ifo Education Survey: Lifelong learning against skill shortages
Lifelong learning plays an essential role in ensuring that employees benefit from structural change. Almost three quarters of Germans (72%) believe that lifelong learning is a good way to keep pace with structural change. This is the finding of the ifo Education Survey 2022, which surveyed more than 4,000 Germans. 62% see an increasing need for lifelong learning for all employees, but only 48% for people in their own profession. 77% are in favor of a legal right to lifelong learning from a catalog of offerings presented by companies.
63% are in favor of mandatory annual training courses in occupations that are particularly affected by structural change. more...
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Germans support integration of refugees through education
A majority (58%) of Germans are in favor of an immediate integration of refugees from Ukraine through educational measures. This is the result of a representative survey by the ifo Center for the Economics of Education. Various integration activities for adults, such as the right and obligation to attend state-funded German courses (74%), find majority support. Similarly, clear majorities favor a rapid integration of Ukrainian children into existing classes in primary (65%) and secondary schools (61%). A comparison with a survey from 2016, when many Syrian refugees came to Germany, shows clear differences in the assessment of the educational level of the refugees, but similar approval ratings for many integration measures. more...
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Trends in the U.S. SES achievement gap
Rising inequality in the United States has raised concerns about potentially widening gaps in educational achievement by socio-economic status (SES). Using various sources of student achievement data that are linked over time, Eric Hanushek, Jacob Light, and Laura Talpey from Stanford University, Paul Peterson from Harvard University, and Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education trace trends in SES gaps in achievement for U.S. student cohorts over the past four decades. The results, just published in Education Finance and Policy, show that achievement gaps between the top and bottom quartiles of the SES distribution have not increased, but actually slightly decreased. more...
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How incentivizing beliefs affects online surveys
Does incentivizing belief accuracy affect stated beliefs about economic facts? In a paper just published in the Journal of Econometrics, Katharina Werner
and Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, Philipp Lergetporer from TUM, and Elisabeth Grewenig devise randomized experiments in a representative online survey. Incentive provision does not impact beliefs about average earnings by professional degree, but improves beliefs about average public school spending. Response spikes suggest that the latter effect likely reflects increased online-search activity. The results thus suggest a trade-off between potentially increased respondent effort and the risk of inducing online-search activity. more...
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Teachers mediate the role of genetic endowments for educational outcomes
Genetic endowments are fixed at conception and matter for the educational attainment of individuals. Using data from a representative sample of US adolescents, Benjamin Arold from ETH Zurich (formerly ifo Center for the Economics of Education), Paul Hufe from the University of Bristol, and Marc Stoeckli from the University of Munich find in a new working paper that higher-quality teachers act as substitutes for genetic endowments: an increase in teacher quality reduces the positive association between measured genetic endowments and college completion. more...
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Good chances for Ukrainian children in the German school system
The high share of school-aged children among the Ukrainian refugees arriving in Germany raises the question of how to provide them with schooling. Education is essential both for successful integration in Germany and for the return to their home country. An analysis of the 2018 PISA study by Katja Michlbauer and Lukas Mergele from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education shows that Ukrainian children perform below the level of German children, especially in mathematics. However, their performance is significantly higher than in some other EU member states such as Bulgaria and Romania from which many children have already been integrated into the German education system. more...
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Dissertation: School Curricula, Educational Trajectories, and Labor Market Outcomes
In his dissertation, which was written at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and accepted by the University of Munich (LMU), Benjamin Arold studies various aspects of how school curricula affect students during their school life and beyond. The four separate empirical essays address i) how the abolishment of compulsory religious education in Germany influenced religiosity, gender norms, and life choices, ii) how the content of US science education standards affects related knowledge, attitudes in adulthood, and occupational choices, iii) which unintended consequences school curricula reforms can have, and iv) how teachers influence the formation of human capital even in dimensions generally thought of as genetically determined. more...
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IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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Good teachers play pivotal role in educational success of disadvantaged students
Helsinkitimes.fi reports on the study on the role of teachers for educational outcomes of disadvantaged students.
Learning losses during the pandemic
Thehindu.com writes about the calculations of Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann on income and GDP losses due to Corona-related learning deficits.
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The future of education
Ludger Woessmann writes in the Pragmaticus about what PISA tests can tell us about our education system. He also talks about the topic in the program "Der Pragmaticus" on ServusTV (from min. 54:15).
Knowledge gaps due to Covid
Ludger Woessmann comments on ZDF heute on what learning deficits mean for the shortage of skilled workers.
Germans want legal right to lifelong learning
Spiegel.de, handelsblatt.com, businessinsider.de, and Deutschlandfunk's "Campus und Karriere", among others, report on the results of the ifo Education Survey 2022 on lifelong learning and structural change.
Integration of Ukrainian refugees through education
Among others, stern.de and presse-augsburg.de report on the results of the survey conducted by the ifo Center for the Economics of Education on the integration of refugees through education.
Good chances for Ukrainian children at German schools
Tagesschau.de, ZEIT Online, faz.net, sueddeutsche.de, welt.de, n-tv.de, and RTL News report on the article on the integration prospects of Ukrainian school children.
Ukrainian children in the German school system
Lukas Mergele took part in a discussion on Deutschlandfunk's "Campus und Karriere" program, among others with the Thuringian Minister of Education, on the integration of Ukrainian school children.
The shortage of skilled workers is getting worse
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung spoke with Ludger Woessmann about the shortage of skilled workers on the German labor market.
Competent teachers can help disadvantaged children
Faz.net and bildungsklick.de, among others, report on Benjamin Arold's research on genetic endowments and educational outcomes.
Good teachers, good students
Deutschlandfunk Nova, faz.net, and bildungsklick.de pick up the results of Katharina Wedel's study on how teachers affect the effectiveness of instruction time.
Pandemic causes school performance of fourth graders to plummet
Handelsblatt.com cites the study on school closures during the pandemic in a European comparison.
Philippines: Two years of school closures due to Covid
In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Ludger Woessmann warns of increasing social inequality due to school closures.
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SELECTED EVENTS AND PRESENTATIONS
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CESifo Area Conference on the Economics of Education
On September 2 and 3, 2022, the CESifo Area Conference on the Economics of Education took place at the ifo Institute in Munich. The keynote was given by Imran Rasul of University College London. Mikko Silliman of Harvard University won the Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award. The program with many outstanding presentations and discussions by international economists of education is available online.
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Venice Summer Institute 2022 on Economics of Education and Equality of Opportunity
The "Venice Summer Institute 2022: Economics of Education and Equality of Opportunity", organized by CESifo and Venice International University, took place on June 29 and 30, 2022. Caroline Hoxby (Stanford University) and Bruce Sacerdote (Dartmouth College) were the keynote speakers. The full program can be found here.
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7th Dortmund Symposium of Empirical Educational Research
At the 7th Dortmund Symposium of Empirical Educational Research, hosted by the Center for Research on Education and School Development (IFS) at TU Dortmund, Ludger Woessmann gave the keynote address on "Evaluation of the Education System: What Insights Do Current School Performance Studies Provide?".
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Young Economic Summit (YES!) 2022
In the course of the Young Economic Summit (YES!) 2022, researchers from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education supervised two school teams on the topic "Climate at the limit - how can climate/ environmental protection take place at the local level?". The team from the school "Gymnasium der Schulstiftung Seligenthal" took second place in the national finals with their project "Green Choice".
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Leibniz in the Bundestag 2022
Katharina Wedel spoke at "Leibniz in the Bundestag" about the benefits of mentoring at schools.
Participation in scientific conferences and workshops
Many researchers from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education presented their projects at international scientific conferences and seminars, including the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, the EALE 2022 Conference, the VfS Annual Conference 2022, the 2022 Annual Congress of the IIPF, the workshops "Field Experiments in Economics and Business", "Educational Resources and Student Performance", "Program Evaluation and Individual Outcomes", the 33rd BGPE Research Workshop, and "Economics of Education" at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories Bamberg.
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Articles in refereed journals
Elisabeth Grewenig, Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner, and Ludger Woessmann, "Incentives, Search Engines, and the Elicitation of Subjective Beliefs: Evidence from Representative Online Survey Experiments", Journal of Econometrics 231(1), 304-326, 2022.
Eric Hanushek, Lavinia Kinne, Philipp Lergetporer, and Ludger Woessmann, "Patience, Risk-Taking, and Human Capital Investment across Countries", Economic Journal 123(646), 2290–2307, 2022.
Eric Hanushek, Jacob Light, Paul Peterson, Laura Talpey, and Ludger Woessmann, "Long-run Trends in the U.S. SES-Achievement Gap", Education Finance and Policy, 1–33, 2022.
Monographs
Benjamin Arold, "School Curricula, Educational Trajectories, and Labor Market Outcomes", ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung 99, 2022.
Working Papers
Benjamin Arold, Paul Hufe, and Marc Stoeckli, "Genetic Endowments, Educational Outcomes and the Mediating Influence of School Investments", CESifo Working Paper 9841, July 2022.
Vera Freundl, Elisabeth Grewenig, Franziska Kugler, Philipp Lergetporer, Ruth Schüler, Katharina Wedel, Katharina Werner, Olivia Wirth, and Ludger Woessmann, "The ifo Education Survey 2014–2021: A New Dataset on Public Preferences for Education Policy in Germany", ifo Working Paper
378, August 2022.
Further articles
Vera Freundl, Franziska Kugler, Katharina Wedel, Katharina Werner, and Ludger Woessmann, "Bildungspolitische Maßnahmen zur Integration der Geflüchteten aus der Ukraine − Was die Deutschen befürworten", ifo Schnelldienst 75(9), 70-74, 2022.
Katja Michlbauer and Lukas Mergele, "Integrationsperspektive von ukrainischen Geflüchteten im deutschen Schulsystem", ifo Schnelldienst 75(8), 29-34, 2022.
Katharina Werner, Vera Freundl, Franziska Kugler, Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Wedel, and Ludger Woessmann, "Deutsche befürworten Weiterbildung, um mit dem Strukturwandel Schritt zu halten – Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2022", ifo Schnelldienst 75(9), 56–69, 2022.
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The former deputy director of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, Larissa Zierow, has taken up a professorship at Reutlingen University in September. We wish her all the best for her future path and are happy that she will remain associated with the ifo Institute as a research professor.
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The position of deputy director will be taken over by Katharina Werner. Congratulations!
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Benjamin Arold has left the ifo Center for the Economics of Education to take up a postdoc position at ETH Zurich after successfully completing his PhD in July 2022. We congratulate on the new job!
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Simon ter Meulen (from the University of Amsterdam) started as a postdoc at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education in September.
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In addition, Alexander Bertermann (from Düsseldorf University) started a PhD position in July. Welcome in the team!
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Katharina Wedel spends part of the winter term 2022/23 as a research stay at the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University.
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Sarah Gust spends a research visit at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
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