New Evidence on the Effects of the Shortened School Duration in the German States: An Evaluation of Post-secondary Education Decisions

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S New Evidence on the Effects of the Shortened School Duration in the GermanIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.IZA Discussion Paper No. 9507 November 2015 ABSTRACT New Evidence on the Effects of the Shortened School Duration in the German States: An Evaluation of Post-Secondary Education DecisionsMost German states have reformed university preparatory schooling during the last decade by reducing its duration from 13 to 12 years without changing the graduation requirements. In this paper, we use nationwide data on high school graduates and apply a difference-indifferences approach to evaluate the reform effects on post-secondary education decisions. The results show that enrollment in university education in the first year after high school graduation is reduced in all analyzed states, while participation in voluntary service or staying abroad is increased. In some subgroups, depending on state, gender and family background, university enrollment is decreased additionally beyond the first year.JEL Classification: I21, J18, C21

Did the Bologna Process Challenge the German Apprenticeship System? Evidence from a Natural Experiment

“…Another explanation for the gender heterogeneity (and especially the opposite-signed effects in STEM occupations) could be different responses to changes in competitive pressure. As studies on double high school graduation cohorts show, greater competition increases the performance of males relative to females (Ors et al, 2013;Morin, 2015), while the educational attainment of females tends to decrease or is delayed (Meyer and Thomsen, 2016;Meyer et al, 2019). In our context, this could suggest that women may refrain from studying, especially in those majors where more men study, and would benefit from less competition for specific apprenticeship occupations, such as in STEM fields.…”

Compressing instruction time into fewer years of schooling and the impact on student performance

“…First studies examine the G8-reform effects on postsecondary education decisions and university performance, and indeed these studies find only small effects. Meyer et al (2015) and Meyer & Thomsen (2016) find that some students delay the start of university by one year. By the second year after graduation, the effects on the transition to university have almost vanished.…”

To Those Who Have, More Will Be Given? Effects of an Instructional Time Reform on Gender Disparities in STEM Subjects, Stress, and Health

“…Beyond this, further changes were implemented, which were required to increase instruction time per week, for instance new educational standards and school-specific curricula. Current research on the G8-reform is mixed in that some studies find student achievement to increase in lower secondary school (Huebener et al, 2017), whereas others find zero or negative effects on achievement, negative effects on stress levels and health, and delayed university enrollment of females (e.g., Büttner and Thomsen, 2015;Hübner et al, 2017a;Quis, 2018;Meyer et al, 2019;Marcus et al, 2020). Further studies are needed to investigate potential causes of these reported differences which may result from different samples (e.g., from different states) but also relate to the timeframe examined over which effects might accumulate or dissipate.…”