Forced Migration and the Effects of an Integration Policy in Post-WWII Germany.

After World War II, about 8 million ethnic Germans — so called expellees — were forced to leave their homelands and settle within the new borders of West Germany. Subsequently, a law (Federal Expellee Law) was introduced to foster their labor market integration. We evaluate this law by comparing the employment situation between expellees and groups of West Germans and GDR refugees over time. We define our comparison groups to uncover even small effects of the law. Still, we find no evidence that the law met its goal to foster the expellees’ labor market integration

Single-Sex Schooling and Student Performance: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from South Korea

To obtain reliable estimates of the effects of single-sex education, I exploit the random assignment of students to single-sex and coeducational schools in South Korea. The results suggest that single-sex schooling is beneficial for girls in math, but has no effects for boys. Moreover, comparisons within and across gender reveal that girls with low supporting parental backgrounds at coeducational schools fall behind their peers which is partly explained by a rougher classroom climate at mixed schools. Several robustness checks confirm these results

The Evils of Forced Migration: Do Integration Policies Alleviate Migrants' Economic Situations?

Armed conflicts, natural disasters and infrastructure projects continue to force millions into migration. This is especially true for developing countries. After World War II, about 8 million ethnic Germans experienced a similar situation when forced to leave their homelands and settle within the new borders of West Germany. Subsequently, a law was introduced to foster their labor market integration. We evaluate the success of this law using unique retrospective individual-level panel data. We find that the law improved expellees' overall situation but failed to restore their pre-war occupation status. This holds implications for the design of integration policies today.forced migration, integration policy, difference-in-differences, Germany

Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA

Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we identify the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results show that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These results are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas.

Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA

Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we identify the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results show that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These results are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas.school autonomy, decentralization, developing countries, educational production, international student achievement tests, panel estimation

Does School Autonomy Make Sense Everywhere? Panel Estimates from PISA

Decentralization of decision-making is among the most intriguing recent school reforms, in part because countries went in opposite directions over the past decade and because prior evidence is inconclusive. We suggest that autonomy may be conducive to student achievement in well-developed systems but detrimental in low-performing systems. We construct a panel dataset from the four waves of international PISA tests spanning 2000-2009, comprising over one million students in 42 countries. Relying on panel estimation with country fixed effects, we identify the effect of school autonomy from within-country changes in the average share of schools with autonomy over key elements of school operations. Our results show that autonomy affects student achievement negatively in developing and low-performing countries, but positively in developed and high-performing countries. These results are unaffected by a wide variety of robustness and specification tests, providing confidence in the need for nuanced application of reform ideas.school autonomy, decentralization, developing countries, educational production, international student achievement tests, panel estimation

Incentives for Students: Evidence from Two Natural Experiments

Incentives are widely used to increase peoples effort and thus performance. Whileacademic achievement depends heavily on effort, there is little empirical evidence onhow students respond to incentives other than grades and monetary rewards. We drawon two natural experiments that occurred at a major European university and use thedifference-in-differences approach to show how program and course policies affect theeffort and performance of students. Our findings indicate that students perform worse(i) if their effort is rewarded belatedly, (ii) if their effort has little impact on their finalgrade, or (iii) if they may resit exams more often and thus less effort is required from them

Do university policies matter? Effects of Course Policies on Performance

We benefit from the Bologna reform to show how course and program policies affect academic achievement. We examine two similar programs at the business school of a major European university, which were both reformed. Time lags in the reforms allow us to estimate the difference in the differences of student performance in a compulsory second-year course. Performance fell as the impact of the course on the graduation certificate decreased and the time until students received the certificate increased. More students failed as they were allowed to resit the exam more often. Both effects depend on ability. We conclude that program policies matter and universities should be aware of their effects

The Evils of Forced Migration: Do Integration Policies Alleviate Migrants' Economic Situations?

Armed conflicts, natural disasters and infrastructure projects continue to force millions into migration. This is especially true for developing countries. After World War II, about 8 million ethnic Germans experienced a similar situation when forced to leave their homelands and settle within the new borders of West Germany. Subsequently, a law was introduced to foster their labor market integration. We evaluate the success of this law using unique retrospective individual-level panel data. We find that the law improved expellees’ overall situation but failed to restore their pre-war occupation status. This holds implications for the design of integration policies today

Institutional Determinants of Student Achievement - Microeconometric Evidence

This volume was prepared by Susanne Link during her stay at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich and the Department of Human Capital and Innovation of the Ifo Institute of Economic Research. It was accepted as a doctoral thesis by the Economics Departure of the University of Munich in December 2012. The thesis consists of four core chapters, each evaluating the effect of a policy reform. Chapters 2 to 4 provide a contribution to the literature on economics of education and investigate the impact of three educational institutions on student achievement. Chapter 5 evaluates the success of the Federal Expellee Law, which was introduced to improve the economic situation of the expellees after they were forced to leave their homelands in the aftermath of World War II. The econometric analyses are based on different micro data sets and employ micro-econometric methods to identify causal effects