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Tuition Fees and Educational Attainment

Bietenbeck, Jan LU ; Leibing, Andreas ; Marcus, Jan and Weinhardt, Felix (2023) In European Economic Review 154.
Abstract
Following a landmark court ruling in 2005, more than half of Germany's universities started charging tuition fees, which were later abolished in a staggered manner. We exploit the fact that even students who were already enrolled had to start paying fees. We show that fees increase study effort and degree completion among these students. However, fees also decrease first-time university enrollment among high school graduates. Combining this enrollment impact with the effect on completion, we find that fees around the zero-price margin have only little effect on overall educational attainment. We conclude by discussing policies targeting the separate effect margins of fees and caution against a general abolition.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
European Economic Review
volume
154
article number
104431
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85151027642
ISSN
1873-572X
DOI
10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104431
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d52d2ac9-c82e-4f28-bb66-72b1eb9a27a2
date added to LUP
2023-03-10 07:53:38
date last changed
2023-05-16 16:02:51
@article{d52d2ac9-c82e-4f28-bb66-72b1eb9a27a2,
  abstract     = {{Following a landmark court ruling in 2005, more than half of Germany's universities started charging tuition fees, which were later abolished in a staggered manner. We exploit the fact that even students who were already enrolled had to start paying fees. We show that fees increase study effort and degree completion among these students. However, fees also decrease first-time university enrollment among high school graduates. Combining this enrollment impact with the effect on completion, we find that fees around the zero-price margin have only little effect on overall educational attainment. We conclude by discussing policies targeting the separate effect margins of fees and caution against a general abolition.}},
  author       = {{Bietenbeck, Jan and Leibing, Andreas and Marcus, Jan and Weinhardt, Felix}},
  issn         = {{1873-572X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{European Economic Review}},
  title        = {{Tuition Fees and Educational Attainment}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104431}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104431}},
  volume       = {{154}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}