Do tuition fees affect enrollment behavior? Evidence from a ‘natural experiment’ in Germany

Malte Hübner

Economics of Education Review, 2012, vol. 31, issue 6, 949-960

Abstract: This paper uses the introduction of tuition fees in seven of the sixteen German states in 2007 as a natural experiment to identify the effects of tuition prices on enrollment probabilities. Based on information on enrollment decisions of the entire population of high-school graduates between 2002 and 2008, I find a negative effect of tuition fees on enrollment behavior. The effect is larger than in existing studies for European countries, but of a similar magnitude as effects identified with U.S. data. A potential spill-over effect of the policy intervention to the comparison group is accounted for by using the estimation results to calibrate a structural model of the enrollment decision.

Keywords: Tuition fees; Demand for higher education; Enrollment; Treatment effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H75 I22 I28 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (60)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:6:p:949-960

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.06.006

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