Employing data envelopment analysis and the free disposal hull approach, we evaluate the efficiency of 206 economics departments around the world. We use one input, full-time equivalents, and ten outputs which were both downloaded from RePEc website. By averaging over 1023 efficiency scores,...

In this study, we undertake an efficiency analysis of universities, which were funded for their “future concepts” in the German Excellence Initiative: RWTH Aachen, FU Berlin, HU Berlin, Uni Bremen, TU Dresden, Uni Freiburg, Uni Göttingen, Uni Heidelberg, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie...

The Great Depression is a prime example of a macroeconomic crisis that produced adverse economic and social effects in all spheres of life. The theoretical arguments about the real effects of the Great Depression on education vary. The first is that of economic hardships, which might force...

This paper analyzes the drivers of wage differences among college graduates who hold a degree in a different field of study. We focus on Turkey, an emerging country that is characterized by a sustained expansion of higher education. We estimate conditional wage gaps by field of study using OLS...

This paper investigates the role of school quality in human-capital formation. Specifically, I investigate how the timing of school quality differentially affects long-run outcomes. Using individual-level data on the universe of public-school students in California, I estimate elementary-,...

In this paper, we analyze the higher education choices of Italian secondary school leavers by addressing the roles of university quality, costs and geographical distance to the institution as well as the relationship between students’ choices and their personal and household’s attributes,...

An emerging body of literature examines the economic returns to quality of postsecondary education. This literature has predominantly focused on the returns to the most selective universities. However, less is known about the extent to which these gains are realized for the academically marginal...

This paper studies the labor market returns to quality of higher education for low-skilled students. Using a regression discontinuity design, we compare students who marginally pass and marginally fail the French high school exit exam from the first attempt. Threshold crossing leads to an...

Existing peer effects studies produce contradictory findings, including positive, negative, large, and small effects, despite similar contexts. We reconcile these results using U.S. Naval Academy data covering a 22-year history of the random assignment of students to peer groups. Coupled with...

We show that the system of ‘Grandes écoles’ (GEs) is a key determinant of social stratification, low intergenerational mobility at the top and low educational efficiency in France. A stylised model of the French higher education system is constructed. This system is composed of two types of...