I evaluate a financial aid policy which automatically granted 1,800 euros annually to low-income students scoring in the top 5% of high school students and enrolling in higher education. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that it had no significant impact on various higher education...

The French education system has a mixed record. A generally very successful pre-school and primary school level contrasts with underfunded public universities with high dropout rates which exist alongside very successful higher education institutions for elites. Initial education, especially...

After a short criticism of the “self-funded education scheme” which is widely implemented in the world and often based on tuition fees, this article develops theoretical basis for a “contributory education scheme”. This model is characterised 1) by a universal access for students to...

The French education system has a mixed record. A generally very successful pre-school and primary school level contrasts with underfunded public universities with high dropout rates which exist alongside very successful higher education institutions for elites. Initial education, especially...

Studies a number of aspects of the reform of public finance and public management in France (LOLF), with special attention to science and technology policy, using a pragmatist approach to the sociology of the state.

In this paper, we analyse increasing inequalities in French students’ cognitive skills during the 2000 decade, as France is the European country that experienced the strongest rise in performance variance at PISA tests. In particular, French educational inequalities increased due to a decline...

L'enseignement supérieur subit une profonde mutation, comment va-t-il subir le choc de l'harmonisation et de la mondialisation des diplômes ? Deux universitaires réputés, un mathématicien et un économiste, s'expriment sur la question et les réformes nécessaires.

In this paper, we examine the salient characteristics of the French higher education system in the light of its recent evolution and in the context of overwhelming Europeanization trends. In spite of major weaknesses that still hinder the performance of French universities, we show that,...

How important is the enforcement of political rights in new democracies? We use the enfranchisement of the emancipated slaves following the American Civil War to study this question. Critical to our strategy, black suffrage was externally enforced by the U.S. Army in ten Southern states during...

Starting in 1999, the Bologna Process reformed the German five-year study system for a first degree into the three-year bachelor's (BA) system to harmonize study lengths in Europe and improve competitiveness. This reform unintentionally challenged the German apprenticeship system that offers...