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on Education |
| By: | Anton Barabasch; Kamila Cygan-Rehm; Andreas Leibing |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the long-run consequences of a later school entry for personality traits. For identification, we exploit the statutory cutoff rules for school enrollment in Germany within a regression discontinuity design. We find that relatively older school starters have persistently lower levels of neuroticism in adulthood. This effect is entirely driven by women, which has important implications for gender gaps in the labor market, as women typically score significantly higher on neuroticism at all stages of life, which puts them at a disadvantage. Our results suggest that family decisions regarding compliance with enrollment cutoffs may have lasting implications for gender gaps in socio-emotional skills. |
| Keywords: | school starting age, personality, socio-emotional skills, education |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J24 D19 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12273 |
| By: | Kamila Cygan-Rehm; Matthias Westphal |
| Abstract: | This paper replicates and extends the evidence on the lifetime effects of school starting age on earnings by Fredriksson and Öckert (2014) for Sweden. Using German data for individuals born between 1945 and 1965, we examine a more rigid system of ability tracking in secondary education, a potential driver of long-term effects. We confirm negligible effects of later school entry for men and positive effects for women. These gender differences arise despite similar effects on educational attainment. By unfolding the gender gaps over the lifecycle, assessing fertility decisions, and maternal employment around the first birth, we show that childbirth postponement and increased labor market attachment after the first birth seem to be plausible mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | school starting age, lifetime effects, education, gender gap |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I26 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12274 |
| By: | Albagli, Pinjas; García-Echalar, Andrés |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the effects of a major 2012 student loan reform in Chile that reduced interest rates from 6% to 2% and introduced more flexible repayment terms. Unlike studies of initial loan implementation, this reform offers a rare opportunity to examine how changes in the cost of borrowing affect enrollment decisions among already-eligible students. Using rich administrative data and a difference-in-differences design, we estimate the effects of the reform on immediate enrollment, second-year enrollment, and second-year dropout. To strengthen causal inference, we complement our strategy with a difference-in-discontinuities approach that leverages eligibility thresholds. We find a compositional shift in immediate enrollment: university enrollment increases by 2.5 percentage points, offset by an equal decline in vocational institutions, with no effect on overall enrollment. This shift persists into second-year outcomes, where university students exhibit slightly higher dropout and vocational students show improved persistence. These effects are concentrated among students from voucher schools and are absent among students from public schools, likely due to persistent academic and financial constraints. We also find that overall enrollment declines for female students, which may reflect greater risk aversion in response to uncertainty. These findings shed light on how price-based reforms to student loan programs can generate unequal responses across student groups and institutional sectors, offering valuable lessons for the design of equitable higher education financing. |
| Keywords: | tertiary education; financial aid; interest rates; repayment conditions; enrollment; retention; dropout; institutional sector switching |
| JEL: | I22 I28 |
| Date: | 2025–12–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130051 |
| By: | Megan Borole (Firdale Consulting); Maxine Schaefer (Click Learning); Heleen Hofmeyr (Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University); Bruce McDougall (Firdale Consulting) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the relationship between learner engagement with a personalised adaptive learning (PAL) EdTech platform and English literacy outcomes in South African primary schools. Drawing on data from over 20, 000 learners across 226 poorly resourced public schools, we examine whether cumulative time spent on the curriculum-aligned PAL programme (delivered during regular classroom hours) is associated with improved literacy performance. Using cross-sectional regression models, we find a positive and statistically significant association between platform usage and English literacy scores. The association holds across grades, with only modest variation by gender and no evidence of differential effects by language of instruction or school quality. Our findings suggest that PAL technologies can support foundational literacy even in low-resource, multilingual classrooms, and may offer a scalable complement to traditional instruction in contexts facing teacher shortages and large class sizes. |
| Keywords: | Literacy; educational technology; early grade reading; South Africa |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers389 |