Majority of Germans Favors Income-Contingent Tuition
The introduction of university tuition is one of Germany’s most controversial education policies of the past years. In a new study, Philipp Lergetporer and Ludger Woessmann of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education analyze determinants of the public’s preferences for charging tuition. Using survey experiments implemented in the representative ifo Education Survey, they find that information about the university earnings premium turns a public plurality against tuition into a plurality supporting it. Over 60 percent of Germans support deferred, income-contingent university tuition. more...
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Scientific Insights Increase Support for Spending on Early Education
Which education area should benefit from increases in public spending? 45 percent of the German population favor higher spending for preschools and elementary schools, while the majority of 55 percent favors spending additional funds on secondary schools, vocational schools, or universities. This is one of the results of the new study by Katharina Werner of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education based on data from the ifo Education Survey. As part of a survey experiment, a subgroup of participants is informed that scientific studies show spending on early education to have greater benefits for the future prosperity of society than spending on later education areas. This information strongly shifts the majority: Now, 66 percent support additional spending for preschools and elementary schools. more...
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Adolescents Choose Vocations that Do Not Protect against Structural Change
A new paper by Lisa Simon of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education analyzes the impact of regional structural change caused by exposure to import competition from China and Eastern Europe on vocational occupation choices of adolescents. Manufacturing jobs tend to teach specific skills, whereas service jobs tend to teach more general skills that are more easily transferable to other areas and thus more likely to protect against unemployment due to structural change. The analysis shows that adolescents in regions exposed to more import competition still choose more skill-specific occupations in manufacturing. This has negative consequences for their later labor-market outcomes. more...
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Discrimination Rises with Age during Preschool
Discrimination is a pervasive phenomenon in many societies, but little is known about its development at early age. A new study by Philipp Lergetporer of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education with Parampreet Christopher Bindra and Daniela Glätzle-Rützler from the University of Innsbruck studies the development of discrimination in three- to six-year-old preschool children. Results show the prevalence of discrimination already at this young age. Discrimination gets stronger with age and is based on gender as well as preschool-group affiliation. more...
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Dissertation: Information and Public Preferences on Education
In her dissertation written at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and accepted by the University of Munich, Katharina Werner studies the political economy of education. The four chapters investigate public opinion of the German and U.S. populations on education spending, the effect of information on preferences for the allocation of spending across education levels, support for reforms to enhance equality of opportunity, and differences in educational aspirations of different socio-economic groups more...
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EffEE: New Project Evaluates German School Reforms
German states (Länder) reformed many important aspects of their school systems over the post-war period. Examples include the introduction or termination of grading during the first years of primary school, grading of social behavior, the binding character of school track recommendations, religion as compulsory subject, and compulsory STEM subjects until graduation. How did such reforms affect the academic achievement and socio-emotional development of affected students and their life-course outcomes? This is the question addressed in a big new project, “Efficiency and Equity in Education: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from School Reforms across German States” (EffEE). The project is funded by the Leibniz Competition and headed by sociologists Jutta Allmendinger and Marcel Helbig at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and economists Ludger Woessmann und Larissa Zierow at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education. Apart from several research projects, a number of conferences will be organized over the coming three years. Joshua Angrist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has accepted to give the Keynote Address at the first conference in spring 2020.
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International Comparative Education Policy Lab
Another big new project has also just started: the “International Comparative Education Policy Lab” supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation and headed by ifo research professor Eric Hanushek (Stanford University) and Ludger Woessmann. Over the coming years several research projects at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education will investigate determinants of the large international differences in student achievement. Topics include the identification and production of high teacher quality and the role of intertemporal preferences of national populations, among others. The Policy Lab contributes to further strengthening the Center’s microeconometrically founded international comparative education research. Together, the two big new projects will shape the policy-oriented focus of the Center’s research over the coming years.
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A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE: EENEE
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Analytical Report:
Ludger Woessmann: Effects of Vocational and General Education for Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle, EENEE Analytical Report 37
Policy Briefs:
4/2018: George Psacharopoulos: Education for a Better Citizen
1/2019: Ludger Woessmann: How Vocational and General Education Affect the Labor-Market Life-Cycle
2/2019: Daniela Crăciun and Kata Orosz: Taking Stock of the Costs and Benefits of Transnational Partnerships in Higher Education: What Do We Know So Far?
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Majorities for equitable education
In an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Ludger Woessmann argues that an education policy that particularly supports disadvantaged children would be the best means to address inequality in the long run. He describes that reforms for greater equality of opportunity in the education system would have strong majorities in the population. more…
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External comparison matters
In an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ludger Woessmann reports on new research results that externally comparable assessments, but not internal tests improve student achievement. If there is a feeling of too much testing, policymakers and schools should focus on externally comparative assessments. more…
Integration is incompatible with ghettos in cities
Article by Ludger Woessmann in WirtschaftsWoche about new research findings that regional concentration of migrants of the same nationality reduces German language proficiency and increases school dropout among migrant children. more…
Whiteboard instead of blackboard – digital schools of tomorrow?
Interview with Ludger Woessmann on hr-iNFO about effects of digitalization in schools. more…
Money for equality
The Welt cites Ludger Woessmann on public funding for private schools. more…
Economists on student grant reform
In another article in the Welt, Ludger Woessmann is quoted on reform plans for student grants. more…
The big mistake of the digital pact is made right at the beginning
The Welt cites Ludger Woessmann with the call for central concepts for the digitalization of schools. more…
How would a society look like that is less unequal in terms of education
Larissa Zierow answers two questions at Frag Leibniz on how a society would look like if the education level of the population would be relatively equal and how the inheritance of richness and poverty can be prevented in the future. more…
Before the exit exam
The Swedish Aftonbladet reports on work by Ludger Woessmann on the importance of external exit exams for learnings efforts of students. more…
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Articles in Refereed Journals
Ludger Woessmann, "Facing the Life-Cycle Trade-off between Vocational and General Education in Apprenticeship Systems: An Economics-of-Education Perspective". Journal for Educational Research Online 11 (1): 31-46, 2019.
Monographs
Katharina Werner, "The Role of Information for Public Preferences on Education – Evidence from Representative Survey Experiments", ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung 82, 2019.
Articles in Refereed Journals
Parampreet Christopher Bindra, Daniela Glätzle-Rützler and Philipp Lergetporer, "Discrimination at Young Age: Experimental Evidence from Preschool Children", CESifo Working Paper Nr. 7396, December 2018.
Philipp Lergetporer and Ludger Woessmann, "The Political Economy of Higher Education Finance: How Information and Design Affect Public Preferences for Tuition",CESifo Working Paper 7536, February 2019.
Lisa Simon, "Shocking Choice: Trade Shocks, Local Labor Markets and Vocational Occupation Choices", ifo Working Paper Nr. 281, December 2018.
Katharina Werner, "Obstacles to Efficient Allocations of Public Education Spending: Evidence from a Representative Survey Experiment", Rationality & Competition CRC Discussion Paper 128, December 2018.
Further Articles
Sascha O. Becker, Ludger Woessmann, "Economics Helps Explain Why Suicide Is More Common among Protestants". Aeon, 14.1.2019.
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After successfully completing her Ph.D., Lisa Simon left the Center to take a Postdoc position at Stanford University. We wish her all the best!
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Ludger Woessmann was appointed to the renowned Advisory Board of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the journal of the American Economic Association that aims to bridge the gap between academic journals and the general press. |
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