Publications

Why are children with lower socioeconomic status (SES) substantially less likely to be enrolled in child care? We study whether barriers in the application process work against lower-SES children — the group known to benefit strongest from child care enrollment. In an RCT in Germany with highly subsidized child care (N = 607), we offer treated families information and personal assistance for applications. We find substantial, equity-enhancing effects of the treatment, closing half of the large SES gap in child care enrollment. Increased enrollment for lower-SES families is likely driven by altered application knowledge and behavior. We discuss scalability of our intervention and derive policy implications for the design of universal child..

This paper outlines two studies on education bias in German probability-based surveys. Study 1 reviews data from 67 surveys across 19 survey programs conducted in Germany from 2000 to 2023. We found a consistent underrepresentation of individuals with a low level of formal education. We also found that the transition to self-administered modes due to rising survey costs may exacerbate this bias in the future. In study 2, we use the results of a workshop with experts on probability-based surveys, to discuss various strategies to deal with this bias, including increased face-to-face contacts and incentives, while emphasizing the need for research on adapting survey designs.

This systematic literature review sheds light on social inequalities in students’ access to and experiences of international student mobility (ISM) in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Following a scoping approach based on the 2020 PRISMA guidelines, it synthesises 48 empirical studies published in the most intense phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, namely between January 2020 and June 2022.

The paper cluster comprises four systematic reviews assessing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on (1) macro-level flows of internationally mobile students, (2) social inequalities in access to, during, and in the wake of study abroad periods, (3) the social and cultural integration of international students, and (4) labour market expectations and experiences of internationally mobile students. Taken together, these reviews provide a comprehensive overview of the state of global research on how the pandemic has influenced several key aspects of ISM, simultaneously highlighting significant heterogeneities in terms of its impact on the different actors involved in ISM, including students, higher education institutions, and governments.