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Military service is an important vehicle through which young Americans invest in their human capital. Using internal military data, we show that county-level exposure to U.S. combat casualties during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars decreased the supply of new soldiers in that county, and changed the observable characteristics of soldiers who enlisted in that county. Using data from the American Community Survey, we find that exposure to casualties at a young age (17-18) increases the probability of dropping out from high school, and decreases the probability of attaining a college degree. The results suggest that increasing access to higher education and skill training positively impacts the human capital investments of marginal students.

This paper reports on the results of the review of the two major scholarship programs of TESDA, namely: (a) the Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP); and (b) the Private Education Student Financial Assistance (PESFA). The two scholarship programs account for 73 percent of the number of scholars among the TVET graduates in 2007 (TESDA 2010a). The paper was commissioned by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to be an input to the current effort of the Philippine government to improve the policy-basis and result orientation of the budgeting process.The primary objectives of the study are to determine (a) the internal efficiency (through the drop-out rate); and (b) the external efficiency (through the rate of employment) of scholars of the TESDA technical-vocational scholarship programs. Given the limited time and resources, the study had to rely on data generated by TESDA. In particular, it did a re-analysis of the 2008 Impact Evaluation Study (IES) survey data to generate empirical evidence on the various issues of the study. It also used data from reports regularly submitted by the technical-vocational institutions (TVIs) to TESDA for one region - the National Capital Region (NCR). This data set is the primary source of official TVET statistics. Administrative data from the implementing units of the scholarship programs were also used. In addition to these data sets, three separate focused group discussions (FGDs) involving relevant decisionmakers were also done. One was with national TESDA officials, another with the regional TESDA officials, and third was with the officials of the TVIs and TVI employers.The assessment shows that the scholarship programs are performing well in terms of internal efficiency as indicated by the high graduation rates particularly in recent years. They are not performing well though in terms of external efficiency as indicated by low employment rate. It is important to emphasize, however, that compared to general TVET graduates, the scholars, particularly PESFA scholars, but not TWSP scholars, are performing slightly better compared to nonscholars in terms of employment. It appears that the low external efficiency performance is a general TVET sector problem and not a problem specific to the scholarship programs.

High-achieving, low-income students attend selective colleges at far lower rates than upper-income students with similar achievement. Behavioral biases, intensified by complexity and uncertainty in the admissions and aid process, may explain this gap. In a large-scale experiment we test an early commitment of free tuition at a flagship university. The intervention did not increase aid: rather, students were guaranteed before application the same grant aid that they would qualify for in expectation if admitted. The offer substantially increased application (68 percent versus 26 percent) and enrollment rates (27 percent versus 12 percent). The results suggest that uncertainty, present bias, and loss aversion loom large in students' college decisions. (JEL I22, I23, I24, D31, I28)

We explore the relationship between willingness to take financial risk and the probability of taking out a loan for educational purposes as well as the influence of risk attitudes on the size of the loan using data drawn from the U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances. The findings suggest a positive relationship between individuals' willingness to take financial risk and the probability of taking out a loan for educational purposes. Similarly, individuals' willingness to take financial risk appears to have an important relationship with the size of the educational loan. The findings suggest that non‐white individuals and females are less likely to finance education through loans which could potentially increase inequalities in education and income if such individuals are deterred from investing in human capital. (JEL I22, I23)

The current system for financing cross-border students, based on the host country, is neither sustainable nor efficient: it produces too little cross-border education. On that background we explore two alternative solutions. The first one substitutes to the financing by the host country, a financing by the country of origin, through vouchers that the student may use at home or abroad provided it is in a recognized institution. The second one, potentially an efficient design, combines that substitution with a reimbursement of education costs through interjurisdictional transfers or the change of vouchers into contingent loans. At the end we also explore the case of differentiated tuition fees, a solution however inconsistent with present rules of the European Union. JEL: I22, I23, H73, H77

The current system for financing cross-border students, based on the host country, is neither sustainable nor efficient: it produces too little cross-border education. On that background we explore two alternative solutions. The first one substitutes to the financing by the host country, a financing by the country of origin, through vouchers that the student may use at home or abroad provided it is in a recognized institution. The second one, potentially an efficient design, combines that substitution with a reimbursement of education costs through interjurisdictional transfers or the change of vouchers into contingent loans. At the end we also explore the case of differentiated tuition fees, a solution however inconsistent with present rules of the European Union. JEL: I22, I23, H73, H77

This paper analyses theoretically and quantitatively the effect that different higher education funding policies have on welfare (on aggregate and at the individual level) and wealth inequality. A heterogeneous agent model in continuous time, which has uninsurable income risk and endogenous educational choice is used to evaluate five different higher education financing schemes. Educational investments can be self financed, supported by government guaranteed student loans - that may come with or without income contingent support - or be covered by the public sector. When educational costs are small, differences in outcomes amongst systems are negligible. On the other hand, when these costs rise to realistic levels we see that there can be large gains in welfare and significant drops in inequality by moving to a system with more public sector support. This support can come in the form of tuition subsidies and/or income contingent student loans. However, as the cost of education and the share of debtors in society gets larger, it is preferable to increase public support in the form of tuition subsidies. The reason is that there is a pecuniary externality of debt that gets magnified when student loans become excessive. While I identify large steady state welfare gains from more public sector financing, I show that the transition costs can be large enough to justify the status quo.

Ob finanzielle Bildung in der Schule als Verbraucherbildung, ökonomische Bildung oder sozioökonomisch-politische Bildung konzipiert wird, ist für die Identifikation der relevanten Ziele und Inhalte bedeutsam. Der Beitrag diskutiert Nutzen und Grenzen solcher unterschiedlichen Verortungen als Ausgangsbasis für eine Curriculumanalyse der Sekundarstufe I im deutschen Schulwesen. Dabei werden zunächst die curricularen, auf die ökonomische Bildung bezogenen, von der finanziellen Bildung kaum zu trennenden Ziele ermittelt. Zudem werden die Verankerung des Kerns eines gegenwarts- und zukunftsbezogenen persönlichen Finanzmanagements identifiziert und darauf bezogene Kompetenzerwartungen zugeordnet. Abschließend wird dargelegt, welchen Herausforderungen eine finanzielle Bildung gerecht werden muss, die beansprucht, ausgewogen zu sein. ; Whether financial education is conceived as consumer education, economic education or socioeconomic-political education is important for the identification of the relevant goals andcontent. The paper discusses the benefits and limitations of such different locations as a starting point for a curriculum analysis of lower secondary education in the German education system. The curriculum-based economic educationrelated goals, which are scarcely distinguishable from financial education and the anchoring of the core of present-day and future-oriented personal financial management will be identified and the related competence expectations shown. Finally, it outlines the challenges of financial education that demands balance.

This paper empirically analyzes the effects of immigration on the schooling decisions of natives. We employ household-level data for Spain for years 2000-2012, a period characterized by a large immigration wave and a severe recession. Our estimates reveal that Spanish households responded to immigration by increasing their educational expenditures. This result was mainly driven by an important native flight from tuition-free schools toward private ones. We also find strong evidence of cream-skimming: only the more educated native households switched to private schools in response to immigration. Finally, our simulations suggest that the reduction in household income due to the Great Recession mitigated the flight toward private schools triggered by immigration but was not enough to offset it. We argue that these findings are driven by several factors: school assignment rules, concerns over negative peer effects, and political economy forces.

This paper reviews the recent literature on the effects of immigration on the public education of the host country, emphasizing the political economy implications. In particular, we are interested on what happens to enrollment in public schools and the quality of education in these schools. Our review of the literature, which includes both quantitative and empirical studies, suggests the following conclusions. First, immigration has triggered native flight toward private schools in a wide variety of contexts. Some studies also find that the households that switch to private schools tend to be those with higher socio-economic status. Secondly, because of these changes in school choices, one consequence of large-scale immigration is that it appears to undermine the political support for public education, resulting in a deterioration in the funding and quality of public schools that seems to affect negatively the educational outcomes of disadvantaged native students. We offer some suggestions for policies that might help mitigate the negative consequences of immigration outlined above so that host countries can maximize the overall economic benefits of immigration.

This paper analyzes the effects of immigration on the education system of the receiving country from a political economy perspective. Specifically, we extend the school-choice model by Epple and Romano (1996b) and Coen-Pirani (2011) by incorporating a subsidy to private schools, a distinguishing feature of Spain's education system. We calibrate the model to match key moments of Spain's economy and education system in year 2008, the end of a large episode of immigration. By means of simulations we evaluate the effects of immigration on the size and quality of Spain's public education. Our main findings are as follows. First, immigration will lead to a small increase in the size of public education in terms of enrollment. However, this increase in size masks an important composition effect. There is a large native flight away from public schools that is offset by the large inflow of immigrant children into public schools. Secondly, we predict a large reduction in the quality of public education, an 11 percent reduction in public spending per student. Our analysis suggests that these effects will unfold unevenly over time. While the changes in the size (and student composition) of public schools will take place promptly upon arrival of the immigrants, the reduction in funding will be more gradual and only fully take place once the immigrant population has been enfranchised. We also provide estimates separately for Spain's regions, which enjoy some autonomy in their education policies and experienced widely different levels of immigration.

The number of tertiary students enrolled outside their home country has almost doubled in the last decade. In higher education systems that are partly tax-funded, a country's labor force might not be willing to subsidize the education of foreign students who can be expected to work abroad after graduation with high probability. This paper analyzes whether and how student mobility affects the governmental decision about the financial regime of higher education based on aggregated data of 22 OECD countries for the period 2000 to 2010. We find a small but significant positive correlation. Supported by robustness checks, this points into the direction that the larger the share of foreign students among all students in a country, the more a country shifts to private-based funding. We also study other possible determinants. Among others we find that the private financing share of higher education funding depends on a country's tax revenue, its GDP and the share of students enrolled in private universities.

The paper focuses on Romanian experiences regarding the financial strategies used by managers from pre-university education. In Romania, local public authorities provide funds to pre-university institutions. Given the sharp economic recession and the austerity measures imposed by Romanian government, the public executives had to find solutions in collecting additional funds and in spending wisely the existing financial resources. Therefore, our paper aims at examining several practices regarding: (i) employees' wages, (ii) EU funds implementing, (iii) self-financing activities, (iv) public procurement and (v) balancing strategies for the budgets, which could improve the financial management of public institutions. This also can contribute to the increase in the efficiency of spending at micro-level within public administration.

In January 2005 the German Supreme Court permitted the state governments to chargetuition fees. By exploiting the natural experiment, we examine how government ideologyinfluenced the introduction of tuition fees. The results show that rightwing governmentswere active in introducing tuition fees. By contrast, leftwing governments strictlydenied tuition fees. This pattern shows clear political alternatives in education policyacross the German states: the political left classifies tuition fees as socially unjust; thepolitical right believes that tuition fees are incentive compatible. By the end of 2014,however, there will be no tuition fees anymore: the political left won four state electionsand abolished tuition fees. In Bavaria the rightwing government also decided to abolishtuition fees because it feared to become elected out of office by adhering to tuition fees.Electoral motives thus explain convergence in tuition fee policy.

In January 2005 the German Supreme Court permitted the state governments to charge tuition fees. By exploiting the natural experiment, we examine how government ideology influenced the introduction of tuition fees. The results show that rightwing governments were active in introducing tuition fees. By contrast, leftwing governments strictly denied tuition fees. This pattern shows clear political alternatives in education policy across the German states: the political left classifies tuition fees as socially unjust; the political right believes that tuition fees are incentive compatible. By the end of 2014, however, there will be no tuition fees anymore: the political left won four state elections and abolished tuition fees. In Bavaria the rightwing government also decided to abolish tuition fees because it feared to become elected out of office by adhering to tuition fees. Electoral motives thus explain convergence in tuition fee policy.