What drives the reversal of the gender education gap? Evidence from Germany

Abstract

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. What Drives the Reversal of the Gender Education Gap? Evidence from Germany Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractWe study the mechanisms that are associated with the gender education gap and its reversal in Germany. We focus on three outcomes, graduation from upper secondary school, any tertiary education, and tertiary degree. Neither individual and family background nor labor market characteristics appear to be strongly associated with the gender education gap. There is some evidence that the gender gap in upper secondary education reflects the rising share of single parent households which impacts boys' attainment more than girls'. The gender education gap in tertiary education is correlated with the development of class sizes and social norms. Also, gender differences in non-cognitive abilities are considered to render females' effort cost of higher education lower than that of males.Becker et al. (2010) study gender-specific changes in the costs and benefits of higher education. The authors consider the female advantage in the total cost of education to be central to the reversal of the gender education gap. In particular, higher non-cognitive skills of females, a lower incidence of behavioral problems, and the smaller variance in the distribution of noncognitive skills render the female supply of college educated labor more elastic than that of males. The authors argue that the rising demand for college educated workers generated a larger supply response among females rather than males.The literature on the gender education gap outside of the U.S. is slim. Christofides et al.(2010) confirm much of the U.S. evidence for Canadian university attendance. They find that the university wage premium explains most of the changes over time with smaller roles for changes in tuition and real incomes. In contrast, Hubbard (2011) points out that the college wage premium for women does not exceed that of men, once unbiased estimations are used. 3We study determinants of the German gender education gap and its reversal for the birth cohorts 1965 through 1989. In contrast to most of the literature we consider education outcomes at different stages of the life cycle, i.e., secondary as well as tertiary education outcomes. 4 We describe recent developments and evaluate the relevance of potential determinants of the gender education gap and its reversal including a rich set of indicators of wage and employment premiums, shifts in occupation-specific ski...

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