Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/20115 
Year of Publication: 
2003
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 874
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper investigates how changing the length of school year, leaving the basic curriculum unchanged, affects learning and subsequent earnings. I use variation introduced by the West-German short school years in 1966-67, which exposed some students to a total of about two thirds of a year less of schooling while enrolled. I show that the short school years led indeed to shorter schooling for affected students. Using comparisons across cohorts, states, and secondary school tracks, I find that the short school years increased grade repetition in primary school, but had no adverse effect on the number of students attending the highest secondary school track or earnings later in life.
Subjects: 
human capital
returns to schooling
length of school year
term length
grade repetition
tracking
JEL: 
J31
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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