This study presents empirical estimates of the effects of local public kindergarten availability on the employment rate of mothers of preschool-aged children in the Czech Republic. It brings together data from the Population Census and School Register to form a unique database describing the demand for childcare (numbers of children aged 3–5) and supply (capacity) across more than 6,000 Czech municipalities between 2001 and 2011. We take advantage of variations in kindergarten availability over time to estimate the impact on maternal employment with a first differences model. Our estimates show that a 10 percentage point increase in the availability of kindergarten places led to a 0.2–0.4 percentage point increase in the employment rate of mothers of preschool-aged children. A drop in the availability of kindergarten places between 2001 and 2011 resulted in 9,000 fewer mothers being employed and a net loss to public finances of 1.2–1.7 billion CZK per year.

The dataset combines information from partially aggregated data from the Census of Population, Buildings, and Dwellings, carried out by the Czech Statistical Office in 2001 and 2011 and from the School Register (years 2001 and 2011) maintained by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic. Data includes information about employment rate of mothers of certain characteristics (education, number of children, age of youngest child) and residence (municipality). For each municipality, there is infomation about demand for childcare (numbers of children aged 3–5) and supply of childcare (kindergarten capacity).

We investigate the presence of a socioeconomic status (SES) gradient in children's health and noncognitive skill development, and its evolution with child age using cohort data from the Czech Republic. We show that family SES are positively associated with better child health. These effects start to emerge at age 3 and are persistent for all subsequent ages. We find a modest strengthening of the gradient as the children grow older. Similarly, at the lowest distribution of average family income, children lag in their noncognitive skills. We find evidence that children enter school with substantial differences in noncognitive skill endowments based on family SES. This correlation persists when controlling for poor health at birth, the roles of specific and chronic health problems, housing conditions, and partner characteristics. Maternal health status explains some of the association between family income and child noncognitive skills. We account for the endogeniety of SES and non-linearities in measures.

S využitím mezinárodních šetření TIMSS, PIRLS a PISA mapujeme trendy vývoje genderových rozdílů ve čtenářské a matematické gramotnosti žáků v České a Slovenské re¬publice v posledních více než deseti letech. Sledujeme vývoj jak průřezově na úrovni 4. a 8. až 9. ročníků, tak podle prostupu žákovských kohort vzdělávacím systémem. Ukazujeme, že za poslední dekádu se genderové rozdíly v gramotnosti na úrovni 4. ročníku příliš nezměnily: mírně narostl náskok chlapců v matematické gramotnosti a mírně poklesl náskok dívek ve čtenářské gramotnosti. Naopak v 8. a 9. ročníku došlo ke změnám výrazným: náskok chlapců v matematické gramotnosti výrazně poklesl a již dříve vysoký náskok dívek ve čtenářské gramotnosti se ještě zvýšil. Dále osvětlujeme, jak s formováním genderové mezery interaguje raná selekce žáků do výběrových víceletých gymnázií, při které hrají významnou roli i gramotnostní rozdíly. Ukazujeme, že v systémech s ranou selekcí hraje významnější roli gramotnost čtenářská, protože výrazněji než matematická determinuje přechod žáka na výběrovou školu. Na druhém stupni základních škol se zaostávání chlapců ve čtenářské gramot¬nosti za dívkami prohlubuje výrazněji než na víceletých gymnáziích. O identifikaci samotných příčin gramotnostních rozdílů však neusilujeme, protože pro to dosud nejsou k dispozici potřebná data. Using international surveys TIMSS, PIRLS, and PISA, we explore the trends in gender gaps in reading and mathematical literacy in the Czech and Slovak Republic during more than last decade. We explore the trends in the cross-sectional dimension at the 4th, and 8th to 9th grades and also at the cohort dimension as pupils’ cohorts passed through the educational system. We show that the gender gaps in literacy in the 4th grade have not changed much during last decade: boys have slightly improved their lead in mathematics and girls have slightly lost their lead in reading literacy. On the contrary, significant changes have occurred in the 8th and 9th grades: the lead of boys in mathe¬matics has decreased considerably and high lead of girls in reading literacy has deepened. Further, we explore and clarify how the formation of the gender gap interacts with the early tracking of pupils to selective academic schools, in which the differences in literacy play an important role. We show that in early tracking systems, reading literacy is more important than literacy in mathematics due to the test based system of admission. In the mainstream lower secondary schools, boys are lagging behind girls in reading literacy much more than they are in selective academic schools. We do not aspire to identify the various possible causes of gender skills gap due to lack of data.

It is a common empirical finding across countries that, on average, girls outperform boys in languages, whereas boys outperform girls in mathematics. We enrich the existing empirical evidence by combining admission test scores and teachers' grading of 15-year-old pupils' performance in mathematics and their native language in the Czech Republic, and furthermore, we investigate possible gender bias in teachers' grading. The directions of the gender differences in performance we estimate are consistent with international patterns and we document that teachers' grading is biased in favor of girls both in mathematics and in native language. The gender effect in grading is sizeable across the whole performance distribution and can be explained neither by the students' differing perceptions of stress at exams, nor by the students' attitudes toward the subject in question. The most plausible explanation is that the gender grading gap is due to gender difference in non-cognitive skills, such as in-class behavior and homework, confounding teachers' grades but not test scores. Since grades constitute the main feedback about students' academic performance and a crucial factor in decision-making about their future academic careers, biased grading may cause inefficiencies to the educational system and consequently can negatively affect future labor market careers.

We present a bibliometric comparison of publication performance in 226 scientific disciplines in the Web of Science (WoS) for six post-communist EU member states relative to six EU-15 countries of a comparable size. We compare not only overall country-level publication counts, but also high quality publication output where publication quality is inferred from the journal Article Influence Scores. As of 2010–2014, post-communist countries are still lagging far behind their EU counterparts, with the exception of a few scientific disciplines mainly in Slovenia. Moreover, research in post-communist countries tends to focus relatively more on quantity rather than quality. The relative publication performance of post-communist countries in the WoS is strongest in natural sciences and engineering. Future research is needed to reveal the underlying causes of these performance differences, which may include funding and productivity gaps, the historical legacy of the communist ideology, and Web of Science coverage differences.

High-stakes admission exams to selective schools create incentives for more intensive study effort possibly increasing study achievements of students. Exploiting the exogenous change of a schooling system and using two waves of TIMSS survey data we find that high-stakes exams increase math test scores of ten-year-old students by 0.2 standard deviations. This effect additionally accrues by around 0.05 standard deviations for students in the top decile, i.e. students who apply for selective schools with the highest probability. Although the effects are similar for both genders, there are indications that girls exert higher study efforts than boys in a more competitive environment. The most perceptive to incentives are test items referring to the cognitive domain of reasoning requiring a deeper understanding of math problems.

We compare the role of gender, socioeconomic background and measured ability on students' secondary school placement and professional expectations in Taiwan and the Czech Republic, two countries that have experienced substantial reforms in their educational systems in the context of political change and economic development. Using data from the international PISA 2006 survey of 15-year-olds, our analysis reveals that Czech academic upper-secondary schools are much more selective in terms of socioeconomic background and gender than comparable Taiwanese senior high schools. Controlling for measured ability and other factors, students' professional expectations are also more closely linked to socioeconomic background and gender in the Czech Republic than in Taiwan.

The Czech Republic is home to one of the more equal societies in terms of household disposable income, and has the lowest level of relative poverty in Europe. This study shows that Czech market income is quite egalitarian, especially when pensions are included. It finds that the narrowly defined tax-benefit system (i.e., direct taxes and social benefits) does not actually change the poverty rate, and that indirect taxes increase it. It further provides the first estimates of the redistributive effectiveness and targeting of a number of social and tax policies.

If school admission committees use alphabetically sorted lists of applicants in their evaluations, one’s position in the alphabet according to last name initial may be important in determining access to selective schools. Jurajda and Münich (2010) ‘Admission to Selective Schools, Alphabetically. Economics of Education Review, 29 (6): 1100–1109’ provide evidence consistent with this hypothesis based on graduation exams taken in grade 13 in the Czech Republic: ‘Z’ students in selective schools had higher exam scores than ‘A’ students. In this paper, we use the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study & Progress in International Reading Literacy Study test scores of 4th graders and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test scores of 8th and 9th graders in the Czech Republic to provide evidence on how the alphabetical sorting outcome uncovered in Jurajda and Münich (2010) ‘Admission to Selective Schools, Alphabetically. Economics of Education Review, 29 (6): 1100–1109’ arises during early tracking into selective schools. Using the PISA data, we also provide corresponding evidence for Denmark, where sorting into selective schools happens in higher grades.

This study evaluates monetary effects of an increase in Czech tax credit by CZK 500 per month for the second child and CZK 900 per month for the third and each additional child. The analysis uses a microsimulation model and survey data SILC 2011. The decline in government revenues from taxes due to these changes is estimated to be CZK 4.7 billion annually, with almost one third of the total budgetary costs (CZK 1.5 billion annually) going to families with children in the upper half of income distribution. The average household with more than one child would save approximately CZK 7,300 per year. While the poorest households with more children would gain on average only CZK 2,900 per year, wealthier households with more children would gain CZK 7,000 to 9,000 per year. There is a high share of low-educated and often single-earner households among the poorest households, who gain the least from this change. Increasing the child tax credit would also lead to an increase in the already very high tax differentials between men and women and differences in the taxation of childless people and married couples with children.