Tuition Fees and Educational Attainment
70 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2022
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Tuition Fees and Educational Attainment
Tuition Fees and Educational Attainment
Date Written: March 2022
Abstract
Following a landmark court ruling in 2005, more than half of Germany’s universities started charging tuition fees, which were subsequently abolished until 2015. We exploit the unusual lack of grandfathering in these policies to show that fees increase study effort and degree completion among incumbent 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.
Keywords: tuition fees, higher education
JEL Classification: I23,I22,I28
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation