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

B-Tier
Journal: Economics of Education Review
Year: 2012
Volume: 31
Issue: 6
Pages: 949-960

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

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.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:6:p:949-960
Journal Field
Education
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-02-02