There is a successful and growing number of studies published in top-economics journals that exploit the division and re-unification of Germany as a natural experiment for analysing the effects of political regimes on economic behaviour. One strand of the literature shows that socialism shaped...

We analyze differences in school quality using a comprehensive panel data set covering all upper secondary school graduates in Finland during the years 2002-2013. School quality is defined as the effect of the school on matriculation exam results controlling for quality of student intake. In...

In recent years, educational issues have been of greater importance in economic analysis. Many papers suggest that education is essential for economic growth as well as an important tool to achieve better equality. These effects have been discussed and confirmed by several researchers, whose...

Compulsory schooling increases average level of education in a country and provides other benefits, its effect on geographical distribution is, however, not obvious. We explore the effect of a sudden change in compulsory schooling in Turkey, that increased mandatory years of schooling from five...

In a world crisis generated by the spread of Covid-19, beyond the negative consequences, fast and efficient responses were needed from the authorities across the world, both for the scenario in which the crisis was on a short period and education would have recovered quickly, and especially for...

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on education in Romania and worldwide. Radical measures have been necessary in the field of education, to limit the spread of the virus (like in all the fields affected by the pandemic). One of these measures - the closure of schools, universities...

This paper investigates the effect of aggregate-level information shocks regarding support for a populist right-wing party on the individual disposition to report a respective political preference in survey interviews. Despite controversial debates about the social acceptability of its...

Relative performance feedback (RPF) has often been shown to improve effort and performance in the workplace and educational settings. Yet, many studies also document substantial negative effects of RPF, in particular for low-achievers. We study a novel type of RPF designed to overcome these...

The literature shows a wage premium for graduates from high quality, elite, or more selective universities. The results, however, exist for countries with a clear hierarchy of top universities, such as the US, England, and Australia. I evaluate if such an effect also exists in Germany, a country...

Population diversity arising from international migration does not only affect the labor market, but also its training ground – the classroom. While the economics literature studies the large and persistent achievement gap between native and foreign origin students, surprisingly little is...