Estimating the education production function for cognitive and non-cognitive development of children in Vietnam through structural equation modelling using Young Lives data base

This paper uses data from Young Lives. The author's abstract reads:

This paper attempts to shed light on the education process of cognitive and non-cognitive skills by using cross-sectional empirical data from Vietnam. Given the evidence of the benefits that education brings to individuals and society; a better understanding of the education process of multiple educational outcomes is essential. The main purpose of this study is to incorporate the analysis of non-cognitive skills, as a relevant educational outcome, in order to simultaneously estimate the production of educational outcomes (i.e. cognitive and non-cognitive skills) as a more realistic formulation of the education process. The education production function is used as the conceptual framework to empirically model the education process since it is a powerful tool to understand the combination of school inputs that influence educational outcomes. The estimation approach used to simultaneously estimate the production of both outcomes is simultaneous equation modeling. In order to estimate the parameters, maximum likelihood method is used. The information from Young Lives database is sourced as it contains key information about the learning environment of the child. The educational inputs included in the estimation are child, school, teachers and family characteristics. The results obtained from the estimation imply that child’s characteristics influence cognitive and non-cognitive development. In this line, the variable with the greatest effect on both educational outcomes is the child’s relation with their peers. This is an interesting finding since a non-tangible input has a relevant effect on a child’s academic performance and personal development. In terms of academic achievement, a family’s socio-economic status is only found to have a strongly determinative effect on a child’s cognitive skills. Non-cognitive skills are found to be more likely to be determined by a child’s relation with their parents.