Does Ignorance of Economic Returns and Costs Explain the Educational Aspiration Gap? Evidence From Representative Survey Experiments

Philipp Lergetporer, Katharina Werner and Ludger Woessmann

No 91, Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series from CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition

Abstract: The gap in university enrollment by parental education is large and persistent in many countries. In our representative survey, 74 percent of German university graduates, but only 36 percent of those without a university degree favor a university education for their children. The latter are more likely to underestimate returns and overestimate costs of university. Experimental provision of return and cost information significantly increases educational aspirations. However, it does not close the aspiration gap as university graduates respond even more strongly to the information treatment. Persistent effects in a follow-up survey indicate that participants indeed process and remember the information. Differences in economic preference parameters also cannot account for the educational aspiration gap. Our results cast doubt that ignorance of economic returns and costs explains educational inequality in Germany.

Keywords: inequality; higher education; university; aspiration; information; returns to education; survey experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 H75 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-04-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-lma
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Does Ignorance of Economic Returns and Costs Explain the Educational Aspiration Gap? Evidence from Representative Survey Experiments (2018)
Working Paper: Does Ignorance of Economic Returns and Costs Explain the Educational Aspiration Gap? Evidence from Representative Survey Experiments (2018)
Working Paper: Does Ignorance of Economic Returns and Costs Explain the Educational Aspiration Gap? Evidence from Representative Survey Experiments (2018)
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