This paper studies the effect of providing feedback to college students on their position in the grade distribution by using a randomized control experiment. This information was updated every six months during a three-year period. In the absence of treatment, students' underestimate their...

Launched in 2004, the Carolina Covenant combines grant-heavy financial aid with an array of non-financial supports for low-income students at an elite public university. We find that the program increased four-year graduation rates by about 8 percentage points for eligible students in the...

This paper studies the effect of providing feedback to college students on their position in the grade distribution by using a randomized control experiment. This information was updated every six months during a three-year period. In the absence of treatment, students' underestimate their...

This paper examines the impacts of the Michigan Merit Curriculum (MMC), a statewide college-preparatory curriculum that applies to the high school graduating class of 2008 and later. We use a student, longitudinal database for all public school students in Michigan for the main analyses, and...

This paper considers the degree to which events that intensify partying increase sexual assault. Estimates are based on panel data from campus and local law-enforcement agencies and an identification strategy that exploits plausibly random variation in the timing of Division 1 football games....

We examine the role of information in the college matching behavior of low- and high-income students, exploiting a state automatic admissions policy that provides some students with perfect a priori certainty of college admissions. We find that admissions certainty encourages college-ready...

In this paper, we use a hypothetical choice methodology to robustly estimate preferences for workplace attributes. Undergraduate students are presented with sets of jobs that vary in their attributes (such as earnings and job hours flexibility) and asked to state their probabilistic choices. We...

This paper studies how individuals believe human capital investments will affect their future career and family life. We conducted a survey of high-ability currently enrolled college students and elicited beliefs about how their choice of college major, and whether to complete their degree at...

In this paper, we use a hypothetical choice methodology to robustly estimate preferences for workplace attributes. Undergraduate students are presented with sets of jobs that vary in their attributes (such as earnings and job hours flexibility) and asked to state their probabilistic choices. We...

Den ostdeutschen Flächenländern wird es in ihrer Gesamtheit zukünftig möglicherweise nicht mehr gelingen, die Effekte des demographischen Wandels durch Wanderungsgewinne zu kompensieren. Dies ist das Ergebnis verschiedener Projektionen zur zukünftigen Entwicklung der Studierendenzahl, die...

Die demographischen sowie die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für die Hochschulen haben sich in den letzten Jahren stark verändert. Dies ist das Ergebnis einer Untersuchung des IFO INSTITUTS, Niederlassung Dresden, zu den Rahmenbedingungen der Leistungserstellung ostdeutscher Hochschulen. Der...

Die ostdeutschen Hochschulen können die veränderten demographischen Rahmenbedingungen durch Wanderungsgewinne annähernd kompensieren – die Zahl der Studierenden bleibt, ebenso wie die Laufenden Ausgaben je Studierenden, etwa konstant. Gleichzeitig sinken jedoch die vom Land zugewiesenen...

This dissertation contains economic microanalyses of voting, regulation and higher education. It is about individual decisions, institutions, and the incentives the latter create. Three chapters of this dissertation are based on empirical results, whereas one chapter is a purely theoretical...

Die Erhebung zur sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Lage der Studierenden wurde im Frühjahrssemester 2013 zum dritten Mal durchgeführt. Sie liefert aktuelle Daten zu hochschulpolitischen und gesellschaftlichen Themen wie der Herkunft der Studierenden, der Studienfinanzierung und Studienförderung,...

This paper investigates how legal cannabis access affects student performance. Identification comes from an exceptional policy introduced in the city of Maastricht which discriminated legal access based on individuals’ nationality. We apply a difference-in-difference approach using...

Do applicants to higher education rely on expert judgement about the quality of the course when applying? Using application data across UK universities over a period of 8 years, we investigate how league tables affect prospective students' application decisions. We use subject specific ranking...

Analysen der Zu- und Fortzüge nach Wanderungsdistanz und -richtung in Baden-Württemberg zeigen, dass es die Reurbanisierung im Sinne eines Zurück der Suburbanisierer in die Stadt nicht gibt. Sehr wohl aber einen verstärkten Zuzug ganz spezifischer Altersgruppen in die Oberzentren. Es sind...