Intergenerational Transmission of Education and Mediating Channels: Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Reforms in Germany

This paper estimates the causal effect of an additional year of parents’ schooling on theirchildren’s education, exploiting compulsory schooling reforms that were implemented inall West German states between 1946 and 1969. Although previous research indicatesthat these reforms had no effects on earnings or political behaviour, I find that an additionalyear of schooling women strongly affects their sons’ education. Based on severaldatasets, numerous channels that might mediate the positive impact of mothers’ educationare investigated. Most importantly, individuals with more schooling value children’seducational success as more important.Intergenerational mobility, education, compulsory schooling reforms, SOEP

Why Does Height Matter for Educational Attainment? Evidence from German Pre-Teen Children

Several studies have shown that body height is positively associated with educational attainment. In this paper, we investigate the mechanisms behind this relationship using data on German pre-teen students. We show that (i) taller children are more likely to enroll in ‘Gymnasium’, the most academic secondary school track, and that (ii) primary school teachers give better recommendations to taller students. This holds even when controlling for academic achievement and parental background. In addition, we present some evidence that height and social skills are positively associated already at age 2-3. Our results imply that controlling for social skills would significantly reduce estimates of the height-school premium. With respect to education policy, our findings suggest that early school tracking might increase disadvantages for students with low social skills.height, educational tracking, educational attainment, social skills

Immigration, Regional Conditions, and Crime: Evidence from an Allocation Policy in Germany

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, more than 3 million people with German ancestors immigrated to Germany under a special law granting immediate citizenship. Exploiting the exogenous allocation of ethnic German immigrants by German authorities across regions upon arrival, we find that immigration significantly increases crime. The crime impact of immigration depends strongly on local labor market conditions, with strong impacts in regions with high unemployment. Similarly, we find substantially stronger effects in regions with high preexisting crime levels or large shares of foreigners

Identifying the Incidence of "Grading on a Curve":A Within-Student Across-Subject Approach

Theoretical work shows that grading on a curve, i.e., teachers assessing students relativeto their classmates, can negatively affect students’ learning effort. However, little isknown about its empirical incidence. To overcome bias from non-random sorting andomitted variables like teachers’ grading standards, we exploit within-student acrosssubjectvariation observing both teacher-assigned grades and test scores of German4th-graders in reading and math. We find that having classmates with one standarddeviation higher test scores lowers a student’s grade by about 10 percent of a standarddeviation. Importantly, only female teachers grade on a curve and there is no associationbetween students’ learning effort and relative grading.Teacher grading, grading on a curve, learning incentives

Volkswirtschaftliche Folgekosten unzureichender Bildung: Eine makroökonomische Projektion

Wie die PISA-Studien belegen, zählt in Deutschland etwa jeder fünfte Jugendliche zur Gruppe der »Risikoschüler«, die nur unzureichende Bildung erhält. In einer aktuellen Studie, die das ifo Institut im Auftrag der Bertelsmann Stiftung verfasst hat, wurden die daraus erwachsenden volkswirtschaftlichen Folgekosten berechnet. Die Folgekosten unzureichender Bildung belaufen sich über den Lebenszeitraum der heute geborenen Kinder auf rund 2,8 Billionen € – mehr als das gesamte derzeitige deutsche Bruttoinlandsprodukt von 2,5 Billionen €. Das gewaltige Ausmaß dieser Projektionsergebnisse verdeutlicht die Dringlichkeit des Reformbedarfs im deutschen Bildungssystem.Bildungspolitik, Bildung, Wirtschaftswachstum, Folgekosten, Bildungsniveau, Deutschland

Skills, Signals, and Employability

As skills of labor-market entrants are usually not directly observed by employers, individuals acquire skill signals. To study which signals are valued by employers, we simultaneously and independently randomize a broad range of skill signals on pairs of resumes of fictitious applicants among which we ask a large representative sample of German human-resource managers to choose. We find that signals in all three studied domains - cognitive skills, social skills, and maturity - have a significant effect on being invited for a job interview. Consistent with the relevance, expectedness, and credibility of different signals, the specific signal that is effective in each domain differs between apprenticeship applicants and college graduates. While GPAs and social skills are significant for both genders, males are particularly rewarded for maturity and females for IT and language skills. Older HR managers value school grades less and other signals more, whereas HR managers in larger firms value college grades more

Weak Markets, Strong Teachers: Recession at Career Start and Teacher Effectiveness

How do alternative job opportunities affect teacher quality? We provide the first causal evidence on this question by exploiting business cycle conditions at career start as a source of exogenous variation in the outside options of potential teachers. Unlike prior research, we directly assess teacher quality with value-added measures of impacts on student test scores, using administrative data on 33,000 teachers in Florida public schools. Consistent with a Roy model of occupational choice, teachers entering the profession during recessions are significantly more effective in raising student test scores. Results are supported by placebo tests and not driven by differential attrition

The Value of Smarter Teachers: International Evidence on Teacher Cognitive Skills and Student Performance

Differences in teacher quality are commonly cited as a key determinant of the huge international student performance gaps. However, convincing evidence on this relationship is still lacking, in part because it is unclear how to measure teacher quality consistently across countries. We use unique international assessment data to investigate the role of teacher cognitive skills as one main dimension of teacher quality in explaining student outcomes. Our main identification strategy exploits exogenous variation in teacher cognitive skills attributable to international differences in relative wages of nonteacher public sector employees. Using student-level test score data, we find that teacher cognitive skills are an important determinant of international differences in student performance. Results are supported by fixed-effects estimation that uses within-country between-subject variation in teacher skills

Growing Up in Ethnic Enclaves

Does a high regional concentration of immigrants of the same ethnicity affect immigrant children's acquisition of host-country language skills and educational attainment? We exploit the exogenous placement of guest workers from five ethnicities across German regions during the 1960s and 1970s in a model with region and ethnicity fixed effects. Our results indicate that exposure to a higher own-ethnic concentration impairs immigrant children's host-country language proficiency and increases school dropout. A key mediating factor for this effect is parents' lower speaking proficiency in the host-country language, whereas inter-ethnic contacts with natives and economic conditions do not play a role

Immigration, Regional Conditions, and Crime: Evidence from an Allocation Policy in Germany

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, more than 3 million people with German ancestors immigrated to Germany under a special law granting immediate citizenship. Exploiting the exogenous allocation of ethnic German immigrants by German authorities across regions upon arrival, we find that immigration significantly increases crime. The crime impact of immigration depends strongly on local labor market conditions, with strong impacts in regions with high unemployment. Similarly, we find substantially stronger effects in regions with high preexisting crime levels or large shares of foreigners