Education System

Lifelong learning has not only become relevant in the light of demographic change – adult education has been an important instrument for mitigating or positively utilizing biographical breaks for many decades as well. In our research on adult education, we take a closer look mainly at the effects of voluntary educational activities on various aspects of individual and social life. One particular source of information that we have been working with for several years are data from the adult education statistics provided by the German Institute of Adult Education. Depending on the research project, we complement these data with data from other sources. The results of our research quantify the educational inclination and potential of older employees who have been lost through early retirement programs (partial retirement). Current research projects are investigating the effects of adult education courses in the course of the transformation of the East German labour market, for instance, on unemployment and political attitudes.

The educational landscape in Germany has changed fundamentally since the turn of the millennium. Examples include the expansion of early childhood education through a guaranteed supply of places in day-care-centres and the shortening of school years at grammar schools (G8 reform), which has been reversed in some federal states in the meantime. In addition, the Bologna reform has changed the higher education structure with the introduction of Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes, which is not without consequences for the rest of the post-secondary sector. At the same time, the number of students has increased enormously, from 1.8 million (2000) to 2.9 million (2023) (Destatis 2024). At the Institute of Economic Policy, we are currently investigating the effects of such educational policy reforms and trends on educational decisions at the transition from school to the post-secondary education system (e.g., studies vs. apprenticeship) and on subsequent labour market returns. To this end, we utilise detailed individual data on educational trajectories (e.g., the DZHW's panel of university entrants) and employment biographies (e.g., the IAB's SIAB).

Rupieper, L. K. & Thomsen, S. L. (2024). Can Voluntary Adult Education Reduce Unemployment? Causal Evidence from East Germany after Reunification. Journal for Labour Market Research, zur Veröffentlichung angenommen..

Sandner, M., Thomsen, S. & Gonzalez, L. (2024). Preventing Child Maltreatment: Beneficial Side Effects of Public Childcare. The Economic Journal, Vorabveröffentlichung online. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/ueae070.

Thomsen, S. & Trunzer, J. (2024). Did the Bologna Process Challenge the German Apprenticeship System? Evidence from a Natural Experiment. Journal of Human Capital, Vorabveröffentlichung online. https://doi.org/10.1086/730273.

Ruhose, J., Thomsen, S. L. & Weilage, I. (2024). No Mental Retirement: Estimating Voluntary Adult Education Activities of Older Workers. Education Economics, 32(4), 440-473. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2023.2229078.

Meier, D. & Thomsen, S. (2023). Causal Evaluation of Educational Policies, in: Zimmermann, K.F. (Hrsg.), Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_353-1.

Thomsen, S. & Weilage, I. (2023). Scaling Up and Crowding Out: How German Adult Education Centers Adapted Course Offers to Refugee Integration. Adult Education Quarterly, 73(1), 60–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/07417136211068861.

Meyer, T., Schneider, H. & Thomsen, S. L. (2019). New Evidence on the Effects of the Shortened School Duration in the German States: An Evaluation of Post-Secondary Education Decisions. German Economic Review, 20(4), 201–253. https://doi.org/10.1111/geer.12162.

Ruhose, J., Thomsen, S. L. & Weilage, I. (2019). The Benefits of Adult Learning: Work-Related Training, Social Capital, and Earnings. Economics of Education Review, 72, 166–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.05.010.