The Consequences of Central Examinations on Educational Quality Standards and Labour Market Outcomes

Autor/inn/en	Backes-Gellner, Uschi; Veen, Stephan
Titel	The Consequences of Central Examinations on Educational Quality Standards and Labour Market Outcomes
Quelle	In: Oxford Review of Education, 34 (2008) 5, S.569-588 (20 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0305-4985
Schlagwörter	Wages; Quasiexperimental Design; Educational Objectives; Outcomes of Education; Labor Market; Tests; Educational Quality; Foreign Countries; Education Work Relationship; Standards; School Choice; Germany + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Wage; Löhne; Educational objective; Bildungsziel; Erziehungsziel; Lernleistung; Schulerfolg; Labour market; Arbeitsmarkt; Examination; Prüfung; Examen; Quality of education; Bildungsqualität; Ausland; Standard; Choice of school; Schulwahl; Deutschland
Abstract	Central examinations--that is, centrally set and marked exams--have often been discussed as an instrument for improving educational outcomes. The aim of our study was to determine whether central exams have an impact not only on educational but also on labour market outcomes. We explain school quality choice through the incentives created by central exams vs. non-central exams and model the resulting students' schooling decisions and employers' wage decisions. We use the German "Abitur" and the variation among the German federal states with respect to central exams as a quasi-experimental design for alternative educational quality regimes. As hypothesised from our theoretical analysis, the percentage of Abitur holders increases more quickly in quality regimes without central exams than with central exams. However, as theoretically expected in the case of a pooled labour market, the wage premium decreases not only for "Abitur"-holders without central exams but also for all "Abitur"-holders. This is due to the quality deterioration in the states without central exams which spills over into a pooled labour market. Thus, graduates from states with central exams and higher educational standards "pay" for the quality deterioration of educational standards in states without central exams. (Contains 2 figures and 15 notes.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10