Economic competence in early secondary school: Evidence from a large-scale assessment in Germany

Abstract

We employ a psychometrically validated performance test to study economic competence among a large and representative sample of early secondary school students in Southwest Germany. The rich dataset allows us to study variation in economic competence across school types and observable student characteristics. Our results show that economic competence is significantly lower among female students, migrants, students with parents of low socioeconomic status and those who do not attend the highest track school type. Additionally, quantile regression analyses suggest that the gender gap increases along the distribution of economic competence and that effects of parents with high socioeconomic status are more pronounced above the median of the competence distribution. Our analysis sets the stage for a long-term study of economic competence among secondary school students and the impact of a recent curriculum reform introducing mandatory economic education.

Economic Education at the Expense of Indoctrination? Evidence from Germany

“…Note that the gender gap increased slightly after adjusting for time-response-effort that is typically higher among female respondents (Balart and Oosterveen 2019). In line with previous studies in Germany (e.g., Oberrauch and Kaiser 2020, Lührmann et al 2015, we find economic competence to be, on average, significantly lower among children of migrants and children of parents with lower socio-economic status (SES). Despite these achievement gaps, we find no evidence of heterogenous treatment effects depending on these observables (see Appendix A).…”

The impact of mandatory economic education on adolescents’ attitudes

“…The paper proceeds as follows: The second section roughly sketches the competence model underlying the school's economic education curriculum (see Retzmann et al 2010;Oberrauch and Kaiser 2019 for further details). Section 3 describes our study design, including demographic characteristics of our sample (3.1), the psychometric properties of the attitude scales (3.2) and economic competences (3.3) as well as the empirical strategy employed (3.4).…”

Results from the test of economic literacy in Germany and Japan: A critical discussion on the gender effect

“…However, this has not yet been implemented throughout Germany. Only a few federal states, such as the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in 2016, have made the school subject of business and economics compulsory for all students in general education (Oberrauch and Kaiser, 2019). The KMK advocates for a continuous expansion of economic education in the general school sector.…”

“…This is only possible if the students’ entry conditions are known (Smart et al, 2012). In both the German and Japanese school systems, economic content is currently not very well anchored in the curriculum (see for Japan, Asano and Yamaoka, 2015; see for Germany, Oberrauch and Kaiser, 2019). This is a cause for concern, since economic knowledge is extremely relevant and significant for every individual in his or her life.…”