Essays in Empirical Development and Education Economics (Dissertation)

Abstract

The fourth essay (co-authored by Marten von Werder) analyzes the causal effects of tracking, the practice of grouping students by ability, on educational outcomes and the intergenerational transmission of education. While proponents of tracking argue that the practice increases efficiency in educational production, opponents point out that tracking potentially aggravates initial differences between students and that miss-classification is often rife. We find that de-tracking in Germany during the 1970s had no effect on educational outcomes on average. We document a sizeable effect of this reform on the inter-generational transmission of education for males yet not for females. As a consequence of the reform, the gap in years of education between males with educated and those with uneducated parents decreased by about 1.2 years, roughly 50 percent of the initial gap. While years of education increased by about 0.6 years for male students with uneducated benefits, they decreased by about the same amount for male students with educated parents. These results are robust to various empirical specifications and alternative samples.