The hypothesis that early childhood educational investments have higher returns than later investments is popular at present.  I show, however, that key evidence suggests that adolescence is the period when investments earn the highest returns.  I consider three explanations:  (i) brain development varies by age; (ii) available policy levers vary by age; (iii) the measurement of returns varies by age.  Using three "natural" or policy experiments, I attempt to assign importance to these explanations, which are not mutually exclusive.  I describe the implications for how returns might be maximized by making greater educational investments aligned with ages at which they earn higher returns.

Programme

08:30 – 09:00
Arrival and registration

09:00 – 09:15
Welcome by workshop organizers

09:15 – 10:15
Presentation I (Chair: Steffen Künn)
Ulf Zölitz (University of Zürich)
“The impact of peer personality on academic achievement”

Soledad Giardili (Queen Mary University of London)
“University Quotas and Peers’ Achievement”

10:15 – 10:30
Coffee break

10:30 – 11:30
Poster session I (Chair: Bart Golsteyn)
Ron Diris (Maastricht University)
“The Teacher or the Test? An Analysis of the Long-run Predictive Power of School Achievement Indicators”

Ingo Isphording (IZA)
“Achievement Rank Affects Performance and Major Choices in College”

Annalisa Loviglio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
“Grading on the curve: when having good peers is not good”

Annelore Verhagen (Maastricht University)
“Does Active Living Affect School Performance?”

Maria Zumbühl (University of Bern)
“The native migrant gap in the progression into andthrough upper-secondary education”

11:30 – 12:30
Presentation II (Chair: Bart Golsteyn)
Ciprian Domnisoru (Carnegie Mellon University)
“Tuition subsidies and overeducation”

Cecile Magnee (Maastricht University)
“The effect of the refugee ratio in Dutch primary schools on educational outcomes of refugees and native children”

12:00 – 13:00
Lunch

13:00 – 14:00
Poster session II (Chair: Steffen Künn)
Eva Berger (Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz)
“The Causal Effect of Family Size on Non-cognitive Skills”

Didier Fouarge (Maastricht University)
“The Determinants of Education Advice”

Pascal Heß (IAB)
“Minimum Wages, Teenagers’ Wage Expectations and Educational Aspirations”

Sergio Parra-Cely (Maastricht University)
“The Effect of Grade Retention on Secondary School Performance: Evidence from a Natural Experiment”

Bernhard Schmidpeter (University of Essex)
“The Long-Term Effects of Parental Unemployment”

14:00 – 14:15
Coffee break

14:15 – 15:45
Keynote lecture (Chair: Bart Golsteyn)
Caroline Hoxby (Stanford University)
“Taking Investment in Education Seriously: Does the Productivity of Educational Investments Peak in Early Childhood or Adolescence?”

15:45 – 16:15
Coffee break

16:15 – 16:45
Presentation III (Chair: Steffen Künn)
Henning Müller (Norwegian School of Economics)
“Causal Effects of a Self-control Training in Primary Schools”

16:45 – 17:00
Concluding remarks

18:30
Workshop dinner
Marres Kitchen, Capucijnenstraat 98, 6211 RT Maastricht

This workshop is funded by Universiteitsfond Limburg SWOL.