Long-Lasting Effects of Socialist Education

Paolo Masella and Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln
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Paolo Masella: Mannheim University
Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln: Goethe University Frankfurt /Main

No 1194, 2012 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: Political regimes influence the contents of teaching and the criteria used to select and evaluate students. We study the impact of a socialist education on the likelihood of obtaining a college degree, as well as on several labor market outcomes, by exploiting the reorganization of the school system in East Germany after reunification. Our identification strategy relies on the following consideration: within the same cohort of individuals from the East who were still in education at reunification, the ones born earlier in the year started school at a younger age and had thus received one more year of socialist education at reunification. We find that an additional year of socialist education substantially decreases the probability of obtaining a college degree. We also provide evidence that, among male respondents, (i) the abolishment of non meritocratic restrictions to access to college allowed students to invest more in their human capital and therefore achieve a better occupational status (ii) the elimination of any part of the curricula directed towards the transmission of socialist values encouraged participation in the labor market and effort in the workplace.

Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed012:1194

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