Enrollment and success in higher education. Structural estimation and simulation evidence for Germany.

Autor/in	Glocker, Daniela
Titel	Enrollment and success in higher education. Structural estimation and simulation evidence for Germany.
Quelle	(2010), V, 148 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (3) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2010.
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monographie
URN	urn:nbn:de:kobv:188-fudissthesis000000019846-3
Schlagwörter	Risikobereitschaft; Einkommen; Hochschulbildung; Studium; Universität; Dissertation; Studiendauer; Studienförderung; Finanzielle Beihilfe
Abstract	This thesis analyzes the determinants of university enrollment and successful completion of university studies. The main questions analyzed are: What are the enrollment effects of different tuition fee schemes? How does taxation of future earnings affect enrollment? What is the impact of student aid on the success of studies? To answer the first two questions, I develop a structural university enrollment model, explicitly accounting for expectations about future earnings and the associated risk. A high-school graduate enters university studies if expected lifetime utility from this choice is greater than from other alternatives. Ex-ante expectation and variance of after-tax income for German high-school graduates are estimated, accounting for non-random selection into education and employment. The results indicate that higher expected returns to an academic education increase, and higher uncertainty decreases the probability of university enrollment. Based on these results I conduct simulations to evaluate-ex ante-different funding and financing policies. First, the impact of recently introduced tuition and funding schemes on enrollment is evaluated. I then extend the analysis to three different financing schemes: a pure mortgage loan, income-contingent loans and graduate taxes, also varying the levels of fees. Second I evaluate the effect on the expected distribution of earnings in each of the scenarios. My findings suggest that the introduction/the increase of student fees reduces university enrollment. This effect can be attenuated by incorporating a financing scheme where repayment conditions account for future income uncertainty, i.e. income-contingent loans. Since future earnings are a major determinant in the university enrollment decision and taxation changes expectations about the net-return to education, I evaluate the effect of different taxation schemes on university enrollment. I analyze the effects of the Tax Reduction Act of 2000, as well as two hypothetical revenue neutral flat-rate tax scenarios. Here I find that tax schemes with a lower tax rate at the relevant income segment increase university enrollment. The income effect thus dominates the insurance effect (in form of a reduced variance in net income) in all scenarios. The last question focuses on the success of study measured in two dimensions: the duration of study and the probability of actually graduating with a degree. Again I consider variation in financing, here changes in student aid. I estimate a discrete-time duration model allowing for competing risks to account for different exit states (graduation and dropout). There are three main results: 1) student aid recipients finish faster than comparable students who are supported by the same amount of parental/private transfers only. 2) although higher financial aid does on average not affect the duration of study, this effect is (3) dominated by an increased probability of actually finishing university successfully. (Orig.).
Erfasst von	Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main
Update	2011/3