Religious education influences religiosity, gender roles, and the labor market
Does compulsory religious education in schools affect students' attitudes as adults? In their new CESifo Working Paper, Benjamin Arold, Ludger Woessmann, and Larissa Zierow from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education exploit the staggered termination of compulsory religious education across German states. They find that abolishing compulsory religious education significantly reduced religiosity of affected students in adulthood. Beyond religious attitudes, the reform led to more equalized gender roles, fewer marriages and children, and higher labor-market participation and earnings. The reform did not affect ethical and political values or non-religious school outcomes. Working Paper, Short Version, and Podcast
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The role of patience and risk-taking in educational achievement
Patience and risk-taking are fundamental to international skill differences. This is what Eric Hanushek from Stanford University, Lavinia Kinne and Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, and Philipp Lergetporer from TU Munich find in their paper which has just been accepted for publication in the Economic Journal. They combine PISA tests with the Global Preference Survey and find that opposing effects of patience (positive) and risk-taking (negative) together account for two-thirds of the cross-country variation in student skills. Results are similar in models that assign migrant students their country-of-origin preferences, which rules out bias from unobserved residence-country features. Journal and Manuscript
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How various forms of testing affect student achievement
How do reforms of testing regimes that provide varying information to parents, teachers, and decision makers affect student achievement? Eric Hanushek from Stanford University and Annika Bergbauer and Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education answer this question in their paper that is forthcoming in the Journal of Human Resources. They use PISA data for two million students in 59 countries observed from 2000-2015. In low- and medium-performing countries, more standardized testing is associated with higher student achievement, while added internal reporting and teacher monitoring are not. But in high-performing countries, the expansion of standardized internal testing and teacher monitoring appears harmful. more...
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Collective decisions turn out more patiently
Many important decisions with impact on the future are made by groups rather than individuals. What happens to collective decisions when group members have different payoffs from waiting? Daniela Glätzle-Rützler from the University of Innsbruck, ifo research professor Philipp Lergetporer from TU Munich (formerly ifo Center for the Economics of Education), and Matthias Sutter from the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods analyze this experimentally in their study that has just been published in Games and Economic Behavior. They find that three-person groups behave more patiently than individuals. This effect stems from the presence of at least one group member with a high payoff from waiting. more...
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Gender pay gap already exists in part-time student jobs
The gender pay gap is commonly studied in populations that have already completed their educational careers. In their paper recently published in Empirical Economics, Paul David Boll from the University of Warwick as well as Lukas Mergele and Larissa Zierow from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education focus on an earlier stage: They investigate the gender pay gap among university students working alongside their studies. Using data from a large-scale student survey in Germany, they find that female students earn about 6% less on average than male students. The difference reduces to 4% when accounting for a rich set of explanatory variables. The largest explanatory factor is the type of jobs that male and female students pursue. more...
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Majority of Germans favors deferred income-contingent tuition
The electorate's preferences for using tuition to finance higher education strongly depend on the design of the payment scheme. This is what Philipp Lergetporer from TU Munich and Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education find in their new CESifo Working Paper. In representative surveys of the German electorate, experimentally replacing regular upfront tuition by payments that must be paid only after graduation and only if income exceeds a certain threshold increases public support for tuition by 18 percentage points. A majority of 62 percent favor such deferred income-contingent tuition. Reduced fairness concerns and improved student situations act as strong mechanisms. more...
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IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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Ethics education affects religiosity, gender roles, and the labor market
The Helsinki Times writes about the research on the effects of religious education in schools.
Majority of Germans in favor of deferred tuition fees
The Helskini Times also reports on how Germans think about deferred tuition.
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The gender pay gap in student jobs
On the occasion of the "Equal Pay Day", Paul David Boll, Lukas Mergele, and Larissa Zierow write about their research on the gender pay gap in student part-time jobs in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Ethics education helps the economy
The "Sunday Economist" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reports on the study on the effect of religious education on religiosity, gender roles, and labor-market outcomes.
How religious education influences people's attitudes
Numerous other media pick up on these findings, including spiegel.de, bild.de, br.de, katholisch.de, evangelisch.de, and n-tv.de.
The consequences of the long lockdown are serious
Larissa Zierow talks to Campusmagazin of BR24 radio about the consequences of the Covid-19-related school closures and Germany's situation compared to other EU countries.
Why students were hit the hardest
Larissa Zierow interviewed on WDR 5 Profit on online teaching and learning losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Learning losses due to Covid-19 by far not compensated yet
The findings of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education on the consequences of the pandemic in education are also featured, among others, by Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Zeit Online, sueddeutsche.de, Wirtschaftswoche, br.de, lr-online.de, and Welt am Sonntag.
Majority in favor of deferred tuition
In an interview on Deutschlandfunk, Philipp Lergetporer talks about the study with Ludger Woessmann on the Germans' opinion of deferred tuition fees.
Pay only after graduation?
The study on deferred tuition is also picked up, among others, by Forschung und Lehre, by the Wissen hoch 3 Newsletter of Die Zeit, and by Jan-Martin Wiarda in the Tagesspiegel and in his blog.
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SELECTED EVENTS AND PRESENTATIONS
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Call for Papers: CESifo Area Conference on Economics of Education 2022
The call for papers for the CESifo Area Conference on Economics of Education in Munich on 2-3 September 2022 is now open. The conference is organized by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann, the keynote will be held by Imran Rasul (UCL).
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Podcast on the effect of religious education
In a podcast on VoxEU, Benjamin Arold, Ludger Woessmann, and Larissa Zierow explain what we can learn from educational reform on religious education in Germany.
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Keynote at the 7th Dortmund Symposium of Empirical Educational Research
On 23 June 2022, Ludger Woessmann will present as keynote speech at the 7th Dortmund Symposium of Empirical Educational Research on the topic "Evaluation of the Education System: What Insights Do Current Student Achievement Studies Provide?". Registration for the digital event is possible here.
Presentation on the situation of youth during the pandemic
Clara Albrecht, Vera Freundl, and Lavinia Kinne spoke at the Social Situation Monitor Research Seminar, organized on behalf of the European Commission, about their article "Corona Class of 2020: A Lost Generation?" (with Tanja Stitteneder). The recorded presentation can be viewed here.
How mentoring helps disadvantaged adolescents
Ludger Woessmann gave a presentation on "Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence?" at the ISER Lunchtime Seminar at the University of Essex on 9 February 2022.
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Articles in refereed journals
Annika Bergbauer, Eric Hanushek, and Ludger Woessmann, "Testing", Journal of Human Resources,
forthcoming.
Paul David Boll, Lukas Mergele, and Larissa Zierow, "The Gender Pay Gap in University Student Employment", Empirical Economics, online, 2022.
Daniela Glätzle-Rützler, Philipp Lergetporer, and Matthias Sutter, "Collective Intertemporal Decisions and Heterogeneity in Groups", Games and Economic Behavior 130, 131-147, 2021.
Eric Hanushek, Lavinia Kinne, Philipp Lergetporer, and Ludger Woessmann, "Patience, Risk-Taking, and Human Capital Investment across Countries", Economic Journal, forthcoming.
Working Papers
Benjamin Arold, Ludger Woessmann, and Larissa Zierow, "Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education", CESifo Working Paper 9504, January 2022.
Philipp Lergetporer, and Ludger Woessmann, "Income Contingency and the Electorate's Support for Tuition", CESifo Working Paper 9520, January 2022.
Further articles
Benjamin Arold, Ludger Woessmann, and Larissa Zierow, "Religious Education in School Affects Students' Lives in the Long Run", VoxEU, 03.03.2022.
Sarah Gust and René Böheim, "The Austrian Pay Transparency Law and the Gender Wage Gap", CESifo Forum 23(2), 25-28, 2022.
Katharina Hartinger, Sven Resnjanskij, Jens Ruhose, and Simon Wiederhold, "Streit-Kultur? Individualismus und persönlicher ökonomischer Erfolg", Ökonomenstimme, 23.12.2021.
Ludger Woessmann, " A Persistent Casualty of Covid-19: Children's Skill Development", IZA World of Labor, 21.03.2022.
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Ludger Woessmann spent a two-week research visit at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University in March 2022.
In April 2022, Franziska Kugler returns to the ifo Center for the Economics of Education after her parental leave. Welcome back!
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