Educational Choices, Market Design, and Student Outcomes

Central Questions and Targets

Education decisions are key determinants of labour market opportunities, social mobility and economic growth. This project looks at the extent to which traditional models can explain utility-maximising individual education decisions like, for example, the decision between an apprenticeship or university education. A special focus is on potential information asymmetries that can provide an explanation for differences in education decisions as part of a traditional cost-benefit model. The project also investigates the influence of behavioural economics factors like inflated self-esteem, time and risk preferences on decision behaviour in education issues. This project is conducted in cooperation with the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin.

Methodology

ifo will conduct an annual opinion poll in Germany in which only a random share of survey participants are provided with certain information. This procedure makes it possible to investigate the influence of causal information. The extent to which individual decision-making strategies interact with institutional factors can also be assessed using panel data sets.

Data and other Sources

The data used in this project was collected in cooperation with an opinion research institute. This project also uses project data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and the PISA studies.

Link

• Rationality & Competition CRC TRR 190