TY  - JOUR
AU  - Pischke,Jorn-Steffen
TI  - The Impact of Length of the School Year on Student Performance and Earnings: Evidence from the German Short School Year
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9964
PY  - 2003
Y2  - September 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9964
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9964.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jorn-Steffen Pischke
CEP
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: 44-20-7955-6509
Fax: 44-20-7955-7595
E-Mail: s.pischke@lse.ac.uk
AB  - This paper investigates how changing the length of the 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.
ER  -