Can information provision increase postgraduate enrollment of students with low socioeconomic background?

信息提供能否增加社会经济背景较低的学生的研究生入学率？

• 批准号: 366556429
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. C. Katharina Spieß
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung (BIB)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/366556429?language=en
• 关键词: information; provision; increase; postgraduate; enrollment

The choice to study at university is influenced by the socio-economic status (SES) background of students, holding constant ability and other observable factors. In Germany, there is a gap of 21 percentage points based on SES background of students regarding the decision to study for a Bachelors degree. This gap widens by another 11 to 17 percentage points at the transition from undergraduate (Bachelors) to postgraduate (Masters) studies. The exact size of the gap remains debated and might partly be explained by differences between low- and high-SES background students, which are usually unobserved to the researcher. Nevertheless, increasing the share of low-SES background students at university is an important objective of German higher education policy (and worldwide). This study will implement and evaluate a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to study how the provision of information about costs and benefits of postgraduate studies affect study-decisions of low-SES background students. The focus on postgraduate studies is warranted for three reasons. First, the existing literature almost exclusively studies the decision to enroll in undergraduate studies. Second, almost every student in the post-Bologna world has to make this decision of whether to pursue a Masters degree. Finally, very recent research on college wage returns that splits the college-group into undergraduate and postgraduate degrees documents that wage returns to postgraduate studies are particularly high. Socio-economic differences in decisions to seek Masters degrees will, therefore, directly affect societal income inequalities. This project will examine if information provision about the costs and future returns of postgraduate studies affects intentions and enrollment, in particular for low-SES background students.We will implement a RCT because this is the gold standard in applied research. The reasons to believe, a priori, that the provision of information could make a difference, especially for low-SES background students, emerge both from an extended human capital approach as well as from behavioral economic models of individual behavior. The focus of this project is on providing the reduced form effect of information provision on postgraduate study intentions and enrolment of low-SES background students. Precisely, to generate a causal estimate that is beyond any doubt, we chose to deliver the treatment as RCT. In addition, we will also estimate results against a different (and much larger) control group that we draw from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) through a matching procedure. This allows us to partially address potential weaknesses of RCTs with respect to external validity in our setting, while maintaining the advantages of a RCTs with respect to internal validity.The project will be hosted at DIW Belin, which has access to a population of low-SES undergraduate students who will decide in 2017 whether or not to pursue postgraduate studies.

大学学习的选择受到学生的社会经济地位（SES）背景、保持不变的能力和其他可观察因素的影响。在德国，根据学生的 SES 背景，在决定攻读学士学位方面存在 21 个百分点的差距。从本科（学士）到研究生（硕士）学习的过渡过程中，这一差距又扩大了 11 至 17 个百分点。差距的确切大小仍然存在争议，部分原因可能是低SES背景学生和高SES背景学生之间的差异，而研究人员通常无法观察到这种差异。尽管如此，增加大学中低社会经济背景学生的比例是德国（乃至全世界）高等教育政策的一个重要目标。本研究将实施并评估一项随机对照试验（RCT），以研究提供有关研究生学习成本和收益的信息如何影响低社会经济地位背景学生的学习决策。对研究生学习的关注是有必要的，原因有三个。首先，现有文献几乎专门研究入读本科课程的决定。其次，后博洛尼亚世界的几乎每个学生都必须做出是否攻读硕士学位的决定。最后，最近关于大学工资回报的研究将大学群体分为本科和研究生学位，文件表明研究生的工资回报特别高。因此，寻求硕士学位的社会经济差异将直接影响社会收入不平等。该项目将检查有关研究生学习的成本和未来回报的信息是否会影响意向和入学，特别是对于低社会经济地位背景的学生。我们将实施随机对照试验，因为这是应用研究的黄金标准。我们有理由相信，提供信息可以产生影响，特别是对于低社会经济地位背景的学生来说，这既来自于扩展的人力资本方法，也来自于个人行为的行为经济模型。该项目的重点是减少信息提供对研究生学习意向和低社会经济地位背景学生入学的影响。准确地说，为了产生毫无疑问的因果估计，我们选择以随机对照试验的形式提供治疗。此外，我们还将通过匹配程序从国家教育小组研究 (NEPS) 中抽取不同的（且规模大得多）对照组来估计结果。这使我们能够部分解决随机对照试验在我们的环境中在外部效度方面的潜在弱点，同时保持随机对照试验在内部效度方面的优势。该项目将在 DIW Belin 举办，该项目可以接触到一群低社会经济地位的本科生，他们将在 2017 年决定是否继续攻读研究生。