New IZA DPs -- Education / Human Capital
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IZA Publications
Feb 4, 2026, 9:32:14 AM (11 days ago) Feb 4
to it...@umich.edu
Dear Italo Gutierrez,
These new IZA Discussion Papers are now available online.
DP 18289 - Bietenbeck/Collins/Lundborg/Majlesi:
Exposure to Inequality, Human Capital Investment, and Labor Market Outcome
DP 18291 - Liepmann/Hegewisch:
Revisiting Occupational Segregation and the Valuation of Women’s Work
DP 18307 - Anger/Christoph/Galkiewicz/Margaryan/Sandner/Siedler:
Online Tutoring, School Performance, and School-to-Work Transitions: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
DP 18331 - Hertweck/Maris/Tonin/Vlassopoulos:
Patterns in University Applications: Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Subject vs. Institution Preferences
DP 18341 - Antman/Skoy/Kim:
Racial and Gendered Impacts of International Students on Domestic Peers
DP 18344 - Ásgeirsdottir/Francesconi/Johannsdottir/Zoega:
How Home Exams and Peers Affect College Grades in Unprecedented Times
DP 18355 - Borgonovi/Checchi/Gualtieri:
Formal and Informal Assets in the Italian Labour Market
Please find the abstracts and download links below.
IZA DP No. 18289
Jan Bietenbeck, Matthew Collins, Petter Lundborg, Kaveh Majlesi:
Exposure to Inequality, Human Capital Investment, and Labor Market Outcome
Abstract:
We estimate the effects of exposure to income and wealth inequality during adolescence on long-term educational and labor market outcomes. Using detailed Swedish register data covering all students completing compulsory education between 1989 and 2013, we construct measures of inequality among students’ school-cohort peers and exploit variation between cohorts within schools to identify causal effects of inequality exposure. We find no evidence that exposure to inequality affects GPA, high school graduation, university enrollment, university completion, or income up to age 35. These null results are precisely estimated and robust to alternative measures of inequality, sample definitions, and specifications. Moreover, we find no evidence of systematic heterogeneity by socioeconomic background. Taken together, these findings suggest that school integration policies mixing students from different socioeconomic backgrounds do not necessarily carry hidden long-run costs stemming f rom exposure to inequality. More broadly, they challenge the view that school-based exposure to peer inequality during adolescence is a causal driver of human capital accumulation or later-life mobility.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18289.pdf
IZA DP No. 18291
Hannah Liepmann, Ariane Hegewisch:
Revisiting Occupational Segregation and the Valuation of Women’s Work
Abstract:
While population ageing increases the demand for care work, new technologies, including AI, reinforce the importance of human interaction, with recent research finding significant wage premiums for social skills. Against this background, we investigate two factors behind the gender wage gap: occupational gender segregation and lower pay in female-dominated occupations, especially care work, where social skills are central. Using 1972-2024 CPS data, we show that occupational gender segregation remains pronounced in the United States, with many care occupations remaining female-dominated. This continues to correlate with lower wages. Conditional on observable characteristics, a 1 percentage point increase in the occupational share of women during 2015-24 was associated with a wage decrease of 0.22 percent for women and 0.20 percent for men. We then analyze whether returns to social skills are distorted in the care sector, where we hypothesize that the wage returns on workers' p erformance are lower due to the public-goods aspect of care work. Based on combined CPS and O*Net data, we investigate occupation-level skills returns for 2015-24. They are indeed insignificant for care workers but sizeable for business services workers.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18291.pdf
IZA DP No. 18307
Silke Anger, Bernhard Christoph, Agata Galkiewicz, Shushanik Margaryan, Malte Sandner, Thomas Siedler:
Online Tutoring, School Performance, and School-to-Work Transitions: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
(conditionally accepted at: European Economic Review)
Abstract:
Tutoring programs for low-performing students, delivered in-person or online, effectively enhance school performance, yet their medium- and longer-term impacts on labor market outcomes remain less understood. To address this gap, we conduct a randomized controlled trial with 839 secondary school students in Germany to examine the effects of an online tutoring program for low-performing students on academic performance and school-to-work transitions. The online tutoring program had a non-significant intention-to-treat effect of 0.06 standard deviations on math grades six months after program start. However, among students who had not received other tutoring services prior to the intervention, the program significantly improved math grades by 0.14 standard deviations. Moreover, students in non-academic school tracks experienced smoother school-to-work transitions, with vocational training take-up 18 months later being 5 percentage points higher—an effect that was even larger (1 2 percentage points) among those without prior tutoring. Overall, the results indicate that tutoring can generate lasting benefits for low-performing students that extend beyond school performance.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18307.pdf
IZA DP No. 18331
Friederike Hertweck, Robbie Maris, Mirco Tonin, Michael Vlassopoulos:
Patterns in University Applications: Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Subject vs. Institution Preferences
Abstract:
This paper examines university application patterns in the UK, focusing on the joint decision of selecting both an institution and a subject. Using administrative data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) covering almost all undergraduate applications between 2008 and 2021, we document three key facts: (i) students generally choose subject before university: they apply on average to around 1.6 subject areas across 4.6 institutions, and roughly half apply to a single field across multiple universities; (ii) there are significant gender gaps in application and offer rates that reflect field composition; (iii) high-socioeconomic status students submit more applications, apply less to local institutions, and obtain more offers, but these differences shrink sharply once we control for attainment and the selectivity of the programmes that students apply to. An expert survey suggests that several of these patterns run against conventional wisdom.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18331.pdf
IZA DP No. 18341
Francisca M. Antman, Evelyn Skoy, Paul Kim:
Racial and Gendered Impacts of International Students on Domestic Peers
Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of international students on the academic outcomes of domestic peers in introductory economics courses. We address the potential endogeneity of class selection by focusing on first-year students enrolling in a large public flagship university, for whom class assignment is likely to be quasi-random, conditional on a rich set of control variables for the class and individual. Results suggest an increased share of international student peers reduces the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic White and Asian men while increasing the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic men from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. There is also evidence that higher shares of international student peers increase the likelihood that domestic White and Asian men major in business and decrease the likelihood that some men drop out of college. Additional analyses point to introductory course grades as possible mechanisms to explain these resul ts, as a higher international peer share is associated with higher domestic student grades. Results for men enrolled in large introductory economics classes are similar to the main results for men overall and are also similar for women.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18341.pdf
IZA DP No. 18344
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdottir, Marco Francesconi, Ásthildur M. Johannsdottir, Gylfi Zoega:
How Home Exams and Peers Affect College Grades in Unprecedented Times
Abstract:
Leveraging administrative data from the University of Iceland, which cover more than 60% of the undergraduate population in the country, we examine how home exams and peer networks shape grades around the COVID-19 crisis. Using difference-in-difference models with a rich set of fixed effects, we find that home exams taken during university closures raised grades by about 0.5 points (about 7%) relative to invigilated in-person exams outside the pandemic period. Access to a larger share of high-school peers leads to an average grade increase of up to two-fifths of a point, and exposure to higher-quality peers yielded additional, but smaller gains. Interactions between peer-network measures and the COVID/home-exam indicators are near zero, providing no evidence that peer networks amplified home-exam gains during the pandemic.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18344.pdf
IZA DP No. 18355
Francesca Borgonovi, Daniele Checchi, Valentina Gualtieri:
Formal and Informal Assets in the Italian Labour Market
Abstract:
This paper estimates labour-market returns to formal and informal human capital in Italy using data from the first cycle of PIAAC. We distinguish formal inputs (years of schooling) from directly assessed skills (literacy and numeracy) which we interpret as distinct forms of human capital that are shaped by school quality and by non-formal and informal learning. To address non-random employment and joint endogeneity of schooling and skills, we combine a Heckman selection model with instrumental variables. Schooling is instrumented using cohort exposure to the 1971 introduction of full-day primary schooling and the 1999–2001 Bologna ‘3+2’ university reform; skills are instrumented using gender- and cohort-specific municipal illiteracy rates from population censuses, matched by birthplace. Results show that ignoring selection and endogeneity overstates the returns to schooling. After correction, numeracy yields the main wage premium, while formal credentials contribute little on ce skills are accounted for. The findings highlight the role of early cultural environments and skill accumulation for Italian wage inequality in Italy.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18355.pdf
Please click here to change your subscription status.
If you have trouble downloading the papers, or for any other questions regarding the IZA Discussion Paper Series, contact public...@iza.org.
These new IZA Discussion Papers are now available online.
DP 18289 - Bietenbeck/Collins/Lundborg/Majlesi:
Exposure to Inequality, Human Capital Investment, and Labor Market Outcome
DP 18291 - Liepmann/Hegewisch:
Revisiting Occupational Segregation and the Valuation of Women’s Work
DP 18307 - Anger/Christoph/Galkiewicz/Margaryan/Sandner/Siedler:
Online Tutoring, School Performance, and School-to-Work Transitions: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
DP 18331 - Hertweck/Maris/Tonin/Vlassopoulos:
Patterns in University Applications: Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Subject vs. Institution Preferences
DP 18341 - Antman/Skoy/Kim:
Racial and Gendered Impacts of International Students on Domestic Peers
DP 18344 - Ásgeirsdottir/Francesconi/Johannsdottir/Zoega:
How Home Exams and Peers Affect College Grades in Unprecedented Times
DP 18355 - Borgonovi/Checchi/Gualtieri:
Formal and Informal Assets in the Italian Labour Market
Please find the abstracts and download links below.
IZA DP No. 18289
Jan Bietenbeck, Matthew Collins, Petter Lundborg, Kaveh Majlesi:
Exposure to Inequality, Human Capital Investment, and Labor Market Outcome
Abstract:
We estimate the effects of exposure to income and wealth inequality during adolescence on long-term educational and labor market outcomes. Using detailed Swedish register data covering all students completing compulsory education between 1989 and 2013, we construct measures of inequality among students’ school-cohort peers and exploit variation between cohorts within schools to identify causal effects of inequality exposure. We find no evidence that exposure to inequality affects GPA, high school graduation, university enrollment, university completion, or income up to age 35. These null results are precisely estimated and robust to alternative measures of inequality, sample definitions, and specifications. Moreover, we find no evidence of systematic heterogeneity by socioeconomic background. Taken together, these findings suggest that school integration policies mixing students from different socioeconomic backgrounds do not necessarily carry hidden long-run costs stemming f rom exposure to inequality. More broadly, they challenge the view that school-based exposure to peer inequality during adolescence is a causal driver of human capital accumulation or later-life mobility.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18289.pdf
IZA DP No. 18291
Hannah Liepmann, Ariane Hegewisch:
Revisiting Occupational Segregation and the Valuation of Women’s Work
Abstract:
While population ageing increases the demand for care work, new technologies, including AI, reinforce the importance of human interaction, with recent research finding significant wage premiums for social skills. Against this background, we investigate two factors behind the gender wage gap: occupational gender segregation and lower pay in female-dominated occupations, especially care work, where social skills are central. Using 1972-2024 CPS data, we show that occupational gender segregation remains pronounced in the United States, with many care occupations remaining female-dominated. This continues to correlate with lower wages. Conditional on observable characteristics, a 1 percentage point increase in the occupational share of women during 2015-24 was associated with a wage decrease of 0.22 percent for women and 0.20 percent for men. We then analyze whether returns to social skills are distorted in the care sector, where we hypothesize that the wage returns on workers' p erformance are lower due to the public-goods aspect of care work. Based on combined CPS and O*Net data, we investigate occupation-level skills returns for 2015-24. They are indeed insignificant for care workers but sizeable for business services workers.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18291.pdf
IZA DP No. 18307
Silke Anger, Bernhard Christoph, Agata Galkiewicz, Shushanik Margaryan, Malte Sandner, Thomas Siedler:
Online Tutoring, School Performance, and School-to-Work Transitions: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
(conditionally accepted at: European Economic Review)
Abstract:
Tutoring programs for low-performing students, delivered in-person or online, effectively enhance school performance, yet their medium- and longer-term impacts on labor market outcomes remain less understood. To address this gap, we conduct a randomized controlled trial with 839 secondary school students in Germany to examine the effects of an online tutoring program for low-performing students on academic performance and school-to-work transitions. The online tutoring program had a non-significant intention-to-treat effect of 0.06 standard deviations on math grades six months after program start. However, among students who had not received other tutoring services prior to the intervention, the program significantly improved math grades by 0.14 standard deviations. Moreover, students in non-academic school tracks experienced smoother school-to-work transitions, with vocational training take-up 18 months later being 5 percentage points higher—an effect that was even larger (1 2 percentage points) among those without prior tutoring. Overall, the results indicate that tutoring can generate lasting benefits for low-performing students that extend beyond school performance.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18307.pdf
IZA DP No. 18331
Friederike Hertweck, Robbie Maris, Mirco Tonin, Michael Vlassopoulos:
Patterns in University Applications: Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Subject vs. Institution Preferences
Abstract:
This paper examines university application patterns in the UK, focusing on the joint decision of selecting both an institution and a subject. Using administrative data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) covering almost all undergraduate applications between 2008 and 2021, we document three key facts: (i) students generally choose subject before university: they apply on average to around 1.6 subject areas across 4.6 institutions, and roughly half apply to a single field across multiple universities; (ii) there are significant gender gaps in application and offer rates that reflect field composition; (iii) high-socioeconomic status students submit more applications, apply less to local institutions, and obtain more offers, but these differences shrink sharply once we control for attainment and the selectivity of the programmes that students apply to. An expert survey suggests that several of these patterns run against conventional wisdom.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18331.pdf
IZA DP No. 18341
Francisca M. Antman, Evelyn Skoy, Paul Kim:
Racial and Gendered Impacts of International Students on Domestic Peers
Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of international students on the academic outcomes of domestic peers in introductory economics courses. We address the potential endogeneity of class selection by focusing on first-year students enrolling in a large public flagship university, for whom class assignment is likely to be quasi-random, conditional on a rich set of control variables for the class and individual. Results suggest an increased share of international student peers reduces the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic White and Asian men while increasing the likelihood of majoring in economics for domestic men from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. There is also evidence that higher shares of international student peers increase the likelihood that domestic White and Asian men major in business and decrease the likelihood that some men drop out of college. Additional analyses point to introductory course grades as possible mechanisms to explain these resul ts, as a higher international peer share is associated with higher domestic student grades. Results for men enrolled in large introductory economics classes are similar to the main results for men overall and are also similar for women.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18341.pdf
IZA DP No. 18344
Tinna Laufey Ásgeirsdottir, Marco Francesconi, Ásthildur M. Johannsdottir, Gylfi Zoega:
How Home Exams and Peers Affect College Grades in Unprecedented Times
Abstract:
Leveraging administrative data from the University of Iceland, which cover more than 60% of the undergraduate population in the country, we examine how home exams and peer networks shape grades around the COVID-19 crisis. Using difference-in-difference models with a rich set of fixed effects, we find that home exams taken during university closures raised grades by about 0.5 points (about 7%) relative to invigilated in-person exams outside the pandemic period. Access to a larger share of high-school peers leads to an average grade increase of up to two-fifths of a point, and exposure to higher-quality peers yielded additional, but smaller gains. Interactions between peer-network measures and the COVID/home-exam indicators are near zero, providing no evidence that peer networks amplified home-exam gains during the pandemic.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18344.pdf
IZA DP No. 18355
Francesca Borgonovi, Daniele Checchi, Valentina Gualtieri:
Formal and Informal Assets in the Italian Labour Market
Abstract:
This paper estimates labour-market returns to formal and informal human capital in Italy using data from the first cycle of PIAAC. We distinguish formal inputs (years of schooling) from directly assessed skills (literacy and numeracy) which we interpret as distinct forms of human capital that are shaped by school quality and by non-formal and informal learning. To address non-random employment and joint endogeneity of schooling and skills, we combine a Heckman selection model with instrumental variables. Schooling is instrumented using cohort exposure to the 1971 introduction of full-day primary schooling and the 1999–2001 Bologna ‘3+2’ university reform; skills are instrumented using gender- and cohort-specific municipal illiteracy rates from population censuses, matched by birthplace. Results show that ignoring selection and endogeneity overstates the returns to schooling. After correction, numeracy yields the main wage premium, while formal credentials contribute little on ce skills are accounted for. The findings highlight the role of early cultural environments and skill accumulation for Italian wage inequality in Italy.
https://docs.iza.org/dp18355.pdf
Please click here to change your subscription status.
If you have trouble downloading the papers, or for any other questions regarding the IZA Discussion Paper Series, contact public...@iza.org.
IZA Publications
Feb 4, 2026, 9:33:57 AM (11 days ago) Feb 4
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