@article{HenkeBosseLambrechtetal.2017, author = {Henke, Thorsten and Bosse, Stefanie and Lambrecht, Jennifer and J{\"a}ntsch, Christian and Jaeuthe, Jessica and Sp{\"o}rer, Nadine}, title = {Mittendrin oder nur dabei?}, series = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r p{\"a}dagogische Psychologie}, volume = {31}, journal = {Zeitschrift f{\"u}r p{\"a}dagogische Psychologie}, number = {4}, publisher = {Hogrefe}, address = {Bern}, issn = {1010-0652}, doi = {10.1024/1010-0652/a000196}, pages = {111 -- 123}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In der vorliegenden Studie wurde das Ausmaß der sozialen Partizipation von Grundsch{\"u}lerinnen und Grundsch{\"u}lern mit einem und ohne festgestelltem sonderp{\"a}dagogischem F{\"o}rderbedarf (SPF) untersucht. Insgesamt wurden N = 1436 Sch{\"u}ler der 2. und 3. Jahrgangsstufe mittels Frageb{\"o}gen zum peerbezogenen Klassenklima, zur Einsch{\"a}tzung der eigenen sozialen Integration, zum Gef{\"u}hl des Angenommen-Seins durch die Lehrkraft und zur Anzahl ihrer Freundschaften befragt. Mithilfe des Propensity Score Matching-Verfahrens wurden den Sch{\"u}lern mit einem festgestellten SPF in den Bereichen Lernen, emotionale und soziale Entwicklung oder Sprache (N = 91) basierend auf theoretisch und empirisch abgeleiteten Hintergrundvariablen statistische Zwillinge ohne SPF zugeordnet. Zu den Hintergrundvariablen z{\"a}hlten famili{\"a}re, leistungs- und verhaltensbezogene Merkmale. Der Vergleich der Sch{\"u}ler mit einem festgestellten SPF mit ihren statistischen Zwillingen ohne SPF lieferte keine Hinweise auf einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Status eines SPF und der sozialen Partizipation.}, language = {de} } @article{KretschmannVockLuedtkeetal.2019, author = {Kretschmann, Julia and Vock, Miriam and L{\"u}dtke, Oliver and Jansen, Malte and Gronostaj, Anna}, title = {Effects of grade retention on students' motivation: A longitudinal study over 3 years of secondary school}, series = {The journal of educational psychology}, volume = {111}, journal = {The journal of educational psychology}, number = {8}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0022-0663}, doi = {10.1037/edu0000353}, pages = {1432 -- 1446}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Despite the fact that grade retention is now seen as controversial in many quarters, it remains common practice in numerous countries. Previous research on the effects of grade retention on student development has, however, generated ambiguous results, particularly in terms of motivational outcomes. This ambiguity has been attributed in part to a lack of high-quality studies including a longitudinal design, a suitable comparison group, and adequate statistical control of preretention differences. Based on longitudinal data of N = 3,288 German students over 3 years of secondary school, we examined differences in their academic self-concept, scholarly interests, learning motivation, and achievement motivation between those being retained in the 6th grade (n = 61) and those of the same age being promoted annually. To account for confounding variables, we applied full propensity score matching on baseline measures of the dependent variables, as well as various other covariates that have been found to be associated with the risk of retention (e.g., cognitive ability, academic performance, and family background variables). Results reveal a steep decline in students' academic self-concept, interests, and learning motivation during the last months spent in the original class, just before retention. For those measures that were available, negative effects were still partly significant after 1 year, but had diminished 2 years after grade retention. Contrary to predictions suggested by the big-fish-little-pond effect, we found no positive effects of retention on students' academic self-concept.}, language = {en} } @article{BeckerNeumannTetzneretal.2014, author = {Becker, Michael and Neumann, Marko and Tetzner, Julia and B{\"o}se, Susanne and Knoppick, Henrike and Maaz, Kai and Baumert, J{\"u}rgen and Lehmann, Rainer}, title = {Development? Effects of the transition into academically selective schools}, series = {The journal of educational psychology}, volume = {106}, journal = {The journal of educational psychology}, number = {2}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0022-0663}, doi = {10.1037/a0035425}, pages = {555 -- 568}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The present study investigates school context effects on psychosocial characteristics (academic self-concept, peer relations, school satisfaction, and school anxiety) of high-achieving and gifted students. Students who did or did not make an early transition from elementary to secondary schools for high-achieving and gifted students in 5th grade in Berlin, Germany, are compared in their psychosocial development. The sample comprises 155 early-entry students who moved to an academically selective secondary school (Gymnasium) and 3,169 regular students who remained in elementary school until the end of 6th grade. Overall, a complex pattern of psychosocial development emerged for all students, with both positive and negative outcomes being observed. Specifically, the transition into academically selective learning environments seemed to come at some cost for psychosocial development. Propensity score matching analysis isolating the effects of selective school intake and the school context effect itself revealed negative contextual effects of early transition to Gymnasium on academic self-concept and school anxiety; additionally, the positive trend in peer relations observed among regular students was not discernible among early-entry students.}, language = {en} } @article{KretschmannVockLuedtke2014, author = {Kretschmann, Julia and Vock, Miriam and Luedtke, Oliver}, title = {Acceleration in elementary school: using propensity score matching to estimate the effects on academic achievement}, series = {The journal of educational psychology}, volume = {106}, journal = {The journal of educational psychology}, number = {4}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0022-0663}, doi = {10.1037/a0036631}, pages = {1080 -- 1095}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Using German data, we examined the effects of one specific type of acceleration-grade skipping-on academic performance. Prior research on the effects of acceleration has suffered from methodological restrictions, especially due to a lack of appropriate comparison groups and a priori measurements. For this reason, propensity score matching was applied in this analysis to minimize selection bias due to observed confounding variables. Various types of matching were attempted, and, in consideration of balancing the covariates, full matching was the final choice. We used data from the Berlin ELEMENT Study, analyzing, after matching, the information of 81 students who had skipped a grade over the course of elementary school and up to 1,668 nonaccelerated students who attended the same grade level as the accelerated students. Measurements took place 3 times between the 4th and 6th grades, including the assessment of reading, spelling, and mathematics performance. After matching, the results of between-group comparisons regarding performance indices showed no significant effects of skipping a grade, other than a small positive effect found on spelling performance. Theoretical implications and methodological limitations are discussed.}, language = {en} } @article{BeckerLuedtkeTrautweinetal.2012, author = {Becker, Michael and L{\"u}dtke, Oliver and Trautwein, Ulrich and K{\"o}ller, Olaf and Baumert, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {The differential effects of school racking on psychometric intelligence Do academic-track schools make students smarter?}, series = {The journal of educational psychology}, volume = {104}, journal = {The journal of educational psychology}, number = {3}, publisher = {American Psychological Association}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0022-0663}, doi = {10.1037/a0027608}, pages = {682 -- 699}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Prior research has shown that quantity of schooling affects the development of intelligence in childhood and adolescence. However, it is still debated whether other aspects of schooling-such as ability tracking or, more generally, school quality-can also influence intelligence. In this study, the authors analyzed intelligence gains in academic- and vocational-track schools in Germany, testing for differential effects of school quality (academic vs. vocational track) on psychometric intelligence. Longitudinal data were obtained from a sample of N = 1,038 Grade 7 and 10 students in 49 schools. A nonverbal reasoning test was used as an indicator of general psychometric intelligence, and relevant psychological and social background variables were included in the analyses. Propensity score matching was used to control for selection bias. Results showed a positive effect of attending the academic track.}, language = {en} } @article{CaliendoClementPapiesetal.2012, author = {Caliendo, Marco and Clement, Michel and Papies, Dominik and Scheel-Kopeinig, Sabine}, title = {The cost impact of spam filters measuring the effect of information system technologies in organizations}, series = {Information systems research}, volume = {23}, journal = {Information systems research}, number = {3}, publisher = {INFORMS}, address = {Hannover}, issn = {1047-7047}, doi = {10.1287/isre.1110.0396}, pages = {1068 -- 1080}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Dealing with spam is very costly, and many organizations have tried to reduce spam-related costs by installing spam filters. Relying on modern econometric methods to reduce the selection bias of installing a spam filter, we use a unique data setting implemented at a German university to measure the costs associated with spam and the costs savings of spam filters. Our methodological framework accounts for effect heterogeneity and can be easily used to estimate the effect of other IS technologies implemented in organizations. The majority of costs stem from the time that employees spend identifying and deleting spam, amounting to an average of approximately five minutes per employee per day. Our analysis, which accounts for selection bias, finds that the installation of a spam filter reduces these costs by roughly one third. Failing to account for the selection bias would lead to a result that suggests that installing a spam filter does not reduce working time losses. However, cost savings only occur when the spam burden is high, indicating that spam filters do not necessarily reduce costs and are therefore no universal remedy. The analysis further shows that spam filters alone are a countermeasure against spam that exhibits only limited effectiveness because they only reduce costs by one third.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Loersch2014, author = {Loersch, Christian}, title = {Business start-ups and the effect of coaching programs}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-72605}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XII, 282}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Entrepreneurship is known to be a main driver of economic growth. Hence, governments have an interest in supporting and promoting entrepreneurial activities. Start-up subsidies, which have been analyzed extensively, only aim at mitigating the lack of financial capital. However, some entrepreneurs also lack in human, social, and managerial capital. One way to address these shortcomings is by subsidizing coaching programs for entrepreneurs. However, theoretical and empirical evidence about business coaching and programs subsidizing coaching is scarce. This dissertation gives an extensive overview of coaching and is the first empirical study for Germany analyzing the effects of coaching programs on its participants. In the theoretical part of the dissertation the process of a business start-up is described and it is discussed how and in which stage of the company's evolvement coaching can influence entrepreneurial success. The concept of coaching is compared to other non-monetary types of support as training, mentoring, consulting, and counseling. Furthermore, national and international support programs are described. Most programs have either no or small positive effects. However, there is little quantitative evidence in the international literature. In the empirical part of the dissertation the effectiveness of coaching is shown by evaluating two German coaching programs, which support entrepreneurs via publicly subsidized coaching sessions. One of the programs aims at entrepreneurs who have been employed before becoming self-employed, whereas the other program is targeted at former unemployed entrepreneurs. The analysis is based on the evaluation of a quantitative and a qualitative dataset. The qualitative data are gathered by intensive one-on-one interviews with coaches and entrepreneurs. These data give a detailed insight about the coaching topics, duration, process, effectiveness, and the thoughts of coaches and entrepreneurs. The quantitative data include information about 2,936 German-based entrepreneurs. Using propensity score matching, the success of participants of the two coaching programs is compared with adequate groups of non-participants. In contrast to many other studies also personality traits are observed and controlled for in the matching process. The results show that only the program for former unemployed entrepreneurs has small positive effects. Participants have a larger survival probability in self-employment and a larger probability to hire employees than matched non-participants. In contrast, the program for former employed individuals has negative effects. Compared to individuals who did not participate in the coaching program, participants have a lower probability to stay in self-employment, lower earned net income, lower number of employees and lower life satisfaction. There are several reasons for these differing results of the two programs. First, former unemployed individuals have more basic coaching needs than former employed individuals. Coaches can satisfy these basic coaching needs, whereas former employed individuals have more complex business problems, which are not very easy to be solved by a coaching intervention. Second, the analysis reveals that former employed individuals are very successful in general. It is easier to increase the success of former unemployed individuals as they have a lower base level of success than former employed individuals. An effect heterogeneity analysis shows that coaching effectiveness differs by region. Coaching for previously unemployed entrepreneurs is especially useful in regions with bad labor market conditions. In summary, in line with previous literature, it is found that coaching has little effects on the success of entrepreneurs. The previous employment status, the characteristics of the entrepreneur and the regional labor market conditions play a crucial role in the effectiveness of coaching. In conclusion, coaching needs to be well tailored to the individual and applied thoroughly. Therefore, governments should design and provide coaching programs only after due consideration.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schmidl2014, author = {Schmidl, Ricarda}, title = {Empirical essays on job search behavior, active labor market policies, and propensity score balancing methods}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-71145}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2014}, abstract = {In Chapter 1 of the dissertation, the role of social networks is analyzed as an important determinant in the search behavior of the unemployed. Based on the hypothesis that the unemployed generate information on vacancies through their social network, search theory predicts that individuals with large social networks should experience an increased productivity of informal search, and reduce their search in formal channels. Due to the higher productivity of search, unemployed with a larger network are also expected to have a higher reservation wage than unemployed with a small network. The model-theoretic predictions are tested and confirmed empirically. It is found that the search behavior of unemployed is significantly affected by the presence of social contacts, with larger networks implying a stronger substitution away from formal search channels towards informal channels. The substitution is particularly pronounced for passive formal search methods, i.e., search methods that generate rather non-specific types of job offer information at low relative cost. We also find small but significant positive effects of an increase of the network size on the reservation wage. These results have important implications on the analysis of the job search monitoring or counseling measures that are usually targeted at formal search only. Chapter 2 of the dissertation addresses the labor market effects of vacancy information during the early stages of unemployment. The outcomes considered are the speed of exit from unemployment, the effects on the quality of employment and the short-and medium-term effects on active labor market program (ALMP) participation. It is found that vacancy information significantly increases the speed of entry into employment; at the same time the probability to participate in ALMP is significantly reduced. Whereas the long-term reduction in the ALMP arises in consequence of the earlier exit from unemployment, we also observe a short-run decrease for some labor market groups which suggest that caseworker use high and low intensity activation measures interchangeably which is clearly questionable from an efficiency point of view. For unemployed who find a job through vacancy information we observe a small negative effect on the weekly number of hours worked. In Chapter 3, the long-term effects of participation in ALMP are assessed for unemployed youth under 25 years of age. Complementary to the analysis in Chapter 2, the effects of participation in time- and cost-intensive measures of active labor market policies are examined. In particular we study the effects of job creation schemes, wage subsidies, short-and long-term training measures and measures to promote the participation in vocational training. The outcome variables of interest are the probability to be in regular employment, and participation in further education during the 60 months following program entry. The analysis shows that all programs, except job creation schemes have positive and long-term effects on the employment probability of youth. In the short-run only short-term training measures generate positive effects, as long-term training programs and wage subsidies exhibit significant locking-in'' effects. Measures to promote vocational training are found to increase the probability of attending education and training significantly, whereas all other programs have either no or a negative effect on training participation. Effect heterogeneity with respect to the pre-treatment level education shows that young people with higher pre-treatment educational levels benefit more from participation most programs. However, for longer-term wage subsidies we also find strong positive effects for young people with low initial education levels. The relative benefit of training measures is higher in West than in East Germany. In the evaluation studies of Chapters 2 and 3 semi-parametric balancing methods of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) are used to eliminate the effects of counfounding factors that influence both the treatment participation as well as the outcome variable of interest, and to establish a causal relation between program participation and outcome differences. While PSM and IPW are intuitive and methodologically attractive as they do not require parametric assumptions, the practical implementation may become quite challenging due to their sensitivity to various data features. Given the importance of these methods in the evaluation literature, and the vast number of recent methodological contributions in this field, Chapter 4 aims to reduce the knowledge gap between the methodological and applied literature by summarizing new findings of the empirical and statistical literature and practical guidelines for future applied research. In contrast to previous publications this study does not only focus on the estimation of causal effects, but stresses that the balancing challenge can and should be discussed independent of question of causal identification of treatment effects on most empirical applications. Following a brief outline of the practical implementation steps required for PSM and IPW, these steps are presented in detail chronologically, outlining practical advice for each step. Subsequently, the topics of effect estimation, inference, sensitivity analysis and the combination with parametric estimation methods are discussed. Finally, new extensions of the methodology and avenues for future research are presented.}, language = {en} }