Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The aim of this paper is to study whether schooling choices are affected by social interactions. Such social interactions may be important because children enjoy spending time with other children or parents learn from other parents about the ability of their children. Identification is based on a randomized intervention that grants a cash subsidy encouraging school attendance among a sub-group of eligible children within small rural villages in Mexico. Results indicate that (i) the eligible children tend to attend school more frequently, (ii) but also the ineligible children acquire more schooling when the subsidy is introduced in their local village, (iii) social interactions are economically important, and (iv) they may arise due to changes in parents' perception of their children's ability. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor mayJEL Code: C93, I21, I28.

Although instruction time is an important and costly resource in education production, there is a remarkable scarcity of research examining the effectiveness of its use. We build on the work of Lavy (2015) using the variance of subject-specific instruction time within Switzerland to determine the causal impact of instruction time on student test scores, as measured by the international PISA test (2009). We extend the analyses in two ways and find that students must differ considerably in the time needed to learn. This difference is supported by our findings that the effectiveness of instructional time varies substantially between different school (ability) tracks and that additional instruction time significantly increases the within-school variance of subject-specific test scores.

Empirical research has given cause to fear that the demographic ageing in industrialized countries is likely to exert a negative impact on educational spending. These papers have linked the share of the elderly with the per capita or per pupil spending on education at the local, state-wide or national level, trying to control for other exogenous effects. Although this line of research shows in many cases a negative correlation between the shares of elderly people and educational expenditures, a causal link is difficult to prove. This paper uses a unique and representative survey of Swiss voters of all age groups. The analysis shows that elderly people present a clear tendency to be less willing to spend money on education. They would rather prefer to spend public resources on health and social security than on education. Furthermore the paper shows that much of the negative correlation between the shares of elderly and educational spending is the result of the elderly being politically more conservative and in general less inclined to pay for expenditures in the public sector as a whole.JEL Code: H52, H72, I22, J18.

This paper uses unique Swiss longitudinal data that include information on Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000 scores and the pathways chosen after completing compulsory school. Descriptive results show that students in vocational training, who obtained lower PISA results, are significantly more likely to be in an inadequate employment situation 2 years after finishing vocational training. Further analysis shows, however, that it is the type of vocational training pursued at upper secondary level that is decisive for a successful transition. Nevertheless, individual PISA scores have an indirect impact on the transition results, as they are an important factor explaining which pupils are more likely to get into an intellectually demanding vocational training and which ones are not. Copyright 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation 2009 CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd..

MPIfG Discussion Papers are refereed scholarly papers of the kind that are publishable in a peer-reviewed disciplinary journal. Their objective is to contribute to the cumulative improvement of theoretical knowledge. The papers can be ordered from the institute for a small fee (hard copies) or downloaded free of charge (PDF). AbstractThis paper uses an original dataset from a survey conducted in Switzerland in 2007 to explore the dynamics of education policy preferences. This issue has largely been neglected so far as most studies on welfare state attitudes do not look at preferences for education. We argue that education policy preferences vary along two dimensions: the distribution of resources across different sectors of the education system (i.e. voca tional training vs. academic education) and the level of investment in education both from public and private sources. With regard to the former, the findings suggest that individual educational experience matters most, i.e., individuals prefer to concentrate resources on those educational sectors that are closest to their own educational back ground. With regard to the second dimension, we find that affiliation to partisan ide ologies matters much more than other variables. Proponents of the left demand more investment both from the state as well as from the private sector and oppose individual tuition fees. ZusammenfassungDieses Papier untersucht die Dynamik bildungspolitischer Präferenzen auf der Mikro ebene. Dabei werden Daten aus einer eigenen Erhebung verwendet, die im Jahr 2007 in der Schweiz durchgeführt wurde. Die Untersuchung bildungspolitischer Präferenzen wurde in der einschlägigen Literatur zur Untersuchung von wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Ein stellungen bisher vernachlässigt. Wir zeigen, dass bildungspolitische Präferenzen auf zwei Dimensionen zu verorten sind: zum einen die Verteilung von öffentlichen Mitteln auf verschiedene Bildungssektoren (berufliche vs. hochschulische Bildung) und zum anderen das Gesamtniveau der Bildungsausgaben. In Bezug auf die erste Dimension stellen wir fest, dass der individuelle Bildungshintergrund sehr prägend ist. Die Befrag ten unterstützten die Konzentration von öffentlichen Mitteln in denjenigen Bildungs bereichen, die sie aus der eigenen Bildungskarriere kennen. In Bezug auf die zweite Dimension lassen sich hingegen starke ideologische Effekte feststellen. Individuen, die sich ideologisch im linken Spektrum verorten, fordern mehr Bildungsausgaben vonsei ten des Staates und des Privatsektors und lehnen Studiengebühren eher ab.