Pascal Heß successfully defends thesis

On Monday, April 22, Pascal Heß successfully defended his dissertation on, “How does salient information on economic prospects shape human capital investments?”

Abstract

This thesis explores the role of information on economic prospects in educational investment decisions and how various groups, particularly the low-skilled, respond to differently salient developments that intersect with labour market outcomes for those groups. The introduction of a minimum wage in Germany, a very salient policy, positively affected teenagers' educational plans. However, the expansion of a school-to-work transition program for a similar population has no impact on educational or early career outcomes because the long-term benefits of such a program were not salient to the participants. Coming to higher-skilled teenagers, the thesis finds a strong correlation between indecisiveness before going to university and the likelihood of dropping out of university later. Lastly, workers exposed to automation are 15 percentage points less likely to participate in training compared to those who are not exposed which provides evidence of the challenges workers face in accessing and participating in training programs amidst potentially increasing automation in their occupations.

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Didier Fouarge, Maastricht University & Prof. Dr. Silke Anger, University of Bamberg

Click here to read the full thesis