Postsecondary and labour market outcomes of vocational vs. general higher track secondary pupils

Abstract

This paper estimates the effects of attending a vocational higher track secondary (HTS) school compared to a general HTS school. It considers the case of Germany, where both schools provide access to tertiary education. Identification uses selection-on-observables and instrumental variables strategies. Attending a vocational HTS school has no effect on HTS graduation and a small negative effect on planned university attendance. There are positive effects on career planning, i.e. whether the pupil has a clear plan where to apply after school. After controlling for selection, vocational HTS pupils face higher earnings at early ages, with little differences at later ages. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

School-to-work transition Returns to education career planning Vocational vs. academic education

Index Keywords

higher education student Germany returns to education labor market labor supply secondary education

Author Affiliations

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany, Federal Statistical Office, Wiesbaden, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG

Grant: 692/11-1

Funding text 1: I thank Bernd Fitzenberger, Alexandra Spitz-Oener and seminar participants at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DIW Berlin, IAB Nuremberg, University of Bamberg, and EUI Florence for helpful comments. The paper was written while the author was working at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Financial support by the DFG through the project ‘Education and Vocational Training, Transitions and Labor Market Outcomes’ (No. Fi 692/11-1) is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany.; Funding text 2: This paper uses data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS. Starting Cohort Grade 9, doi:10.5157/NEPS:SC4:9.0.0. From 2008 to 2013, NEPS data was collected as part of the Framework Program for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As of 2014, NEPS is carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg in cooperation with a nationwide network.

Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF

Funding text 1: I thank Bernd Fitzenberger, Alexandra Spitz-Oener and seminar participants at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, DIW Berlin, IAB Nuremberg, University of Bamberg, and EUI Florence for helpful comments. The paper was written while the author was working at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Financial support by the DFG through the project ‘Education and Vocational Training, Transitions and Labor Market Outcomes’ (No. Fi 692/11-1) is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Statistical Office of Germany.; Funding text 2: This paper uses data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS. Starting Cohort Grade 9, doi:10.5157/NEPS:SC4:9.0.0. From 2008 to 2013, NEPS data was collected as part of the Framework Program for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). As of 2014, NEPS is carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) at the University of Bamberg in cooperation with a nationwide network.

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Postsecondary and labour market outcomes of vocational vs. general higher track secondary pupils

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