Switzerland changed its migration policy in the 1990s from a "non-qualified only" policy to one of almost free movement of labor. To analyze the impact of this policy change on the schooling outcomes of children of first-generation migrants, the paper compares the PISA results of...

This paper examines how banning affirmative action in university admissions affects both overall academic achievement and the racial gap in academic achievement prior to college entry. Focusing on college-bound high school students, we use a difference-in-difference methodology to analyze the...

Die Bildungsmobilität in Deutschland ist von Bildungsaufstiegen geprägt. So ist der Bildungsabschluss von knapp einem Drittel der Personen im Alter zwischen 35 und 44 Jahren in Deutschland höher als der Abschluss ihres Vaters. Nur etwa knapp ein Fünftel hat einen niedrigeren...

Junge Menschen bleiben in Deutschland selten ohne berufsqualifizierenden Abschluss. Konnten im Jahr 2005 noch 16,5 Prozent aller Personen im Alter zwischen 20 und 29 Jahren, die sich nicht mehr in der Ausbildung befanden, keinen beruflichen Abschluss vorzeigen, waren es im Jahr 2011 nur 13,4...

Die Einkommensperspektiven junger Menschen in Deutschland hängen sehr stark von ihrem Bildungsniveau ab. So zählen 31,5 Prozent der Personen ohne einen beruflichen Abschluss zum untersten Fünftel der Einkommensverteilung, bei den Hochschulabsolventen sind es nur 7,4 Prozent. Daher ist das...

A postsecondary degree is often held up as the one sure path to financial success. But is that true regardless of institutional quality, discipline studied, or individual characteristics? Is a college degree always worth the cost? Students deciding whether to invest in college and what field to...

We have shown that vocational education does not perform as well as academic education both in labour market outcomes and in the level of basic skills, including literacy and numeracy. This is especially true for higher education. Only at the upper secondary or post-secondary level does...

Is it possible to compress instruction time into fewer school years without lowering education levels? A fundamental reform in Germany reduced the length of academic track schooling by one year, while increasing instruction hours in the remaining school years to provide students with a very...

Despite increasing access to university education, students from disadvantaged or non-academic family backgrounds are still underrepresented in universities. In this regard, the economics literature has focused on the role of financial constraints as a cause of these observed differences in...