Austerity in Italy harmed student achievement
Austerity spending cuts in Italy harmed student performance in standardized national tests. This is what Caterina Pavese from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and Enrico Rubolino from the University of Lausanne find in their paper forthcoming in the Economic Journal. They compare test scores for students from the same municipality, but who were exposed to different levels of austerity cuts based on their birth year. Combining administrative data on public spending and test scores, they show that austerity spending cuts reduced test scores both in math and reading. These effects are more pronounced for children with limited resources at home. more...
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How bicycles and roads increase girls' school enrollment in India
How can bicycles improve girls' education in low-income countries? In his paper recently published in the Economics of Education Review, Moritz Seebacher from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education analyzes the complementarity between all-weather roads and a bicycle program in India. The program benefits girls living 3-10 km away from schools with all-weather road connections, increasing their secondary school enrollment by 60% and reducing the gender enrollment gap by half. There are no effects for girls in villages without all-weather roads or girls living more than 10 km from school. more...
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Classroom composition influences performance of immigrant students
How does classroom composition affect the educational attainment of immigrant students? Using administrative data from Italy, Caterina Pavese from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and Elena Meschi from the University of Milan-Bicocca show in their paper just published in Labour Economics that immigrant children are detrimentally affected by the share of very low-achievers in the classroom. For native students, the average quality of peers in the class is relevant. Students also have different reference groups: immigrant students are influenced by all classmates, while native students are impacted only by native peers. more...
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Patience and regional differences in student achievement
Differences in patience can account for regional variation in student achievement – for two-thirds across Italian regions and one-third across US states. This is what Eric Hanushek from Stanford University, Lavinia Kinne from DIW Berlin, Pietro Sancassani and Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education find in their new working paper. The authors use social-media data – Facebook interests – to construct novel regional measures of patience within Italy and the United States. The positive association of patience and educational achievement also holds for six other countries. Paper... Column...
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More education makes you happier – unless you are unemployed
How does education affect life satisfaction? In their new discussion paper, Alexander Bertermann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education and Daniel Kamhöfer and Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf show that the answer depends on the employment status: Education has a positive effect on life satisfaction for employed individuals, but a negative one for those without a job. The analysis uses exogenous variation in compulsory schooling requirements and the build-up of new schools and leverages plant closures and longitudinal information for employment status. more...
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Germans fear greater educational inequality through digitization
More than half (53%) of Germans fear that digitization will lead to greater inequality in the German education system. This is the result of a new analysis of the ifo Education Survey, which is conducted annually by the ifo Center for the Economics of Education. Clear majorities see serious problems in the inequality of opportunities between children with and without a migration background (62%) and between children from good and difficult social backgrounds (61%). To improve equal opportunities, 69% of Germans support an opportunity budget for schools with many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. more...
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Seventh volume of the Handbook of the Economics of Education out now
The seventh volume of the Handbook of the Economics of Education, edited by Ludger Woessmann from the ifo Center for the Economics of Education, Eric Hanushek from Stanford University, and Stephen Machin from the London School of Economics, is out. Top scholars address the following topics in six chapters: i) methods for measuring school effectiveness, ii) teacher evaluation and training, iii) U.S. school finance, iv) college costs, financial aid, and student decisions, v) firm training, and vi) multidimensional human capital and the wage structure. more...
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IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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Want to be a better student? Be patient
Washingtonpost.com and bloomberg.com report on the study on patience and international student achievement. See also marginalrevolution.com.
Lesson planning: a research reality check
tes magazine refers to Ludger Woessmann's findings on teacher subject knowledge.
How well your education helps you with your career
highereducationdigest.com reports on the findings of Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann on the lack of basic skills.
Viennese educational communism
The Austrian diepresse.com reports on Ludger Woessmann's lecture in Vienna. The Neos Lab also reports on it.
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The economic importance of education
Ludger Woessmann gives a TV interview on tagesschau24 about the basic skills of school children in Germany and their impact on the German economy.
The PISA crash endangers our prosperity
Commentary by Ludger Woessmann on the performance decline in the current PISA student test in the Münchner Merkur, on fr.de, and other regional newspapers.
In fact, we have long since returned to the shock level
Ludger Woessmann explains the consequences of the poor PISA results for Germany as an economic location in an interview on wiwo.de.
The education crisis is our biggest location risk
The interview is also picked up by tagesschau.de, welt.de, www.wallstreet-online.de, and many other media outlets.
Is the PISA shock jeopardizing our economic prosperity?
Interview with Ludger Woessmann on BR television.
Nothing learned! The poor PISA report card
Radio interviews with Ludger Woessmann on the new PISA results on HR2 Der Tag, MDR Aktuell, and Deutschlandfunk Wirtschaft am Mittag.
Experts finally call for a PISA jolt
Ludger Woessmann's assessment of the new PISA results is covered by Handelsblatt, ZEIT Online, BILD.de, fr.de, merkur.de, augsburger-allgemeine.de, Wiarda Blog, cicero.de, and many others.
The 14 trillion euro risk: Pisa crash jeopardizes our prosperity
Interview with Ludger Woessmann in the Handelsblatt Today Podcast.
We need a new PISA shock
In the run-up to the publication of the new PISA results, Ludger Woessmann warns on Deutschlandfunk Kultur of falling student performance and negative effects on the economy.
Unequal educational opportunities due to digitalization?
The representative opinion poll on educational inequality in Germany is covered by tagesschau.de, wiwo.de, bildungsklick.de, and news4teachers.de, among others.
Bavaria's secret at school is pressure to perform
Welt.de comments on the results of the ifo Education Survey.
Risk of poverty higher than ever
Focus.de refers to the results of the ifo Opportunity Monitor.
Schools MUST do this
Wirtschaftswoche quotes Ludger Woessmann on the economic importance of good education.
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SELECTED EVENTS AND PRESENTATIONS
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Call for Papers: Venice Summer Institute on Funding Education
Katharina Werner (ifo Center for the Economics of Education) and Barbara Biasi (Yale) are organizing a Venice Summer Institute on "Funding Education: New Insights on Impacts, Contexts, and Challenges" which will take place on San Servolo, Venice on 28-29 June 2024. Susan Dynarski (Harvard) and Peter Bergman (Texas) will be the keynote speakers.
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Call for Papers: 2nd CESifo/ifo Junior Workshop on the Economics of Education
The 2nd CESifo/ifo Junior Workshop on the Economics of Education will take place in Munich on 16-17 April 2024. It is aimed at PhD students towards the end of their PhD phase and Postdocs within one year of their PhD completion. Keynote speeches will be delivered by Camille Terrier (Queen Mary University London) and Petter Lundborg (Lund University).
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Event "An education offensive against skills shortage" in Vienna
At the event at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, organized by WIFO and IHS, Ludger Woessmann gave the keynote on "Education and prosperity: The knowledge capital of nations and how we can increase it".
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Education congress "Secure the future! Educational breakthrough now!"
At the Education Evening of the Congress of the Association of Cities of North-Rhine Westphalia, which discussed measures for better education in North Rhine-Westphalia, Ludger Woessmann gave
an Education Policy Impulse from Research.
ECONWATCH meeting on education and prosperity
At the ECONWATCH online meeting, Ludger Woessmann spoke on "Individual opportunities and social prosperity: priority for education".
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Articles in refereed journals
Meschi, E. and C. Pavese, "Ability Composition in the Class and the School Performance of Immigrant Students", Labour Economics 85, 102450, 2023.
Pavese, C. and E. Rubolino, "Austerity Harmed Student Achievement", Economic Journal, forthcoming.
Seebacher, M., "Pathways to Progress: The Complementarity of Bicycles and Road Infrastructure for Girls' Education", Economics of Education Review
97, 102483, 2023.
Monographs
Hanushek, E., S. Machin, and L. Woessmann (eds.), "Handbook of the Economics of Education", Vol. 7, Amsterdam: North Holland, 2023.
Working Papers
Bertermann, A., D. Kamhöfer, and H. Schildberg-Hörisch, "More Education Does Make You Happier – Unless You Are Unemployed", IZA Discussion Paper 16464, September 2023.
Hanushek, E., L. Kinne, P. Sancassani, and L. Woessmann, "Can Patience Account for Subnational Differences in Student Achievement? Regional Analysis with Facebook Interests", NBER Working Paper 31690, September 2023.
Further articles
Hanushek, E., L. Kinne, P. Sancassani, and L. Woessmann, "Patience and the North-South Divide in Student Achievement in Italy and the US", VoxEU Column, 11.10.2023.
Freundl, V., E. Meschi, and C. Pavese, "Wie Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund vom Leistungsniveau ihrer Schulklasse beeinflusst werden", ifo Schnelldienst 76 (12), 32-37, 2023.
Resnjanskij, S. J. Ruhose, K. Wedel, S. Wiederhold, and L. Woessmann, "Mentoring erhöht die Ausbildungsbeteiligung benachteiligter Jugendlicher", ifo Schnelldienst 76 (12), 7-10, 2023.
Werner, K., V. Freundl, F. Pfaehler, K. Wedel, and L. Woessmann, "Was denken die Deutschen zu Chancenungleichheit im Bildungssystem?", ifo Schnelldienst 76 (11), 33-39, 2023.
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In October 2023, Anke Windisch started as doctoral student at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education. Welcome to the team!
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Frauke Witthöft also started as doctoral student at the ifo Center for the Economics of Education in October 2023. A warm welcome!
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