The Impact of Length of the School Year on Student Performance and Earnings: Evidence from the German Short School Years
Open accessAbstract
This article investigates how changing the length of the school year, leaving the basic curriculum unchanged, affects learning and subsequent earnings. I use variation introduced by the West German short school years in 1966-7, which exposed some students to a total of about two thirds of a year less of schooling while enrolled. I find that the short school years increased grade repetition in primary school and led to fewer students attending higher secondary school tracks. On the other hand, the short school years had no adverse effect on earnings and employment later in life. Copyright 2007 The Author(s). Journal compilation Royal Economic Society 2007.
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Pischke (2007) observes short-run impacts of shortened school years on test scores and grade repetition, but does not find long-run effects on earnings or employment.
“While he does observe short-run impacts on test scores and grade repetition, long-run effects on earnings or employment are not found.”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Pischke (2007)
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- Authors
- Pischke, J.
- Affiliations
- London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Pischke, Jörn‐Steffen
- Venue
- The Economic Journal
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2007-09-21
- Volume
- 117
- Issue
- 523
- Pages
- 1216-1242
- ISSN
- 0013-0133 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-0297
- OpenAlex
- W2129764760
- Cited by
- 294
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 46 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 42.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- orcid.org
- Locations
- The Economic Journal (publishedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Theses Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
- Keywords
- school year length, student performance, earnings, school retention, educational attainment, labor market outcomes, primary education
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