Centre for Research in Economics of Education

The Centre for Research in Economics of Education is part of the Department of Economics at the University of Berne and is active in most fields of Economics of Education. It is financed by external partners, hence the focus of the research is mostly decided by the mandating institution.

The Centre for Research in Economics of Education is also part of the Swiss Leading House VPET-ECON: A Research Center on the Economics of Education, Firm Behavior and Training Policies.

News

News Archive

Media

Does well-established vocational training help combat youth unemployment?

Youth unemployment is considered one of the key challenges facing many economies. In Switzerland, it has been low for years compared to other countries. One reason often cited for this is the dual vocational training system. But how clear-cut is this link really? Claudio Schilter discusses this in an article in the magazine “Die Volkswirtschaft” (in German and French).

07.10.2025

Media

Career choice: Data reveals what influences young people

In a recent article in “Die Volkswirtschaft,” Daniel Goller and Stefan Wolter describe how innovative data can help measure the influence of external events (such as artificial intelligence, COVID-19, or WorldSkills Competitions) on career choices (in German and French). Copyright: SwissSkills

01.10.2025

Events

Official reception SwissSkills 2025

At the official reception for SwissSkills 2025, Daniel Goller presented academic findings on the influence of Swiss participants' successes at WorldSkills Competitions to a diverse audience from politics, professional associations, and organizations.
Photo: © Manu Friederich / SwissSkills

18.09.2025

Research

Grit and educational choices

In a new study published in Education Economics, Janine Albiez, Maurizio Strazzeri, and Stefan Wolter show that young people with more grit, a combination of passion and perseverance, are more likely to choose vocational training over general education.

16.09.2025

Research

Early foreign language instruction does not necessarily deliver what popular debate promises

The study “Early exposure to foreign language training and students' educational trajectories” by Maurizio Strazzeri, Enzo Brox, Chantal Oggenfuss, and Stefan C. Wolter, which has just been published in the Economics of Education Review, examines the influence of starting foreign language instruction at an earlier age on further educational pathways. Based on administrative data, the results show little overall effect. However, for male students from lower educational backgrounds whose family language is not the language of instruction, the transition to upper secondary education is delayed.

25.08.2025

Awards

Research Fellow

Prof. Stefan C. Wolter has been appointed Research Fellow at the ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin.

12.08.2025

Research

Can a university president learn from machine learning?

In a joint research project, Stefan C. Wolter—together with Johannes Berens, Andrea Diem, Luis Rumert, and Kerstin Schneider—shows in their article recently published in Higher Education that, in this case, the president of the University of Bern was able to identify over 70% of students who later left without a degree based solely on information available prior to enrollment and with the help of machine learning techniques. This figure rises to almost 90% when information about student behavior during the first four semesters is taken into account.

07.08.2025

Research

Effects of continuing vocational education and training in Switzerland

Continuing professional development is considered key to securing employability in a changing world of work. But how effective is it really? In their new publication in the Economics of Education Review, Stefan Denzler, Jens Ruhose, and Stefan C. Wolter show that continuing professional development clearly pays off in Switzerland. Using longitudinal administrative data and a differentiated econometric approach, they demonstrate that participants earn higher incomes on average and are less likely to become unemployed than comparable individuals without continuing education. The study thus provides robust, causally interpretable evidence for the labor market relevance of lifelong learning.

16.07.2025

Research

This Time it's Different

A new study published in Labour Economics by Daniel Goller, Christian Gschwendt, and Stefan Wolter shows a decline in interest in apprenticeships since the introduction of the generative AI tool ChatGPT. Unlike previous technological upheavals—such as the rise of robotics, which mainly affected manual occupations—this decline is concentrated in occupations that were traditionally considered safe from automation: jobs with predominantly cognitive requirements. Although the decline in interest has not yet led to a drop in the number of apprenticeship contracts signed, the study finds clear evidence of a decline in the quality of applicants, particularly in commercial apprenticeships.

10.06.2025

Research

How frightening is the risk of automation?

The transformation of the labor market through artificial intelligence is advancing inexorably, and more and more people see themselves at risk of not only being supplemented by AI, but also being completely or partially replaced by it. This is causing anxiety, as Maria Alejandra Cattaneo, Christian Gschwendt, and Stefan Wolter show in their recently published article in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, based on a large-scale discrete choice experiment involving 6,000 adults in Switzerland. On average, adults are willing to give up 20% of their wages if it means reducing the risk of becoming unemployed due to automation by 10 percentage points.

26.05.2025

Research

Persistent grade distortion

Grading is never perfect or completely accurate. But when entire groups of students receive better grades than external test results would justify, we are dealing with a distortion that needs to be explained, indeed with a problem of fairness. In a recent research article, Chantal Oggenfuss and Stefan Wolter show that this grading bias persists even after teachers, parents, and students have seen the external test results. More needs to be done to make teachers aware of the bias in their assessments—and, very importantly, abolishing grades or replacing them with other forms of assessment would probably not eliminate the bias, but rather make it more difficult to detect.

12.05.2025

Research

Effectiveness of active labor market policies for the long-term unemployed

In a recent article published in Labour Economics, Daniel Goller and his co-authors examine the effectiveness of three labor market policies for the long-term unemployed using causal machine learning. On average, all programs show rapid and sustained positive effects, especially placement services. Women benefit more from favorable local labor market conditions. Data-based allocation rules could increase program effects by 6–14%.

05.05.2025

Research

Ability heterogeneity and performance in tournaments

Tournaments are often used to promote performance, but they can have unintended consequences. In a new study published in the Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, Enzo Brox and Daniel Goller use empirical data to show how differences in ability affect individual performance. Participants with higher abilities perform better and participants with lower abilities perform worse, which is purely due to these differences in ability, not skill. The study also discusses how various theoretical approaches can explain this and what implications this has for the design of competitions.

28.04.2025

Research

The prestige of a profession and career choice

What influence does a positive reputation shock for a particular profession have on the career choices of young adults? In a new study published in the European Economic Review, Daniel Goller and Stefan Wolter examine how demand for certain professions changes when a gold medal is won in that profession at the WorldSkills Competition. The authors find a 7 percent increase in interest in the professions, 2.5 percent more contracts signed, and more stable apprenticeship relationships.

17.04.2025

Research

The (non-)value of unfinished studies

A new study by Andrea Diem, Christian Gschwendt, and Stefan Wolter examines how human resources managers evaluate incomplete university degrees. The study shows that university dropouts from career-relevant degree programs can expect similar wages to applicants without any university education, while university dropouts from non-career-relevant subjects have to accept significant income losses. In addition, HR managers generally prefer applicants who have completed an internship to those who have dropped out of university.

19.02.2025

Research

Virtual vs. physical career fairs

Career and job fairs are established tools for improving the match between employees and employers, as well as between professions. Despite their relevance, however, the effects of such events have not yet been sufficiently researched. A new study by Daniel Goller, Chiara Graf, and Stefan Wolter now provides evidence that virtual fairs had a stronger immediate positive impact on interest in vocational training than physical career fairs. They also broadened the search radius for different occupations.

06.02.2025

Research

Class rank and career choice

In a new study, Enzo Brox, Maddalena Davoli, and Maurizio Strazzeri examine the influence of students' class rank in mathematics on educational, occupational, and labor market outcomes. They show that class rank in mathematics, in addition to mathematical ability, has a positive effect on the probability of pursuing a career in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). They also show that a higher class rank in mathematics increases income and willingness to invest in job-related continuing education.

16.10.2024

Research

Are more competitive peers the path to better-paid jobs?

In a new study, Stefan Wolter, Claudio Schilter, and Samuel Lüthi examined the influence of the average competitiveness of peers in lower secondary school on career choices. They found that those who had more competitive peers at that time ended up in better-paid jobs years later.

01.10.2024

Awards

María Jesús San Segundo Award

At this year's annual conference of the Association for Education Economics in Valencia, Thea Zöllner wins the María Jesús San Segundo Award for her study “Are parents an obstacle to gender-atypical occupational choices?” (together with Stefan Wolter).

03.07.2024

Contact

University of Bern
Forschungsstelle für Bildungsökonomie

Schanzeneckstrasse 1
3001 Bern