We describe an efficient method for estimating enterprise input-output tables for cases when only information on marginal totals is available. In order to estimate the production structure of enterprises, we utilize engineering knowledge to construct a qualitative prior containing 1 wherever an...

At the request of Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, Mathematica has developed value-added models that aim to estimate the contributions of individual teachers and schools to the achievement of their students.

This report describes the value-added models (VAMs) created for the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. Pittsburgh's VAMs use not only state assessments but also course-specific assessments, student attendance, and course completion rates, aiming to produce...

This working paper examines the sensitivity and precision of teacher value-added model (VAM) estimates obtained under model specifications that differ based on whether they include student-level background characteristics, peer-level background characteristics, and/or a double-lagged achievement...

The Kauffman School is a charter school in Kansas City, Missouri that opened in 2011 to serve middle and high school students from the city’s most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. This report evaluates the effectiveness of the School at improving student achievement, attendance,...

This report describes Mathematica's work in developing value-added models (VAMs) that estimate teachers’ and schools’ contributions to the achievement of their students, and assisting the Pittsburgh Public Schools in developing performance-based pay plans for teachers and principals.

The last few years have seen both a significant shift in EU state aid policy towards a more sophisticated economic approach and a great enrichment of the economic literature on state aid. This paper examines the control of state aid in the EU in the light of the new literature. It begins with a...

The federal Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program provides loans to parents of dependent undergraduate students to help pay for education expenses. To bring the standards in line with those used by banks, the U.S. Department of Education tightened the credit standards for PLUS...

This paper reports on the construction of a new database – called TM-Link – that contains 12 million trade mark applications and registrations across six jurisdictions – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. A new feature of the...