Learning and Work hybrid seminars, autumn/winter 2026

The hybrid seminar series takes place every two weeks on Tuesdays from 12.00 to 13.00, both in person and via Microsoft Teams.

Organisers of L&W seminars

Raymond Montizaan: r.montizaan@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Katarina Wessling: k.wessling@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Steffen Künn: s.kuenn@maastrichtuniversity.nl

  • Upcoming seminars

    3 November - TS53 - C-1.03
    Guillem Foucault (TSE)
    Funding Instruments and Effort Choices in Higher Education

    Abstract: This paper examines the effects of tuition-free higher education (TF) policies on student enrollment and academic performance, focusing on the 2016 Chilean reform that eliminated higher education tuition fees for students from the lowest five income deciles. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that TF increased enrollment among eligible students by around 4 percentage points (concentrated among lower-ability students) and both reduced dropout rates and increased graduation rates among students enrolled before the reform. For post-reform cohorts, these effects diminish: graduation and on-time graduation gains persist but are smaller, and the dropout reduction vanishes. To disentangle the role of student effort from composition effects, we develop a dynamic structural model in which students choose effort levels in response to financial incentives. The model reproduces the enrollment response estimated by difference-in-differences and its concentration among lower-ability students. Counterfactual simulations show that reintroducing annual progress requirements reduces the cost per additional graduate from $108,000 to $70,000, but widens socioeconomic gaps in graduation. Minimum entry scores would raise the cost per additional graduate nearly threefold and leave the socioeconomic gap almost unchanged. Phasing out the benefit for middle-income students and providing a stipend to the poorest delivers the same graduation gain at lower cost and with a smaller socioeconomic gap.

     

    17 November
    t.b.a.

    1 December
    Albrecht Glitz (University of Barcelona)

    15 December
    Sandra McNally (University of Surrey)

    Previous seminars

    27 October
    Olivier Marie (Erasmus School of Economics)
    The Mental Health Cost of Cheap Mobile Data with Robin Verbeek (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

    20 October
    Mengwei Lin (University of Barcelona & IEB)
    Museums Around: Cultural Infrastructure and Educational Outcomes

    6 October
    Anna Bindler (DIW Berlin)
    Revealed Trust in Police

    22 September
    Harald Pfeifer (BIBB, ROA) - Canceled

    8 September
    Marc Witte (VU)
    Wage Information and Applicant Selection

    25 August
    Bohdana Kurylo (ROA)
    Subject-Specific Rank and the Educational Tracking of Migrant Students
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