School Curricula, Educational Trajectories, and Labor Market Outcomes
ifo Institut, München, 2022
ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung / 99
This dissertation consists of four distinct empirical essays that address various aspects of how school curricula affect students in the classroom and beyond. Chapter 2 demonstrates that the abolishment of compulsory religious education in Germany does not only affect religiosity and gender role attitudes, but also affects the high-stakes choices of getting married, having children and participating in the labor market. Chapter 3 provides evidence that the content of science education standards in the US does not only affect related knowledge of students and adulthood attitudes, but also translates into high-stakes occupational choices. Chapter 4 exemplifies that school curricula reforms can also have unintended consequences by showing that a reform of education standards in math and English has negative spillovers on student achievement in science. Finally, Chapter 5 highlights the fundamental role teachers, the transmitters of educational content in school, play in the formation of human capital even in dimensions generally thought of as genetically determined.