News 2024

Option to Choose between Ethics and Religious Education 

A short report in German about our study showing that offering students the choice between ethics and religious education has long-term effects on religiosity and work life, but not on ethical behavior, has been published in the Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Philosophie und Ethik (Journal for the Didactics of Philosophy and Ethics). Participation in compulsory religious education at school can have lasting effects on the lives of students. Since the 1970s, the German federal states have abolished compulsory religious education at public schools at different points in time, replacing it with the option to choose between ethics and religious education. Our study shows that the reforms not only led to lower religiosity among students in later life, but also reduced traditional attitudes towards gender roles and increased labor force participation and income. By contrast, the reforms did not affect life satisfaction or ethical behavior such as volunteering.

Einfluss auf Religiosität? Auswirkungen der Wahlmöglichkeit zwischen Ethik- und Religionsunterricht (with B. Arold and L. Zierow). Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Philosophie und Ethik 46 (4): 82-88, 2024

Multidimensional Skills and Earnings: New Review Paper

The multitude of tasks performed in the labor market requires skills in many dimensions. Traditionally, human capital has been proxied primarily by educational attainment. However, an expanding body of literature highlights the importance of various skill dimensions for success in the labor market. This paper examines the returns to cognitive, personality, and social skills as three important dimensions of basic skills. Recent advances in text analysis of online job postings and professional networking platforms offer novel methods for assessing a wider range of applied skill dimensions and their labor market relevance. A synthesis and integration of the evidence on the relationship between multidimensional skills and earnings, including the matching of skill supply and demand, will enhance our understanding of the role of human capital in the labor market. 

Skills and Earnings: A Multidimensional Perspective on Human Capital. CESifo Working Paper 11428 / IZA Discussion Paper 17395, October 2024

ifo Education Survey 2024: Opinions on the Education System across the Federal States

The ifo Education Survey 2024, our annual survey of the adult German population, for the first time allows for evaluations at the level of the federal states. In Bavaria, 41% of the population gives schools in their federal state a grade of 1 or 2, followed by Hamburg (35%) and Saxony (33%); in Bremen the figure is only 18%. A clear majority of Germans expect the shortage of teachers (79%), increasing differences in family background (66%), migration (65%), and political polarization (64%) to have a negative impact on future student performance. A clear majority (78%) are in favor of increasing government spending on schools, ranging from 73% in Bavaria to 86% in Brandenburg. Various reform proposals to improve basic skills are met with high approval, for example annual standardized performance tests based on which teacher teams develop targeted support measures (84%), mandatory language tests at pre-school age with mandatory German lessons if necessary (81%), and daily 20-minute reading training in primary school (79%). The high level of approval is very consistent across all federal states.

Selected media coverage: ZDF heute, NDR, SAT.1, BR24, SWR, Deutschlandfunk, spiegel.de, zeit.de, faz.de, welt.de, bild.de, Table.Media, u.v.a.

Meinungen zum Bildungssystem im Bundesländervergleich – Ergebnisse des ifo Bildungsbarometers 2024 (with K. Werner, V. Freundl, F. Pfaehler, and K. Wedel). ifo Schnelldienst 77 (9): 29-42, 2024 [tweet]

"Religion and Growth" now Published in the Journal of Economic Literature

We use the elements of a macroeconomic production function—physical capital, human capital, labor, and technology—together with standard growth models to frame the role of religion in economic growth. Unifying a growing literature, we argue that religion can enhance or impinge upon economic growth through all four elements because it shapes individual preferences, societal norms, and institutions. Religion affects physical capital accumulation by influencing thrift and financial development. It affects human capital through both religious and secular education. It affects population and labor by influencing work effort, fertility, and the demographic transition. And it affects total factor productivity by constraining or unleashing technological change and through rituals, legal institutions, political economy, and conflict. Synthesizing a disjoint literature in this way opens many interesting directions for future research.

Religion and Growth (with S.O. Becker and J. Rubin). Journal of Economic Literature 62 (3): 1094–1142, 2024 [tweet1] [tweet2] 

Education and Social Cohesion: New Report of the Expert Council of Education 

Numerous crises are putting our society and our self-image as a democracy to the test. How can the education system help to strengthen the necessary integrative power of our increasingly individualized society and provide the foundations for peaceful and trusting coexistence? The new report by the Aktionsrat Bildung focuses on strengthening social cohesion, which can be measured and developed at various levels: at the micro level in people's attitudes and behavior, at the meso level in the characteristics of groups and at the macro level in the characteristics of social institutions. Based on an empirical inventory, the report shows the prerequisites for how the various phases of the education system can contribute to strengthening social cohesion in our society. 

Bildung und sozialer Zusammenhalt. Gutachten des Aktionsrats Bildung. Münster: Waxmann, 2024

“Pedagogical Portrait” in the Journal Pädagogik: Nine Questions for Ludger Woessmann

Ich würde die Einstiegshürden anheben. Neun Fragen an Ludger Wößmann. Pädagogik 2/2024: 45, 2024

Now Published in the Journal of Political Economy: Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? 

We study a mentoring program that aims to improve the labor market prospects of disadvantaged adolescents. Our randomized controlled trial investigates its effectiveness on three outcomes highly predictive of later labor market success: math grades, patience/social skills, and labor market orientation. For low-SES (socioeconomic status) adolescents, the mentoring increases a combined index of the outcomes by over half a standard deviation after 1 year, with significant increases in each outcome. Effects on grades and labor market orientation, but not on patience/social skills, persist 3 years after program start. By that time, the mentoring also improves early realizations of school-to-work transitions for low-SES adolescents. The mentoring is not effective for higher-SES adolescents.

Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor-Market Prospects (with S. Resnjanskij, J. Ruhose, S. Wiederhold, and K. Wedel). Journal of Political Economy 132 (3): 1013-1062, 2024 [tweet1] [video] [tweet2] [tweet3]

Mentoring Improves the School-to-Work Transition of Disadvantaged Adolescents (with S. Resnjanskij, J. Ruhose, K. Wedel, and S. Wiederhold). VoxEU.org, 17.12.2023

(Reprinted in: EconPol Forum 25 (1): 25-28, 2024)

"Testing" Paper Now Published in the Journal of Human Resources 

The significant expansion of student testing has not generally been linked to educational outcomes. We investigate how different testing regimes—providing varying information to parents, teachers, and decisionmakers—relate to student achievement. We exploit PISA data for two million students in 59 countries observed from 2000-2015. Removing country and year fixed effects, we investigate how testing reforms affect country performance. In low- and medium-performing countries, more standardized testing is associated with higher student achievement, while added internal reporting and teacher monitoring are not. But, in high-performing countries, expansion of standardized internal testing and teacher monitoring appears harmful.

Testing (with A.B. Bergbauer and E.A. Hanushek). Journal of Human Resources 59 (2): 349-388, 2024 [tweet1] [tweet2] [video]

Keynote Published: Evaluation of the Education System based on Current Achievement Studies 

My keynote speech at the 7th Dortmund Symposium on Empirical Educational Research "Evaluation of the Education System: What Insights Do Current School Achievement Studies Provide?" has now been published in the symposium proceedings. 

Erkenntnisse aus aktuellen Schulleistungsstudien zur Evaluation des Bildungssystems: Eine bildungsökonomische Perspektive. In: Nele McElvany,  Michael Becker,  Hanna Gaspard,  Fani Lauermann,  Annika Ohle-Peters (eds.), Evaluation des Bildungssystems: Welche Erkenntnisse liefern aktuelle Schulleistungsstudien? Dortmunder Symposium der Empirischen Bildungsforschung, Band 7, Münster: Waxmann, 9-32, 2024

Finally out in Economic Policy: The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education

If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic impeded children’s skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. Our parental survey during the second German school lockdown provides new measures of socio-emotional development and panel evidence on how students’ time use and educational inputs adapted over time. Children’s learning time decreased severely during the first school closures, particularly for low-achieving students, and increased only slightly one year later. In a value-added model, learning time increases with daily online class instruction, but not with other school activities. Parental assessments of children’s socio-emotional development are mixed. Discussing our findings in light of the emerging literature on substantial achievement losses, we conclude that unless remediated, the school closures will persistently increase inequality and reduce skill development, lifetime income, and economic growth. 

The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education (with K. Werner). Economic Policy 38 (115): 609-668, 2023 [tweet1] [tweet2] [more on Covid]