Two thirds of the world's youth lack basic skills
At least two-thirds of the world's youth do not reach basic skill levels. This is the result of a new CESifo Working Paper by Sarah Gust and Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and ifo Research Professor Eric Hanushek from Stanford University. Based on the micro data of international and regional achievement tests, they find that the share of youth lacking basic skills ranges from 24% in North America and the European Union to 89% in South Asia and 94% in Sub-Saharan Africa. The present value of lost world economic output due to lacking global universal basic skills amounts to over $700 trillion over the remaining century. more...
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Data release: ifo Education Survey 2014-2021
The ifo Center for the Economics of Education has just released the datasets of the first eight waves (2014-2021) of the ifo Education Survey ("ifo Bildungsbarometer") for scientific use. The ifo Education Survey is a representative opinion survey of the German voting-age population on education topics. Since 2014, it is conducted annually among over 4,000 participants. It covers public preferences on a wide range of education policy issues, ranging from early childhood education, schools, and apprenticeships to university education and life-long learning. more...
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Minorities respond strategically to avoid discrimination
Do minorities misrepresent their ethnicity to avoid being discriminated against? This is what Philipp Lergetporer asks in a study just published in the Journal of Public Economics that he performed while he was still at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education together with Nikoloz Kudashvili from Charles University Prague. In an experiment among high-school students in the country of Georgia, 43% of Armenian minority-group members hide their ethnicity when interacting with ethnic Georgians. This strategy eliminates the discriminatory behavior of Georgians against Armenians. more...
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Good infrastructure increases girls' school enrollment in India
In his new ifo Working Paper, Moritz Seebacher from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education studies a program that provides girls in India with a bicycle to attend secondary school. The program strongly increases the school attendance of girls who live at least 3 km from their school and whose villages are connected by all-weather roads. In contrast, there is no effect for girls in villages without all-weather roads. The findings highlight the importance of well-functioning infrastructure for educational equality in India. more...
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Privatizations spark socialist backlash
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought the end of socialism, yet pro-socialist sentiment regained momentum surprisingly quickly across Eastern Europe. This phenomenon is studied in the new CESifo Working Paper by Lukas Mergele from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, Anselm Hager from Humboldt University Berling, Moritz Hennike from Université Libre de Bruxelles, and Werner Krause from the University of Vienna using East German micro data. They show that rushed firm privatizations, when sold to Western elites, led to a marked resurgence of the former Socialist Unity Party. more...
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Gender pay gap: Causes and measures
What are the reasons for income differences between men and women, and how can they be reduced? Sarah Gust and Lavinia Kinne from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education address this question in their article in the ifo Schnelldienst. They show that wage transparency reduces the gender pay gap only in certain cases. While in countries such as Canada or Denmark, more transparent wage levels reduce income differences, this is not the case in Austria or Germany. One reason could be that many employees are not aware that income reports exist in their company. more...
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IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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College debt isn't personal: our economic security is at stake
Forbes.com writes about the research by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann on the relationship between cognitive skills and the long-term growth of nations.
Elementary school students do worse in German and math
DailyNews writes about Ludger Woessmann's reaction to the results of the IQB Education Trend.
Two-thirds of the world's youth lack basic skills
Helsinkitimes.fi reports on the research on global universal basic skills. It is also covered in Brazil by Valor Economico, in Chile by Diario Financiero, and in Greece by reporter.gr.
A world unprepared: Missing skills for development
The authors of the study on basic skills education gaps also discuss their findings in the VoxEU column.
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Basic right to education
In the half-hour interview program alpha-demokratie on ARD alpha, Ludger Woessmann talks about the new study on global education gaps and developments in Germany.
Instead of schools, beer gardens opened
Der Spiegel interviews Ludger Woessmann on schooling during the Covid pandemic.
In the long term, prosperity in Germany can only come from human resources
Interview with Ludger Woessmann in the online magazine Makronom on the importance of education for prosperity and the problems in the German education landscape.
We need a new Pisa shock
Interview with Ludger Woessmann on learning gaps due to Covid in Die Welt, subsequently also covered by Berliner Zeitung.
Educational gaps worldwide
Ludger Woessmann gives an interview in BR Campusmagazin about the study on gaps in basic skills worldwide.
These are frightening numbers
Spiegel.de, ZEIT Online, Deutschlandfunk, welt.de, Bild.de, also in a second piece, n-tv.de, Die Presse, bildungsklick.de, the tagesschau app, and many others report on the study about the finding that two-thirds of youth worldwide lack basic skills. The blog of the Leibniz Association also picks up the study.
Weak educational performance endangers prosperity
Ludger Woessmann reacts worriedly to the recently published IQB Education Trend: the attested learning gaps endanger long-term prosperity. This is picked up by spiegel.de, sueddeutsche.de, BILD.de, n-tv.de, taz.de, stern.de, rheinpfalz.de, Antenne Niederrhein, and many other media. Jan-Martin Wiarda reports on the reaction in his blog.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on poverty
Ludger Woessmann emphasizes in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that disadvantaged children are particularly affected by the pandemic.
Curricula not covering evolution influence career choice
Among others, bildungsklick.de reports on Benjamin Arold's study on the effect of teaching evolution in US schools.
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SELECTED EVENTS AND PRESENTATIONS
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Call for Papers: CESifo/ifo Junior Workshop on the Economics of Education
The ifo Center for the Economics of Education organizes the first Junior Workshop on the Economics of Education in Munich on April 26-27, 2023. The keynote lecture will be given by Barbara Biasi of Yale University. The Call for Papers can be found here.
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Talk "The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education"
Katharina Werner gave a presentation on the impact of Covid-19 on education at the 76th Economic Policy Panel Meeting. The entire event can be viewed online.
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Presentation "Education makes you happier – if you are employed"
As part of a lecture series of the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, Alexander Bertermann spoke on the topic "Education makes you happier - if you are employed". The recorded presentation can be found here.
Scientific conferences and workshops
The researchers of the ifo Center for the Economics of Education again presented their work at various scientific conferences and workshops, e.g., the Text as Data Workshop at Monash Business School, the CESifo/ifo Junior Workshop on Big Data, the Berlin Workshop on Empirical Public Economics, and the Labor, Development & Health Workshop of the University of Connecticut.
Investigation Committee on the Treuhand in Thuringia
Lukas Mergele spoke to the Committee of Inquiry on the Treuhand in Thuringia about his research on the work of the Treuhandanstalt.
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Articles in refereed journals
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", Journal of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming.
Nikoloz Kudashvili and Philipp Lergetporer, "Minorities' Strategic Response to Discrimination: Experimental Evidence", Journal of Public Economics 208: 104630, 2022.
Working Papers
Benjamin Arold, "Evolution vs. Creationism in the Classroom: The Lasting Effects of Science Education", ifo Working Paper 379, August 2022.
Sarah Gust, Eric Hanushek, and Ludger Woessmann, "Global Universal Basic Skills: Current Deficits and Implications for World Development", CESifo Working Paper 10029, October 2022.
Anselm Hager, Moritz Hennicke, Werner Kraus, and Lukas Mergele, "Privatizations Spark Socialist Backlash: Evidence from East Germany's Transformation", CESifo Working Paper 10030, October 2022.
Moritz Seebacher, "Infrastructure and Girls' Education: Bicycles, Roads, and the Gender Education Gap in India", ifo Working Paper 382, November 2022.
Further articles
Benjamin Arold, "The Teaching of Evolution Theory Shapes Students' Beliefs and Choices", VoxEU, 20 October 2022.
Sarah Gust, Eric Hanushek, and Ludger Woessmann, "A World Unprepared: Missing Skills for Development", VoxEU, 5 December 2022.
Sarah Gust and Lavinia Kinne, "Gender Pay Gap: Ursachen und Maßnahmen", ifo Schnelldienst 75(10): 13-17, 2022.
Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann, "The Political Economy of ILSAs in Education: The Role of Knowledge Capital in Economic Growth", in: Trude Nilsen, Agnes Stancel-Piatak, Jan-Eric Gustafsson (eds.), International Handbook of Comparative Large-Scale Studies in Education, Springer: 27-53, 2022.
Ludger Woessmann, "Langfristige Folgen der Corona-Pandemie für die Bildung der Kinder", Freie Bildung 98: 21-22, 2022.
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Moritz Seebacher (previously University of Konstanz) has started a PhD position at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education in October 2022. A warm welcome!
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In November 2022, Caterina Pavese (previously University of Padua) started as a postdoc at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education. Welcome to the team!
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Lukas Mergele is leaving the ifo Center for the Economics of Education at the end of the year to take up a position at BSS Economic Consultants in Basel. All the best for the future!
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