Educational effects of early or later secondary school tracking in Germany

This paper examines educational outcomes of pupils selected to secondary school types by different tracking regimes in a German state: Pupils are alternatively streamed after fourth grade or after sixth grade. Regression results indicate that, estimated on the mean, there are no negative effects of later tracking on educational outcomes in the middle of secondary school. Positive effects are observed for pupils with a less favorable family background. Quantile regressions reveal that the estimated effects of later tracking are positive for the lower quantiles but decrease monotonically over the conditional distribution of test scores

Career entry and success after tertiary vocational education

Using the Swiss Graduate Survey, we study how the type of tertiary education an individual chooses (i.e., vocational or academic) influences career entry and labor market success after graduation. Our results show that vocational graduates face less risky career entry than academic graduates. Considering endogenous educational choice by using parental education as an instrument, we find higher returns for vocational tertiary education. In the longer term, initial educational type effects disappear, so vocational and academic graduates face the same risk and return. Therefore, career entry for vocational graduates compares favorably to that of academic graduates, while career success for both educational types equalizes over time