TY  - JOUR
A1  - Helbig, Marcel
A1  - Baier, Tina
A1  - Kroth, Anna
T1  - The Effect of Tuition Fees on Enrollment in Higher Education in Germany.
 Evidence from a Natural Experiment
JF  - ZEITSCHRIFT FUR SOZIOLOGIE
N2  - In this paper we estimate the effect of tuition fees on the intentions of high school graduates in Germany to enroll in higher education. Based on representative survey data collected by the HIS institute between 2002 and 2008, we are able to analyze the effect of tuition fees using a quasi-experimental design. We take advantage of the variation between the German federal states in the introduction of tuition fees to examine the impact of tuition fees and employ a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. We do not find empirical evidence that tuition fees lower the intentions to enroll in higher education among high school graduates. This holds true for both the whole sample and for different subgroups, such as women or high school graduates with no family background of higher education.
KW  - Social Inequality
KW  - Educational Inequality
KW  - Tuition Fees
KW  - Transition to Higher Education
KW  - Natural Experiment
KW  - Difference-in-Differences
KW  - Causal Inference
KW  - HIS School Leaver Survey
Y1  - 2012
SN  - 0340-1804
VL  - 41
IS  - 3
SP  - 227
EP  - 246
PB  - LUCIUS LUCIUS VERLAG MBH
CY  - STUTTGART
ER  - 
TY  - RPRT
A1  - Caliendo, Marco
A1  - Tübbicke, Stefan
T1  - Design and Effectiveness of Start-Up Subsidies
BT  - Evidence from a Policy Reform in Germany
T2  - CEPA Discussion Papers
N2  - While a growing body of literature finds positive impacts of Start-Up Subsidies (SUS) on labor market outcomes of participants, little is known about how the design of these programs shapes their effectiveness and hence how to improve policy. As experimental variation in program design is unavailable, we exploit the 2011 reform of the current German SUS program for the unemployed which strengthened case-workers’ discretionary power, increased entry requirements and reduced monetary support. We estimate the impact of the reform on the program’s effectiveness using samples of participants and non-participants from before and after the reform. To control for time-constant unobserved heterogeneity as well as differential selection patterns based on observable characteristics over time, we combine Difference-in-Differences with inverse probability weighting using covariate balancing propensity scores. Holding participants’ observed characteristics as well as macroeconomic conditions constant, the results suggest that the reform was successful in raising employment effects on average. As these findings may be contaminated by changes in selection patterns based on unobserved characteristics, we assess our results using simulation-based sensitivity analyses and find that our estimates are highly robust to changes in unobserved characteristics. Hence, the reform most likely had a positive impact on the effectiveness of the program, suggesting that increasing entry requirements and reducing support in-creased the program’s impacts while reducing the cost per participant.
T3  - CEPA Discussion Papers - 30 
KW  - Start-Up Subsidies
KW  - Institutions
KW  - Policy Reform
KW  - Difference-in-Differences
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-500056
SN  - 2628-653X
IS  - 30
ER  -