U.S. Gap in Student Achievement by Socioeconomic Status Unwavering for 50 Years
Differences in the performance on math, reading, and science tests between disadvantaged and advantaged U.S. students are as wide today as they were for children born in 1954. Using intertemporally linked assessments from NAEP, TIMSS, and PISA, a new study by ifo research professor Eric Hanushek (Stanford), Paul Peterson (Harvard), Laura Talpey (Stanford), and Ludger Woessmann (ifo Center for the Economics of Education) shows that achievement gaps between the top and bottom deciles of the socio-economic status (SES) distribution have been large and remarkably constant for a near half century. The long-term failure of major educational policies to alter SES gaps suggests a need to reconsider standard approaches to mitigating disparities. more...
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Educational Equity as Core Element of the Social Market Economy
The current German debate on reforming the Social Market Economy tends to neglect one of its core promises: to empower people to participate self-dependently in the economy and society. Only an education policy that creates equal starting opportunities can achieve this, as pointed out by the Academic Advisory Council at the Federal Ministry of Economics in its report "Equality of Opportunity in Education as Core Element of the Social Market Economy" prepared under the auspices of Ludger Woessmann. Only an education system that ensures high-quality education for all children and youths will be able to carry the interplay of self-dependent competition and social participation into the future in order to master the new societal challenges. more...
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Region and Education. City vs. Rural Areas
Are there regional differences in educational opportunities in Germany in the relationship between urban and rural areas? In its current report, the Expert Council on Education (Aktionsrat Bildung), with the participation of Ludger Woessmann, examines the extent to which the place of residence is related to the provision of educational opportunities, educational participation, student performance, and social and occupational participation in Germany. Some widespread assumptions about regional disparities prove to be myths. more...
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Positions of Political Parties Affect the Public's Policy Preferences
Are the electorates' policy preferences responsive to the positions of political parties? A new study by Elisabeth Grewenig, Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner, and Ludger Woessmann of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education addresses this question using survey experiments implemented in the representative German ifo Education Survey. They inform randomized treatment groups about parties' positions on two family policies, the child care subsidy and universal student aid. In both experiments, results show that the treatment aligns the preferences of specific partisan groups with their preferred party's position on the policy. more...
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New Insights on Measuring Factual Knowledge in Surveys
To study whether behavior or opinions differ with people's factual knowledge, surveys often ask respondents about their subjective beliefs about economic facts. In a randomized survey experiment in the ifo Education Survey, Elisabeth Grewenig, Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner, and Ludger Woessmann of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education study whether expressed beliefs in the online survey improve if respondents are rewarded for good guesses. The incentives do not affect stated beliefs about average earnings by professional degree, but they improve stated beliefs about average public school spending. However, this improvement appears to just reflect increased online-search activity. Thus, the results suggest that incentive provision can even bias the measurement of factual knowledge. more...
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Dissertation: Determinants of Individual Labor-Market Outcomes
In her dissertation written at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and accepted by the University of Munich, Lisa Simon analyzes the determinants of individual labor-market outcomes. The four chapters investigate both internal and external factors: the impact of signals of cognitive and social skills on employability of labor-market entrants; how beliefs about refugees' education levels affect natives' attitudes towards refugees; the effect of a labor-market deregulation on wages and employment of incumbent workers; and the impact of regional structural change caused by exposure to import competition from China and Eastern Europe on vocational occupation choices of adolescents. more...
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A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE: EENEE
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Analytical Report:
Mark Brown, Grainne Conole und Miroslav Beblavy: Education Outcomes Enhanced by the Use of Digital Technology: Reimagining the School Learning Ecology, EENEE Analytical Report 38
Policy Brief:
3/2019: Zachary Kilhoffer: Education and the Use of Digital Technology: The School Learning Ecology
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IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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The war on poverty remains a stalemate
The World Street Journal published an op-ed by Eric Hanushek and Paul Peterson on the results of their joint study with Laura Talpey and Ludger Woessmann that education gaps between socioeconomic classes have not narrowed in the U.S. in the past half-century. more...
Can we fix the schools? (Maybe not.)
The Washington Post comments on the same study, highlighting the limits of the US federal government in improving schools. more...
Student achievement gap unchanged in nearly 50 years, study says
The new study by Hanushek, Peterson, Talpey, and Woessmann is also covered by Forbes, the Boston Globe, the Harvard Gazette, the Detroit News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Daily Mail.
Higher pay leads to smarter teachers, global study says
Education Week reports on the international comparative study on teacher quality by Eric Hanushek, Marc Piopiunik, and Simon Wiederhold. more...
Deluded policy and funding wars are certain to fail our students
A commentary in The Australian refers to the research by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann. more...
Schools in Spain should teach civic values that unite citizens, not separate them
Interview with Ludger Woessmann in the Spanish newspaper ABC on the effects of different institutional conditions of the school system on student performance. more...
How Germany transforms immigrants into growth allies
The Italian newspaper Il Foglio talks to Ludger Woessmann about various aspects of the German education system. more...
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Educational opportunities are the key
In their article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Veronika Grimm and Ludger Woessmann emphasize that the Social Market Economy needs fair educational opportunities. more...
Federal Council approves digital pact
Interview with Ludger Woessmann on tagesschau24 regarding the „Digitalpakt Schule“. more...
Ministry of Education: Counted and challenged
The Süddeutsche Zeitung cites Ludger Woessmann on the reduction plans in the Federal Ministry of Education's budget. more...
If the mother is educated, the children live longer
The Welt cites Larissa Zierow on the effects of parents' lifestyles on children's health. more...
Integration through education: Where schools reach their limits
A contribution on Deutschlandfunk with Ludger Woessmann about the role of the educational system in the integration of migrants from the symposium of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. more...
Make the Abitur fairer? The solution is obvious
The Welt cites Ludger Woessmann with the demand for a nationwide core Abitur. more...
How politicians assess economists
An article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the perception of political advisors in camps refers to Ludger Woessmann in the camp of decidedly empirically oriented economists. more...
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The conference report of the 6th Kadener Gespräch of the Stiftung Marktwirtschaft "Integrating refugees - better managing migration" with a lecture by Ludger Woessmann on the topic "Integration through education and qualification: challenges and solutions" has now been published.
Selected presentations
Ludger Woessmann gave a lecture on "Integration through education: comments from the perspective of the economics of education" at the joint symposium "Normative criteria for the integration of migrants in Germany" of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin.
At a joint event of the Fundacion Ramon Areces and the Fundacion Europea Sociedad y Educacion in Madrid, he gave a lecture on "The Importance of School Systems: Evidence from International Differences in Student Achievement".
Larissa Zierow gave a lecture on early childhood education and care from an economic perspective in the lecture series "Are investments in early childhood justified, reasonable or even necessary?" at the Pädagogische Hochschule Thurgau.
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Articles in refereed journals
Zohal Hessami and Sven Resnjanskij, "Complex Ballot Propositions, Individual Voting Behavior, and Status Quo Bias", European Journal of Political Economy 58: 82-101, 2019.
Monographs
Lisa Simon, Microeconometric Analyses on Determinants of Individual Labour Market Outcomes, ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung 83, 2019.
Working papers
Elisabeth Grewenig, Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner, and Ludger Woessmann, "Incentives, Search Engines, and the Elicitation of Subjective Beliefs: Evidence from Representative Online Survey Experiments", CESifo Working Paper 7556, March 2019.
Elisabeth Grewenig, Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner, and Ludger Woessmann, "Do Party Positions Affect the Public's Policy Preferences?", CESifo Working Paper 7579, March 2019.
Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, Laura M. Talpey, and Ludger Woessmann, "The Unwavering SES Achievement Gap: Trends in U.S. Student Performance", NBER Working Paper 25648, March 2019.
Further articles
Christina Gathmann, Hans Gersbach, Veronika Grimm, and Ludger Woessmann, "Bildungsgerechtigkeit als Kernelement der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft", Ökonomenstimme, 19.3.2019
Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, Laura M. Talpey, and Ludger Woessmann, "The Achievement Gap Fails to Close", Education Next 19 (3): 8-17, 2019.
Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, Laura M. Talpey, and Ludger Woessmann, "US Achievement Gaps Hold Steady in the Face of Substantial Policy Initiatives", VOX, 15.4.2019
Eric A. Hanushek, Marc Piopiunik, and Simon Wiederhold, "Do Smarter Teachers Make Smarter Students?", Education Next 19 (2): 56-64, 2019.
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Ludger Woessmann was appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board of Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, the journal of the Verein für Socialpolitik, the Association of German-speaking Economists.
After spending her academic year at the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, Elisabeth Grewenig is now back in Munich at the ifo Center for Economics of Education.
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