection of single-sex versus coeducational schools in Ireland. Focusing on those households that have a degree of choice in secondary school selection, we find that parents who place a greater emphasis on factors such as religious ethos and academic achievement rather than subject choice or the climate of the school tend to have children in single-sex schools. The importance of a school’s academic achievement seems to be particularly relevant for those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.

Background: The existence of a multiplier, compositional or social context effect is debated extensively in the literature on school effectiveness and also relates to the wider issue of equity in educational outcomes. However, comparatively little attention has been given to whether or not the association between student achievement and school socio-economic composition may vary across the achievement distribution. Furthermore, with limited exception, comparatively little use has been made of unconditional quantile modelling approaches in the education literature. Methods: This paper uses Irish data from the Programme for International Student Assessment 2018 and employs ordinary least squares regression and unconditional quantile regression empirical approaches to examine the association between school socio-economic composition and achievement. Reading and mathematics achievement are used as outcome variables and models control for a rich set of school and student characteristics. Results: Findings from the ordinary least squares regression show that, on average, there is a significant negative relationship between school socio-economic disadvantage and student achievement in reading and mathematics having controlled from a range of individual and school-level variables. From a distributional perspective, unconditional quantile regression results show variation in the strength of the relationship between school socio-economic disadvantage and student achievement, particularly in reading, with a stronger association at the lower end of the achievement distribution. Findings illustrate the need to give nuanced consideration to how students with varying levels of achievement may experience a socio-economically disadvantaged context at school. Our findings also draw attention to the benefit of examining variation in the association between achievement and explanatory variables across the achievement distribution and underscore the importance of moving beyond an exclusive focus on the mean of the distribution. Finally, we emphasise the importance of drawing population-level inferences when using the unconditional quantile regression method.

A common decision parents face is the choice of school for their children. In Ireland, somewhat uniquely in an international context, this choice includes a large number of state-funded single-sex schools, to the point that this can be considered a realistic option for many parents. Focusing on secondary-level education and using the PISA 2018 dataset, we examine whether different parental attitudes help explain the selection of single-sex versus coeducational schools in Ireland. Focusing on those households that have a degree of choice in secondary school selection, we find that parents who place a greater emphasis on factors such as religious ethos and academic achievement rather than subject choice or the climate of the school tend to have children in single-sex schools. The importance of a school’s academic achievement seems to be particularly relevant for those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.