ifo Education Survey 2017: Do Germans Fear Digitalization?
When it comes to digitalization, Germans are surprisingly confident: 54 percent see themselves as winners, only 16 percent see themselves as losers of digitalization. This is one of the results of the new ifo Education Survey, a representative opinion survey of the adult population in Germany. There is broad support for expanding digitalization in schools: digital and media competences should be taught starting in primary school, schools should be equipped with broadband Internet, WLAN and computers, and more teaching time should be devoted to independent work on the computer. Overall, schools in Germany were assessed less favorably than in previous years. The survey again covered a wide variety of educational policy issues. For example, an overwhelming majority supports the introduction of nationwide school exit exams. more... |
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Short- and Long-term Effects of Grade Repetition
Should students with poor performance have to repeat the grade? ifo research professors Guido Schwerdt (Konstanz) and Martin West (Harvard), together with Marcus Winters (Boston), exploit the test-based promotion policy in the US state of Florida to estimate the effects of grade repetition. Originating in the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and now being published in the Journal of Public Economics , the study finds that test-based retention in third grade improves students’ reading and math achievement in the following years. The positive effects fade out over time, but no negative effects are found. more…
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Occupational Skills Key for Decision to Migrate
How do migrants differ from the population that remains in their country of origin? A new CESifo Working Paper by former members of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, Jens Ruhose (Hannover) and Simon Wiederhold (Eichstätt-Ingolstadt), together with Alexander Patt and Miguel Flores, addresses this question for the case of Mexicans migrating to the US. They find that the migrant Mexicans have better manual skills but lower cognitive skills than those who remain in Mexico. The selection of migrants is much better described by their occupational skills than by their formal education level or income. more...
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Skills Important for Employment and Earnings
Better skills are rewarded highly on modern labor markets. This is shown by Franziska Hampf, Simon Wiederhold, and Ludger Woessmann of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education in a paper just published in the journal Large-scale Assessments in Education that supplements previous work on the “adult PISA” (PIAAC). On average, each of the five skill levels in the PIAAC test is associated with 20 percent higher earnings and an 8 percent higher employment probability. But the results differ significantly between the 32 countries studied. more…
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Education Promoted Secularization
Why did substantial parts of Europe abandon the institutionalized churches around 1900? A study just published in the Journal of Economic Growth by ifo research professor Sascha Becker (Warwick), Markus Nagler (LMU Munich), and Ludger Woessmann points to the important influence of education. Using unique data on Protestants’ participation in Holy Communion, the authors show that the decline in church attendance in German cities between 1890 and 1930 was preceded by increased attendance in advanced schools. The increasing education of the population thus seems to have been an important cause of the churches’ loss of importance in society. more…
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Education Important for Innovation in Prussian Development
Various dimensions of human capital played an important role in innovation and economic development during the first and second phase of the Industrial Revolution. This is the result of a study by Francesco Cinnirella of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and Jochen Streb of the University of Mannheim published in the Journal of Economic Growth based on Prussian data from the end of the 19th century. Both the literacy rate of the population and the density of master craftsmen led to higher patent activities and thus to technical change and higher incomes. more…
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Family Planning in the Pre-Industrial Era
Active birth control was already conducted in pre-industrial England. This is the result of a study by Francesco Cinnirella of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, Marc Klemp of the University of Copenhagen, and Jacob Weisdorf of the University of Southern Denmark that has just appeared in the journal Demography. Their analysis of the years 1540-1850 shows that families adapted the interval between births both to the economic situation and to the number of surviving children. This is especially the case for families from poorer backgrounds. more…
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At its annual meeting in Vienna, the German Economic Association (Verein für Socialpolitik) awarded the Gustav Stolper Prize 2017 to Ludger Woessmann, director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education. In the view of the association of German-speaking economists, with his scholarly contributions to the economics of education he has contributed in an exemplary fashion to making insights of economics accessible to a broader public. more…
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4/2017: Marius R. Busemeyer, Philipp Lergetporer and Ludger Woessmann: What We Know about Public Opinion on Educational Reforms (based on EENEE Analytical Report No. 28)
3/2017: Holger Bonin: Education of Migrants: A Social Investment (based on EENEE Analytical Report Nr. 31)
2/2017: Maria De Paola and Giorgio Brunello: School Segregation of Immigrants and Educational Outcomes in Europe (based on EENEE Analytical Report Nr. 30)
1/2017: Mette Trier Damgaard and Helena Skyt Nielsen: Does Nudging Change Educational Decisions? (based on EENEE Analytical Report Nr. 29)
In addition, EENEE now also publishes a selection of responses to Ad Hoc Questions from the European Commission on its website. The Commission asks EENEE to get guidance and advice on concrete questions in the field of the economics of education that emerge occasionally on an ad hoc basis.
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Apprenticeship Programs in a Changing Economic World
Blog post by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann in the Brown Center Chalkboard of the Brookings Institution about opportunities and challenges of apprenticeships in a changing world. more...
The Trouble With Trade School
The New York Times reports on our research on the employment effects of vocational education over the course of people’s lives. more…
The Downside to Career and Technical Education
Das US monthly The Atlantic reports on the ifo study on vocational education and training. more…
German-Style Apprenticeships Simply Can’t Be Replicated
In a contribution to the Wall Street Journal, Eric Hanushek discusses what his joint research with scholars at the ifo Center means for the Trump Administration’s proposals on apprenticeships. more…
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The Education Summit
The lead article of the DSW Journal of the German National Association for Student Affairs has a “Summit Talk on the Bundestag Elections” with WZB President Jutta Allmendinger, DIW President Marcel Fratzscher, and Ludger Woessmann. more...
More Spending per Student Does not Help
Portrait of Ludger Woessmann in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the occasion of award of the Gustav Stolper Prize. more...
Apprenticeship, Master Craftsman, University Studies: Education is Worthwhile
In the Saturday Essay of the Süddeutschen Zeitung, Ludger Woessmann writes about the earnings returns of higher education degrees over the lifecycle. more...
Germans Have a Positive View on Digitalization
A broad array of print, online, radio, and TV media again covers the results of the ifo Education Survey this year. Here is a selection: the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Welt, the Handelsblatt, the Tagesspiegel, Spiegel Online, Deutschlandfunk, Tagesschau24, NTV, N24 and many other print and online media.
Education Survey: Grade C for Schools
The national TV program ZDF Morgenmagazin also interviews Ludger Woessmann on the results of the ifo Education Survey on the topic of digitalization. more…
University rather than Apprenticeship
Interview with Ludger Woessmann in the ZDF news heute in Deutschland on whether university studies pay off in Germany compared to apprenticeships. more...
Tuition-free Day-care Centers
On the ZDF TV program Frontal 21, Ludger Woessmann addresses the question of whether tuition-free day-care centers are socially just. more...
Increasing Numbers of Students – Germany Needs More Teachers than Planned
Radio interview with Ludger Woessmann in Campusmagazin on B5 aktuell on the projected increase in the number of students in Germany. more…
What is the State of Education in Germany?
Radio interview with Ludger Woessmann on hr-iNFO on the federal structure of education in Germany. more…
Restauration Case School
In the first part of its series “Education 4.0,” the Handelsblatt quotes Ludger Woessmann on responsibilities in school policy. more…
16 States, 16 Systems
In another article, the Handelsblatt quotes Ludger Woessmann on the different education system in the German states. more…
Common Exit Exams: Good Luck for Berlin Exams
The daily newspaper taz quotes Ludger Woessmann in an article on the role of a common pool of test items for the comparability of school leaving exams. more…
Are Rich Children more Important to Politicians?
In a report on educational inequality in Germany, Bild am Sonntag cites Ludger Woessmann to the effect that educational success is still strongly dependent on the social and economic background of the parents. more…
High School Completed – Now What?
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wonders how profitable a high level of education is in times of increasing numbers of academics and quotes Ludger Woessmann that a high level of education is still lucrative, on average. more…
Why Firms Find it Increasingly Hard to Find Apprentices
The Tagesspiegel quotes Ludger Woessmann in an article about the German apprenticeship system that is viewed as a success model worldwide but is meeting its limitations in Germany. more…
New Rankings of German Economists
In the FAZ ranking of influential economists, Ludger Woessmann is in the Top 10, and he is in the Top 20 of the Handelsblatt economist ranking.
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Articles in Refereed Journals
Sascha O. Becker, Markus Nagler and Ludger Woessmann, “Education and Religious Participation: City-Level Evidence from Germany’s Secularization Period 1890-1930”, Journal of Economic Growth, 22 (3): 273-311, 2017.
Francesco Cinnirella, Marc Klemp and Jacob Weisdorf, "Malthus in the Bedroom: Birth Spacing as Birth Control in Pre-Transition England", Demography 54 (2): 413-436, 2017.
Francesco Cinnirella and Jochen Streb, “The Role of Human Capital and Innovation in Economic Development: Evidence from Post-Malthusian Prussia. Journal of Economic Growth 22 (2): 193-227, 2017.
Franziska Hampf, Simon Wiederhold and Ludger Woessmann, “Skills, Earnings, and Employment: Exploring Causality in the Estimation of Returns to Skills”, Large-scale Assessments in Education 5 (12): 1-30, 2017.
Guido Schwerdt, Martin R. West and Marcus A. Winters, “The Effects of Test-based Retention on Student Outcomes over Time: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Florida”, Journal of Public Economics 152: 154-169, 2017.
Working Papers
Alexander Patt, Jens Ruhose, Simon Wiederhold and Miguel Flores, "International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills", CESifo Working Paper Nr. 6527, June 2017.
Christina Felfe and Larissa Zierow, "From Dawn till Dusk: Implications of Full-Day Care for Children's Development", CESifo Working Paper No. 6490, May 2017.
Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner and Ludger Woessmann, "Public Opinion on Education Policy in Germany”, CESifo Working Paper No. 6602, August 2017.
Further Articles
Ludger Woessmann, Philipp Lergetporer, Elisabeth Grewenig, Franziska Kugler and Katharina Werner, „Fürchten sich die Deutschen vor der Digitalisierung? Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2017“, ifo Schnelldienst 70 (17): 17-38, 2017.
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Simon Wiederhold has taken on the chair of economics, especially macroeconomics, at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt. Congratulations! We are pleased that he will continue to collaborate with the ifo Center for the Economics of Education as an ifo research professor.
In August Sarah Kersten began her work as staff researcher at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education as maternity-leave replacement for Franziska Kugler. In September, Benjamin Arold joined our team as a new doctoral student after having completed his Masters at the London School of Economics. A warm welcome to both!
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