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Are we wasting our children's time by giving them more homework?

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  • Eren, Ozkan
  • Henderson, Daniel J.

Abstract

Following an identification strategy that allows us to largely eliminate unobserved student and teacher traits, we examine the effect of homework on math, science, English and history test scores for eighth grade students in the United States. Noting that failure to control for these effects yields selection biases on the estimated effect of homework, we find that math homework has a large and statistically meaningful effect on math test scores throughout our sample. However, additional homework in science, English and history are shown to have little to no impact on their respective test scores.

Suggested Citation

  • Eren, Ozkan & Henderson, Daniel J., 2011. "Are we wasting our children's time by giving them more homework?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 950-961, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:30:y:2011:i:5:p:950-961
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    1. Är det bra med läxor?
      by Eva Mörk in Ekonomistas on 2009-04-03 12:59:00
    2. Is homework worth the time?
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-04-15 19:24:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Kuehn Zoë & Landeras Pedro, 2014. "The Effect of Family Background on Student Effort," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(4), pages 1337-1403, October.
    2. Niaz Asadullah & Alain Trannoy & Sandy Tubeuf & Gaston Yalonetzky, 2018. "Fair and unfair educational inequality in a developing country: The role of pupil’s effort," Working Papers 474, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. Asadullah, M. Niaz & Trannoy, Alain & Tubeuf, Sandy & Yalonetzky, Gaston, 2021. "Measuring educational inequality of opportunity: pupil’s effort matters," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    4. Kaestner, Robert & Schiman, Cuiping & Ward, Jason, 2020. "Education and health over the life cycle," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Carlos Cortinhas, 2017. "Does formative feedback help or hinder students? An empirical investigation," Discussion Papers 1701, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    6. Pabilonia, Sabrina Wulff, 2015. "Children's Media Use and Homework Time," IZA Discussion Papers 9126, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Caetano, Carolina & Caetano, Gregorio & Nielsen, Eric, 2024. "Are children spending too much time on enrichment activities?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Fulya Ersoy, 2021. "Returns to effort: experimental evidence from an online language platform," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(3), pages 1047-1073, September.
    9. Torberg Falch & Marte Rønning, 2011. "Homework assignment and student achievement in OECD countries," Working Paper Series 11411, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    10. Kuehn, Zoe & Landeras, Pedro, 2012. "Study Time and Scholarly Achievement in PISA," Working Papers 2012-02, FEDEA.
    11. Eleonora Matteazzi & Martina Menon & Federico Perali, 2021. "Do Boys and Girls Perform Better at Math Just Studying More ?," CHILD Working Papers Series 96 JEL Classification: I2, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    12. Debra Shepherd, 2015. "Learn to teach, teach to learn: A within-pupil across-subject approach to estimating the impact of teacher subject knowledge on South African grade 6 performance," Working Papers 01/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    First differencing Homework Instrumental variable Selection bias Unobserved traits;

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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