Getting What (Employers Think) You’re Worth – Evidence on the Gender Gap in Entry Wages among University Graduates

Since the early 1970s, wage differentials between men and women have attracted the research interest of labor economists. However, up to now empirical evidence on gender differentials of labor market entrants and the determinants of their starting wages is scarce. To fi ll this gap, we make use of a unique dataset on graduates in economics from a large representative German university, to investigate whether – even for such a homogeneous group of labor market entrants – a gender gap in earnings exists. Concentrating on a highly homogeneous sample limits the problem of unobserved heterogeneity, which results in an overestimation of the unexplained component of standard decompositions analyses. The results reveal that women’s entry wages are significant lower than those of their male counterparts. Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions suggest that the major part of this gap remains unexplained by gender differences in observable characteristics.Entry wage; gender wage gap; decomposition; university graduates

Methods for Evaluating Educational Programs – Does Writing Center Participation Affect Student Achievement?

This paper evaluates the eff ectiveness of the introduction of a Writing Center at a university. The center has the purpose to provide subject-specifi c courses that aim to improve students‘ abilities of scientifi c writing. In order to deal with presumed selfperceptional biases of students in feedback surveys, we use diff erent quantitative evaluation methods and compare the results to corresponding qualitative student surveys. Based on this evaluation, we present and discuss the validity of the approaches to evaluate educational programs. Although almost all students reported the writing courses to be helpful, we fi nd no signifi cant eff ect of course participation on students‘ grades. We attribute the diff erence in the results between quantitative methods and qualitative surveys to the inappropriateness of student course evaluations for assessing the eff ectiveness of educational measures.Performance evaluation; educational programs; student evaluation; empirical methods

Der Einfluss linguistischer Diversität innerhalb von Schulklassen auf den Bildungerfolg von Schülern mit deutscher und nichtdeutscher Muttersprache

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen linguistischer Diversität in Schulklassen und dem Schulerfolg von Viertklässlern. Während sich bisherige Studien überwiegend mit dem Zusammenhang zwischen dem Anteil an Schülern mit Migrationshintergrund und dem Lernerfolg von Schülern beschäftigt haben, steht hier die Bedeutung der sprachlichen Heterogenität dieser Gruppe im Vordergrund. Die sprachliche Diversität innerhalb der Schulklasse wird durch ein Maß für die linguistische Zersplitterung (Fraktionalisierung) abgebildet, in das sowohl der Anteil der verschiedenen Muttersprachen in einer Klasse als auch die linguistische Distanz zwischen diesen Sprachen einfließt. Die empirische Analyse beruht auf Daten des Ländervergleichs, die das Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen 2011 für mehr als 27 000 Schüler in 1 249 Grundschulen erhoben hat. Der schulische Erfolg wird hierbei anhand der Ergebnisse standardisierter Tests in den Kompetenzbereichen Deutsch und Mathematik gemessen. Rein deskriptiv weisen unsere Ergebnisse auf einen negativen Zusammenhang zwischen linguistischer Diversität und dem Bildungserfolg der Schüler hin. Sowohl Schüler mit deutscher Muttersprache als auch Schüler mit nichtdeutscher Muttersprache schneiden in Klassen mit einer hohen linguistischen Diversität in den Kompetenzbereichen Deutsch und Mathematik im Durchschnitt schlechter ab als Schüler in Klassen mit einer geringen Diversität. Die Ergebnisse der empirischen Analysen zeigen jedoch auch, dass gegeben eines bestimmten Anteils an nichtdeutschen Muttersprachlern in der Klasse die linguistische Diversität keinen bzw. zum Teil sogar einen positiven Einfluss auf den Bildungserfolg der Schüler hat. Insbesondere Schüler mit deutscher Muttersprache scheinen hinsichtlich ihrer Deutschfähigkeiten tendenziell von einer höheren linguistischen Diversität in der Schulklasse zu profitieren, während dieser Zusammenhang für Schüler mit nichtdeutscher Muttersprache oder für die Leistungen im Fach Mathematik nicht gefunden werden kann

Remittances and the Brain Drain: Evidence from Microdata for Sub-Saharan Africa

Research on the relationship between high-skilled migration and remittances has been limited by the lack of suitable microdata. We create a unique cross-country dataset by combining household surveys from five Sub-Saharan African countries that enables us to analyze the effect of migrants' education on their remittance behavior. Having comprehensive information on both ends of the migrant-origin household relationship and employing household fixed effects specifications that only use within-household variation for identification allows us to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity across migrants' origin households. Our results reveal that migrants' education has no significant impact on the likelihood of sending remittances. Conditional on sending remittances, however, high-skilled migrants send significantly higher amounts of money to their households left behind. This effect holds for the sub-groups of internal migrants and migrants in non-OECD countries, while it vanishes for migrants in OECD destination countries once characteristics of the origin household are controlled for

Remittances and the brain drain: Evidence from microdata for Sub-Saharan Africa

Research on the relationship between high-skilled migration and remittances has been limited by the lack of suitable microdata. We create a unique cross-country dataset by combining household surveys from five Sub-Saharan African countries that enables us to analyze the effect of migrants' education on their remittance behavior. Having comprehensive information on both ends of the migrant-origin household relationship and employing household fixed effects specifications that only use within-household variation for identification allows us to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity across migrants' origin households. Our results reveal that migrants' education has no significant impact on the likelihood of sending remittances. Conditional on sending remittances, however, high-skilled migrants send significantly higher amounts of money to their households left behind. This effect holds for the sub-groups of internal migrants and migrants in non-OECD countries, while it vanishes for migrants in OECD destination countries once characteristics of the origin household are controlled for.Auf Basis von Haushaltsbefragungen in fünf Ländern Sub-Sahara Afrikas untersuchen wir den Einfluss der Bildung von Migranten auf deren Rücküberweisungen an ihre im Heimatland verbliebenen Haushalte. Das Vorhandensein umfangreicher Informationen über die Migranten als auch über die Haushalte im Heimatland sowie die Verwendung von Haushalts-Fixed-Effects-Schätzungen erlauben es uns, das Problem unbeobachtbarer Heterogenität zwischen den Herkunftshaushalten zu adressieren. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Bildung der Migranten keinen signifikanten Einfluss auf deren Wahrscheinlichkeit hat, Rücküberweisungen zu schicken. Gegeben, dass Rücküberweisungen gesendet werden, überweisen Migranten mit einem Universitätsabschluss jedoch signifikant höhere Beträge an ihre Herkunftshaushalte als geringer qualifizierte Migranten. Schätzungen für unterschiedliche Gruppen von Migranten zeigen, dass dieser Effekt für interne Migranten sowie für Migranten in Nicht-OECD-Ländern bestehen bleibt. Für Migranten in OECD-Ländern finden wir hingegen keinen signifikanten Einfluss des Bildungsniveaus auf deren Rücküberweisungen sobald Charakteristika des Haushaltes im Herkunftsland in den Modellen berücksichtigt werden

The Role of Source- and Host-Country Characteristics in Female Immigrant Labor Supply

Using data from the European Social Survey 2002-2011 covering immigrants in 26 European countries, this paper analyzes the impact of source- and host-country characteristics on female immigrant labor supply. We find that immigrant women’s labor supply in their host country is positively associated with the labor force participation rate in their source country, which serves as a proxy for the country’s preferences and beliefs regarding women’s roles. The effect of this cultural proxy on the labor supply of immigrant women is robust to controlling for spousal, parental, and a variety of source-country characteristics. This result suggests that the culture and norms of their source country play an important role for immigrant women’s labor supply. Moreover, we find evidence for a strong positive correlation between the host-country female labor force participation rate and female immigrant labor supply, suggesting that immigrant women assimilate to the work behavior of natives

The Role of Source- and Host-Country Characteristics in Female Immigrant Labor Supply

Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) 2002-2011 covering immigrants in 26 European countries, this paper analyzes the impact of source- and host-country characteristics on female immigrant labor supply. We find that the labor supply of immigrant women in Europe is positively associated with the female-to-male labor force participation ratio in their source country, which serves as a proxy for the country's preferences and beliefs regarding women's roles. This suggests that the culture and norms of their source country play an important role for immigrant women's labor supply. We further find evidence for a strong positive correlation between the labor force participation ratio in the host country and female immigrant labor supply, suggesting that immigrant women assimilate to the work behavior of natives

The Role of Source- and Host-Country Characteristics in Female Immigrant Labor Supply

Using data from the European Social Survey 2002-2011 covering immigrants in 26 European countries, this paper analyzes the impact of source- and host-country characteristics on female immigrant labor supply. We find that immigrant women’s labor supply in their host country is positively associated with the labor force participation rate in their source country, which serves as a proxy for the country’s preferences and beliefs regarding women’s roles. The effect of this cultural proxy on the labor supply of immigrant women is robust to controlling for spousal, parental, and a variety of source-country characteristics. This result suggests that the culture and norms of their source country play an important role for immigrant women’s labor supply. Moreover, we find evidence for a strong positive correlation between the host-country female labor force participation rate and female immigrant labor supply, suggesting that immigrant women assimilate to the work behavior of natives