Tertiary Education Expansion and Regional Firm Development

Tobias Schlegel, Curdin Pfister and Uschi Backes-Gellner

No 166, Economics of Education Working Paper Series from University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW)

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of a tertiary education expansion on regional firm development, as measured by average profits per firm. We exploit the quasi-random establishment of universities of applied sciences (UASs)--bachelor's degree-granting three-year colleges teaching and conducting applied research--to construct treatment and control groups and to apply both a difference-in-differences model and an event study design. We find that, after the establishment of new UASs in Switzerland, average profits per firm in the treated municipalities increase by 19.6% more than in the control group. This increase corresponds roughly to an additional annual growth in average profits per firm in the treatment group of 0.7%. The effects start shortly after the establishment of UASs but also persist over a period of up to 10 years.

Keywords: Higher Education and Research Institution; Innovation; Regional Firm Development; Administrative Tax Data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I26 O18 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 81 pages
Date: 2020-03, Revised 2022-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-geo, nep-ino, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Journal Article: Tertiary education expansion and regional firm development (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iso:educat:0166

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