It has been argued that vocational education facilitates the school-to-work transition but reduces later adaptability to changing environments. Using the recent international PIAAC data, we confirm such a trade-off over the life-cycle in a difference-in-differences model that compares employment...

Based on high-quality skill data from PIAAC, this paper provides evidence on the effect of schooling on labor-market relevant cognitive skills. For identification, I exploit the staggered introduction of a compulsory ninth grade in basic track schools across German states, as well as a...

We investigate the short- and long-term effects of economic conditions at high-school graduation as a source of exogenous variation in the labor-market opportunities of potential college entrants. Exploiting business cycle fluctuations across birth cohorts for 28 developed countries, we find...

Being exposed to compulsory religious education in school can have long-run consequences for students' lives. At different points in time since the 1970s, German states terminated compulsory religious education in public schools and replaced it by a choice between ethics classes and religious...

The ifo Education Survey is a representative opinion survey of the German voting-age population on education topics that has been conducted annually since 2014. It covers public preferences on a wide range of education policy issues ranging from early childhood education, schools, and...

How far is the world away from ensuring that every child obtains the basic skills needed to be internationally competitive? And what would accomplishing this mean for world development? Based on the micro data of international and regional achievement tests, we map achievement onto a common...

How far is the world away from ensuring that every child obtains the basic skills needed to be internationally competitive? And what would accomplishing this mean for world development? Based on the micro data of international and regional achievement tests, we map achievement onto a common...

Bildung spielt eine zentrale Rolle für die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung eines Landes, daher hat die Ampelregierung im Koalitionsvertrag diverse Vorhaben in der Bildungspolitik angekündigt. Neben dem DigitalPakt Schule, der die digitale Infrastruktur an Schulen verbessern soll, sollen das...

We use the elements of a macroeconomic production function – physical capital, human capital, labor, and technology – together with standard growth models to frame the role of religion in economic growth. Unifying a growing literature, we argue that religion can enhance or impinge upon...

Decisions to invest in human capital depend on people's time preferences. We show that differences in patience are closely related to substantial subnational differences in educational achievement, leading to new perspectives on longstanding within-country disparities. We use social-media data...