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February 18, 2015

Cluster-Seminar Public Finances and Living Conditions

Preference for College and Educational Inequality: Do Students Lack Information - Evidence from a Field Experiment

Date

February 18, 2015
12:30 - 13:30

Location

Eleanor-Dulles-Raum
DIW Berlin im Quartier 110
Room 5.2.010
Mohrenstraße 58
10117 Berlin

Speakers

Vaishali Zambre

In Germany students from a non-academic family background are still underrepresented in universities. Even though access to higher education has increased, students from non-academic family backgrounds are still twenty percentage points less likely to enroll in university compared to their peers from academic backgrounds. Since in Germany no tuition fees need to be paid, financial constraints are less likely to explain this educational inequality. Recent evidence suggests that students’ choice against university education is based on incomplete information. Using data from a randomized controlled trial this paper examines whether improving the level of information reduces differences in students’ intention to study. For students from non-academic family backgrounds we find that provision of information increased their preference for university education. Our results suggest that providing information may be a suitable policy tool to reduce educational inequality at the transition to tertiary education.

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