This paper reviews the effectiveness and efficiency of key policy instruments for MDG (Millennium Development Goals) achievement. We first demonstrate that average MDG progress is likely to be too slow to meet the education and health sector targets in a number of developing countries. We also...

A growing number of American states require that students who do not demonstrate basic reading proficiency at the end of third grade be retained and provided with remedial services. We exploit a discontinuity in the probability of third grade retention under Florida’s test-based promotion...

In January 2005 the German Supreme Court permitted the state governments to charge tuition fees. By exploiting the natural experiment, we examine how government ideology influenced the introduction of tuition fees. The results show that rightwing governments were active in introducing tuition...

Three important educational reforms took place in Bolivia during the 20th Century. The 1905 reform established a national education system. The 1955 reform broadened education coverage and promoted a homogenous national culture. The 1994 reform, currently in effect, restructures the educational...

This paper presents evidence from a natural-experiment which evaluates the effectiveness of a student mentoring program. The mentoring includes several compulsory, scheduled, faceto- face appointments between a mentor and a student in the first study year. All mentors are graduated and employed...

Educational integration of children with migration background is an important issue in the social sciences. Few studies exist that quantify the disadvantage of immigrant children in education and there has not been any attempt to identify institutional conditions of the education system that...

In this paper we provide evidence for the impact of public funding on enrolment of students in college. We use a panel for European countries and apply instrumental variables techniques to find that public funding for schooling - regardless at what level - does increase college enrolment alike...

Diese Arbeit untersucht Unterschiede in den Schulleistungen zwischen Jungen und Maedchen sowie moegliche Ursachen, die sich aus Charakteristika der Eltern und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen ergeben. Hierzu werden die Daten der Schulleistungsstudie PISA 2000 mit einer Drei-Ebenenanalyse...

A large number of econometric studies have examined the impact of central exit examinations on student attainment and repeatedly found a positive effect. This paper contributes to clarify the term central exit examination by distinguishing between central assignment and central grading. For this...

Between 1960 and 1979, 93 new universities opened in Germany. Using this large tertiary education expansion, I estimate the effect of a university opening on the probability of obtaining a university degree in the local population. I exploit the geographical variation in local university access...