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Das Studium der Psychologie ist in Deutschland äußerst beliebt. Aufgrund begrenzt verfügbarer Studienplätze ist eine Auswahl der Bewerber_innen notwendig. Zur Selektion geeigneter Bewerber_innen wurde bisher vorwiegend die Note der Hochschulzugangsberechtigung verwendet. Dies ist seit einem Urteil des Bundesverfassungsgerichts von 2017 nicht mehr zulässig. Das Land Berlin erteilte daher den Auftrag zur Entwicklung eines Studierfähigkeitstests für das Fach Psychologie. Aufbauend auf einer ausführlichen Anforderungsanalyse wurde der Berliner Studierfähigkeitstest – Psychologie zur Erfassung studienfachbezogener Studierfähigkeit entwickelt und an zwei Konstruktionsstichproben revidiert. Die Messwerte des BSF-P zeigen gute Reliabilität und Validität und können zur Auswahl von Studierenden verwendet werden. Der Einsatz des Verfahrens erlaubt zudem eine faire Auswahl von Bewerber_innen und führt langfristig zu einer diverseren Studierendenschaft im Fach Psychologie. Studying psychology is extremely popular in Germany. Because of the limited number of available spots, selection of applicants is necessary. To date, grades on the high school diploma or an equivalent were mainly used to select suitable applicants. Following a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2017, however, this is no longer permissible. Therefore, the State of Berlin commissioned the development of a study aptitude test for the Bachelor of Psychology. Based on a detailed requirements analysis, the Berlin Aptitude Test for Psychology (BSF-P) was developed to assess subject-related study ability. The test was developed and revised on two different samples and finally applied for selecting applicants at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2021. The reliability and validity estimates of the test scores of the BSF-P suggest that the test is applicable for the selection of students in a high-stakes context. This procedure allows fair selection of applicants and in the long term leads to a more diverse student body in psychology.

Laut der Weltgesundheitsorganisation WHO leiden ca. zwei Milliarden Menschen an einer unzureichenden Jodzufuhr. Das Spurenelement Jod ist für die Synthese der Schilddrüsenhormone unerlässlich. Es spielt eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Regulierung des Stoffwechsels sowie bei der Entwicklung der Organe, insbesondere des Gehirns. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Untersuchung, welche Auswirkungen ein mütterlicher Jodmangel auf die kognitiven Fähigkeiten des Kindes hat. Um die Forschungsfrage beantworten zu können, wurde ein systematischer Review durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Recherchearbeit haben gezeigt, dass ein Jodmangel als größte Ursache für vermeidbare Hirnschädigungen angesehen wird und weltweit zu den häufigsten Ernährungsstörungen zählt. Ein maternaler Mangel an Jod hat negative Auswirkungen auf die Mutter und in weiterer Folge auf das ungeborene bzw. geborene Kind. Dadurch können sich körperliche, neurologische sowie intellektuelle Defizite für den Nachwuchs darstellen. Bereits ein leichter Jodmangel kann zu neurokognitiven Entwicklungsstörungen, verminderter Kognition sowie zu einer verzögerten geistigen Entwicklung führen. Ein mittelschwerer Mangel an Jod führt zu niedrigeren IQ-Werten, wohingegen ein schwerer Jodmangel zu Kretinismus, Wachstumsstörungen, geistiger Behinderung, Beeinträchtigung der motorischen Entwicklung sowie zu neurologischen Schäden führen kann. Der Inhalt der Masterarbeit besteht aus neun Hauptkapiteln. Das erste Kapitel beinhaltet die Einleitung. Im zweiten Kapitel wird das Spurenelement Jod thematisiert. Das dritte Kapitel befasst sich mit der Funktionsweise der Schilddrüse. Im vierten Kapitel werden die kognitiven Fähigkeiten erläutert. Kapitel fünf befasst sich mit der Methodik, während das Kapitel sechs die Ergebnisse der Arbeit präsentiert. Unter dem siebten Kapitel befindet sich die Diskussion. Die Kapitel acht und neun befassen sich mit der Zusammenfassung und dem Ausblick. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 2 billion people suffer from insufficient iodine intake. The trace element iodine is essential for the synthesis of thyroid hormones. It plays a decisive role in regulating metabolism as well as the development of organs, especially the brain. The aim of this thesis is to describe the effects of maternal iodine deficiency on the child´s cognitive abilities. To fulfill this task a systematic review was carried out. The results have shown that iodine deficiency is the most important factor for preventing perinatal brain damage and is one of the most common nutritional disorders worldwide. A maternal iodine deficiency has negative effects on the mother and subsequently on the unborn or born child. This effect can lead to physical, neurological and intellectual deficits for the offspring.Even a mild iodine deficiency can lead to neurocognitive development disorders, reduced cognition and delayed mental development. Moderate iodine deficiency leads to lower IQ-scores, while severe iodine deficiency can lead to cretinism, impaired growth, mental retardation, impaired motor development and neurological damage. The content of the master thesis consists of nine main chapters. The first chapter contains the introduction. The trace element iodine is discussed in the second chapter.The third chapter is about the functioning of the thyroid. In the fourth chapter, the cognitive abilities are explained. Chapter five deals with the methods, while chapter six presents the results of the work. The seventh chapter contains the discussion. The chapters eight and nine provide a summary and future outlook. Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin/des Verfassers Masterarbeit Wien, FH Campus Wien 2022

Der Entwicklungszusammenhang zwischen sprachlichen und mathematischen Fähigkeiten ist hoch komplex und noch nicht gut verstanden. Deshalb wurden Kompetenzdaten von sprachlich unauffälligen Kindern aus dem Nationalen Bildungspanel (NEPS) genutzt, um interdependente Einflüsse von sprachlichen Kompetenzen (Grammatik und Wortschatz) sowie kognitiven Fähigkeiten (zentrale Exekutive, phonologische Schleife, indirekte Maße des Arbeitsgedächtnisses) und mathematischem Lernen in der Altersspanne zwischen 4 und 8 Jahren zu untersuchen (n = 354). Dabei zeigte sich, dass langfristig insbesondere die grammatikalischen Fähigkeiten das mathematische Lernen beeinflussen. Zudem wurde deutlich, dass Sprache innerhalb des Zusammenspiels zwischen kognitiven Fähigkeiten und mathematischen Kompetenzen unterschiedliche Funktionen einnehmen kann: So stellt sie einerseits im Vorschulalter eine Voraussetzung für die Leistungsfähigkeit einzelner mit mathematischen Kompetenzen in Zusammenhang stehender kognitiver Fähigkeiten (zentrale Exekutive, phonologische Schleife) dar. Andererseits mediiert Sprache sowohl im Vorschul- wie auch im Grundschulalter den Einfluss der kognitiven Fähigkeiten auf das mathematische Lernen. Zudem weisen die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass sprachliche Kompetenzen insbesondere im Vorschulalter eine Voraussetzung zur Speicherung mathematischer Informationen bilden., The developmental relationship between linguistic and mathematical skills is highly complex and not yet sufficiently understood. We used competence data of linguistically typical developed children from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) to further investigate interdependent influences of linguistic skills (grammar and vocabulary) as well as cognitive skills (central executive, phonological loop, indirect measures of working memory) and mathematical learning in the age range of 4 to 8 years (n = 354). Results reveal that over time especially grammatical skills impact mathematical learning. We also found evidence that language can play different roles within the interplay between cognitive skills and mathematical competences: In preschool age language represents a precondition for the performance of individual cognitive skills (central executive, phonological loop) that are closely related to mathematical learning. Language also mediates the influence of cognitive skills on mathematical learning during both, preschool and elementary school age. In addition, linguistic skills are a prerequisite for storing mathematical information particularly during preschool development., Journal für Mathematik-Didaktik (JMD);41

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Wirksamkeit innerklinischer Teamtrainingskonzepte bei unvorhersehbaren Notfallsituationen zugunsten aller Beteiligten (Wahrung der Patienten*innensicherheit, als auch die Teammitglieder des interdisziplinären Teams). In dieser Arbeit wird auf die multidisziplinäre Beziehung (Fachbereich Pflege und Medizin) und deren Herausforderungen eingegangen. Durch den regelmäßigen Kontakt mehrerer Disziplinen untereinander im Gesundheitswesen werden Stärken und Schwächen der Anderen vorausschauend vermittelt. Auch die Auswirkungen von Teamtrainingskonzepten auf die NTS der Teammitglieder und das Erheben von NTS zur interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit stellen einen wichtigen Aspekt dieser Thematik dar. Nicht alle Konzepte haben dieselbe Wirkung auf den Lernerfolg der NTS. So individuell und einzigartig Konzepte auch sind, so verschieden sind auch deren Methoden und Instrumente zur Erhebung der Wirksamkeit. This Thesis Deals with the effectiveness oft intra-hospital Team training concepts in case of unforeseeable emergency situations in favor of all concerned (patient safety, as well as the team members of the interdisciplinary team). This work addresses the multidisciplinary relationship (care and medicine) and its challenges. The regular contact between several disciplines in the health care system conveys the strengths and weaknesses of the others in a forward-looking manner. Also, the impact of team training concepts on non technical skills (NTS) from team members and NTS on interdisciplinary collaboration is an important aspect of this issue. Not all concepts have the same impact on NTS learning. As individual and unique as the concepts may be, their methods and tools for assessing effectiveness are just as diverse.

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht anhand einer interaktiven naturwissenschaftlichen Aufgabensequenz die Zusammenhänge zwischen experimentellem Problemlöseerfolg und kognitiven, motivationalen sowie leistungsfördernden Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen von Schülerinnen und Schü-lern. Bei der Messung experimenteller Problemlösefähigkeiten hat sich in vielen Studien gezeigt, dass die Ergebnisse zwischen den Leistungen in Paper-Pencil-Tests und denen beim realen Experimen-tieren nur gering miteinander korrelieren, sodass die Aussagekraft rein schriftlicher Tests nur sehr bedingt ist. Deshalb wurde hier eine experimentelle Aufgabensequenz für die Diagnose naturwissenschaftlicher Problemlösefähigkeit verwendet, die schriftliche Aufzeichnungen und reales Experimentieren miteinander verbindet und die quantitativ ausgewertet werden kann. Darüber hinaus findet mit dieser Aufgabensequenz eine individuelle Betrachtung der erbrachten Leistungen der Schülerinnen und Schüler in Einzelarbeit statt. Da angenommen werden kann, dass der Problemlöseerfolg durch kognitive Fähigkeiten und nicht-kognitive Aspekte beeinflusst wird, wurden diese als Kovariablen mit erhoben. An der Untersuchung nahmen 275 Schülerinnen und Schüler der Jahrgangsstufen 5 bis 7 niedersächsischer Gymnasien teil. Es zeigten sich positive signifikante Zusammenhänge zwischen der naturwissenschaftlich-experimentellen Problemlösefähigkeit und den kognitiven Fähigkeiten, den motivationalen Aspekten sowie zur Beurteilung ausgewählter Persönlichkeitsmerkmale der Schülerinnen und Schüler durch die Lehrkräfte., The study presented here examines the relationship between experimental problem solving success and cognitive, motivational and certain personality traits that promote performance of pupils using an interactive science task sequence. Regarding the measurement of experimental problem solving capacities, many studies have con-firmed that students’ performance in paper-pencil tests correlates only slightly with their perfor-mance in practical experimentation. Hence, the informative value of written tests as an exclusive research data base is limited. Consequently, the study presented here used an experimental task sequence combining written records with practical experimentation in order to diagnose science problem solving ability via a quantitative analysis. In addition, individual examination of the pupils’ achievments in individual work is conducted with the task sequence. Since it can be assumed that the problem-solving success is influenced by cognitive abilities and non-cognitive aspects, these were also included as covariates. A total of 275 pupils attending Germany “Gymnasiums” (secondary school) in grades 5 to 7 in Lower Saxony took part in the study. Positive correlations were found between experimental problem solving ability and cognitive abilities, motivational aspects as well as teachers’ assessment of selected personality traits of their pupils.

Experimentelle Problemlösekompetenzen sowie auch Kompetenzen beim Umgang mit Diagrammen sind wichtige Ziele des naturwissenschaftlichen Unterrichts. Eng verbunden mit der Zielsetzung des Aufbaus entsprechender Schülerfähigkeiten ist die Frage der Diagnostik. In der vorliegenden Studie wird als Grundlage für die Diagnose der oben genannten Fähigkeiten eine naturwissenschaftlich-experimentelle Aufgabensequenz verwendet, die auch die eigenständige Konstruktion eines Diagramms beinhaltet. Da viele Studien gezeigt haben, dass die Ergebnisse zwischen den Leistungen schriftlicher Tests und denen beim realen Experimentieren nur gering miteinander korrelieren, wurden die SchülerInnen hier bei der Durchführung des Realexperiments videografiert und die Daten qualitativ analysiert. Parallel dazu erstellten die SchülerInnen auch schriftliche Protokolle, die quantitativ ausgewertet wurden. Da aus theoretischer Perspektive angenommen werden kann, dass kognitive Fähigkeiten einen Einfluss haben, wurden diese als Kovariablen mit erhoben. Es zeigten sich positive, schwach signifikante Korrelationen zwischen den Leistungen bei der schriftlichen Dokumentation zum Experimentieren und den kognitiven Fähigkeiten der SchülerInnen. Die Kompetenz hinsichtlich der Diagrammkonstruktion ist insgesamt eher schwach ausgeprägt und korreliert nicht signifikant mit den kognitiven Fähigkeiten. Des Weiteren konnten mit der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse aus den Videografiedaten Faktoren identifiziert werden, die den Erfolg der SchülerInnen beim experimentellen Problemlösen beeinflussen können. Ein Vergleich der quantitativen und qualitativen Daten zeigt, dass die schriftlichen Aufzeichnungen der SchülerInnen keine differenzierte individuelle Diagnose hinsichtlich ihrer experimentellen Problemlösefähigkeiten erlaubt, wenn die SchülerInnen in Gruppen arbeiten., Experimental problem-solving competencies as well as competencies in dealing with graphs are important goals of science education. Closely linked to the objective of building up the respective skills is the question of diagnostics. The study presented here uses an experimental science task sequence, which also includes the independent construction of a graph, as a basis for diagnosing the above-named skills. Since many studies have confirmed that pupils‘ performance in paper-pencil tests correlates only slightly with their performance in practical experiments, the pupils were videotaped while conducting the experiment and the data were analysed qualitatively. Simultaneously the pupils also created lab records that were analysed quantitatively. Since it can be assumed from a theoretical perspective that cognitive abilities have an influence, they were included as covariates. Positive, weakly significant correlations were found between the performance in the written documentation of the experiment and cognitive abilities of the pupils. The competence of plotting a graph is generally rather weak and does not correlate significantly with cognitive abilities. Furthermore, qualitative content analysis of the videotaped data reveals factors that may influence the pupils’ performance in experimental problem-solving. A comparison of the quantitative and qualitative data shows that the pupils’ written documentations do not allow a differentiated individual diagnosis with regard to their experimental problem-solving skills when the pupils work in groups.

Summary Applicability of the SON-R 6-40 in Children with Hearing Impairment and Children with Diverse Cultural and Language Backgrounds Certain aspects of the use of the Snijders-Oomen Non-verbal Intelligence Test (SON-R 6-40) in clinical and educational assessment of children with hearing impairment and children from immigrant families are discussed. Test results of 35 children per group have been compared to the data from a German-speaking control group, matched by age, sex and educational achievement of both parents. Specific differences between the three groups on both subtest and IQ levels are demonstrated. This paper provides scoring results for the three groups and discusses the differences between the test profiles. The test can be accomplished with children who have special educational needs. Results also prove the usefulness of a non verbal test in the assessment of cognitive abilities in clinical-diagnostic questions.

Web-based interviewing is gradually replacing traditional modes of data collection, in particular telephone and mailed surveys. This global trend takes place despite the fact that established knowledge of its consequences on response error is incomplete. This paper studies differences between a web (CAWI) and a mailed version (MAIL) of a questionnaire in various forms of response error, namely item nonresponse, satisficing, person-reliability, and social desirable responding. We posit 1) that response error depends on respondents cognitive functioning, namely in the domains of global reading abilities, fluid intelligence, as well as working and episodic memory; and 2) that these effects differ across modes of data collection with generally higher prevalence in the CAWI mode since this mode is more demanding. The analysis builds on a randomized mode experiment implemented in the context of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II), a survey that primarily focuses on multidimensional processes of physical and mental aging (see Bertram et al. 2014). The analysis reveals a high impact of cognitive functioning at the various stages of the survey response process. While we do found moderate mode-differences in response error, such as higher item nonresponse rates in the CAWI mode, we did not find cognitive functioning to be a better predictor of response error in web-based interviewing.

This paper studies how cognitive and social skills in childhood are related to the duration of unemployment in adolescence and early adulthood. I estimate a flexible proportional hazard rate model for the probability of making a transition from unemployment to employment during an individual’s first unemployment spell. The analysis is based on British cohort data from the National Child Development Study. Results show that higher cognitive and social skills at the age of 7 are associated with an increased probability of finding employment, even when controlling for educational attainment. For men, these effects are mostly driven by individuals with low social skills. The results are robust to controlling for family background, parenting activities and school characteristics.

This paper evaluates the long-term consequences of parental death on children's cognitive and noncognitive skills, as well as on labor market outcomes. We exploit a large administrative data set covering many Swedish cohorts. We develop new estimation methods to tackle the potential endogeneity of death at an early age, based on the idea that the amount of endogeneity is constant or decreasing during childhood. Our method also allows us to identify a set of death causes that are conditionally exogenous. We find that the loss of either a father or a mother on boys' earnings is no higher than 6-7 percent and slightly lower for girls. Our examination of the impact on cognitive skills (IQ and educational attainment) and on noncognitive skills (emotional stability, social skills) shows rather small effects on each type of skill. We find that both mothers and fathers are important, but mothers are somewhat more important for cognitive skills and fathers for noncognitive ones.

Der Einfluss kontextorientierten Lernens auf das Interesse und die Lernleistung im naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht ist nach wie vor ungeklärt. Um mögliche Lernschwierigkeiten beim kontextorientierten Lernen zu vermeiden, bieten sich verschiedene Möglichkeiten wie z.B. das Concept Mapping an, das als vielfältig einsetzbare und lernförderliche Methode gilt. Ausgehend von den heterogenen Annahmen und Befunden zum Einfluss kontextorientierten Lernens wird eine experimentelle Studie im Fach Biologie durchgeführt. Ein Ziel der Studie ist es, den Einfluss kontextorientierten Lernens auf das situationale Interesse und die Lernleistung zu untersuchen. Außerdem soll der Einfluss auf die Lernleistung in Kombination mit einer Wiederholung aufgeklärt werden. Ein besonderer Fokus liegt dabei auf der Bedeutung individueller Lernvoraussetzungen beim kooperativen Lernen. Die Interventionsstudie im 2x2-Design, die von einem Testinstrumentarium an Videoaufnahmen, Messungen des situationalen Interesses sowie Leistungsmessungen zu mehreren Messzeitpunkten begleitet wird, umfasst fünf kooperative Lernsitzungen mit Interaktionsboxen zu Funktionsmodellen zum Herz und Blutkreislauf. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass das Lernen mit lebensweltlichen Kontexten entgegen den Erwartungen weder interessens- noch lernförderlich ist; allerdings ermöglicht die Kombination mit Concept Maps eine Erhöhung der Vernetzungsleistung. Videoaufnahmen geben Aufschluss darüber, welche Aussagen während des kooperativen Lernens mit Kontexten getroffen werden und wie diese in Zusammenhang zu dem situationalen Interesse und der Lernleistung stehen. Die Untersuchung der Wirksamkeit kooperativen Concept Mappings im Vergleich zum kooperativen Schreiben von Zusammenfassungen ergibt, dass Concept Mapping lernförderlich ist und die Wirksamkeit durch die kognitiven Fähigkeiten der Lernenden moderiert wird. Es zeigt sich, dass der Effekt des Concept Mappings vor allem für Lernende geringer kognitiver Fähigkeiten zum Tragen kommt, u.a., wenn sie in homogen zusammengesetzten Gruppen lernen. In der Studie gelingt es, einen Beitrag zur empirischen Prüfung des Einflusses kontextorientierten Lernens in Biologie zu liefern. Trotz erwartungswidriger Ergebnisse legitimiert diese Untersuchung kontextorientiertes Lernen, da es in Kombination mit anderen Unterstützungsmaßnahmen lernförderlich wirken kann. Die Studie liefert differenzierte Hinweise zur Effektivität von kooperativem Concept Mapping, insbesondere hinsichtlich der Abhängigkeit von den kognitiven Fähigkeiten und der Lerngruppenzusammensetzung. Darüber hinaus werden Ansatzpunkte für weitere biologiedidaktische Forschung bezüglich des themenspezifischen Einflusses lebensweltlicher Kontexte auf die Lernleistung gegeben. The influence of context-oriented learning on interest and achievement still lacks clarification. To foster learning with real-life contexts, concept mapping seems to be a reasonable learning method. Based on the diverse assumptions and mixed findings concerning the influence of context-oriented learning, an experimental study within biology education is conducted. One aim of the study is to investigate the influence of context-oriented learning on situational interest and achievement. Furthermore, the influence on achievement is tested in combination with a revision method. Special emphasis is placed on the influence of individual differences during cooperative learning. The 2-factorial intervention study is completed by various measurements like video records, questionnaires on situational interest and achievement tests, each at several points of time. The intervention phase includes five cooperative learning sessions about physical models of the heart and blood circulation. As the results show, context-oriented learning is neither conducive to situational interest nor to achievement. However, the combination with concept maps fosters networked knowledge. Video data show what kind of comments students make during cooperatively learning with real-life contexts and how these comments relate to situational interest and achievement. The analysis on the efficacy of cooperative concept mapping compared to cooperative writing summaries shows that concept mapping enhances learning achievement. Moreover, the effect of concept mapping is moderated by cognitive abilities and learning group composition so that students with low cognitive abilities learning in homogeneous groups benefit most from concept mapping. This research contributes to the empirical testing of the influence of context-oriented learning in biology education. Although the results do not confirm the potential of context-oriented learning, this study legitimates learning with real-life contexts as it supports learning in combination with concept mapping. The study gives detailed information on the effectiveness of cooperative concept mapping, particularly with regard to the dependence on cognitive abilities and learning group composition. In addition, this study suggests several indicators for future research in biology education concerning topic-specific influences of real-life contexts on achievement.

We study the intergenerational transmission of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities between parents and sons using population-wide enlistment data. Conscripts are evaluated at the same age and with comparable methods across cohorts, and we correct for measurement error bias in fathers' ability measures by using their brothers' abilities as instruments. The uncle instrument is supported by a host of validity tests. This strategy also enables us to predict mothers' abilities. Our results suggest that previous estimates of intergenerational ability correlations are biased downwards; in particular for non-cognitive skills. When this bias is corrected for the non-cognitive correlation is close to that of cognitive abilities. Using predicted abilities, we further find the mother-son cognitive ability correlation to be stronger than the father-son correlation. Finally, educational attainment and labor market outcomes of both sons and daughters are found to be strongly related to both parents' cognitive and non-cognitive abilities.

Serious life events, such as the loss or the onset of a chronic condition may influence cognitive functioning. We examine whether the cognitive impact of such events is stronger if conditions very early in life were adverse, using Dutch lnogitudinal data of older persons. We exploit exogenous variation in early-life conditions as generated by the business.

Several studies document the fact that low-educated workers participate less often in further training than high-educated workers. The economic literature suggests that there is no significant difference in employer willingness to train low-educated workers, which leaves the question of why the low educated invest less in training unanswered. This paper investigates two possible explanations: Low-educated workers invest less in training because of 1) the lower economic returns to these investments or 2) their lower willingness to participate in training. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity that can affect the probability of enrolling into training, we find that the economic returns to training for low-educated workers are positive and not significantly different from those for high-educated workers. However, loweducated workers are significantly less willing to participate in training. This lesser willingness to participate in training is driven by economic preferences (future orientation, preference for leisure), as well as personality traits (locus of control, exam anxiety, and openness to experience).

An emerging economic literature over the past decade has made use of international tests of educational achievement to analyze the determinants and impacts of cognitive skills. The cross-country comparative approach provides a number of unique advantages over national studies: It can exploit institutional variation that does not exist within countries; draw on much larger variation than usually available within any country; reveal whether any result is country-specific or more general; test whether effects are systematically heterogeneous in different settings; circumvent selection issues that plague within-country identification by using system-level aggregated measures; and uncover general-equilibrium effects that often elude studies in a single country. The advantages come at the price of concerns about the limited number of country observations, the cross-sectional character of most available achievement data, and possible bias from unobserved country factors like culture. This chapter reviews the economic literature on international differences in educational achievement, restricting itself to comparative analyses that are not possible within single countries and placing particular emphasis on studies trying to address key issues of empirical identification. While quantitative input measures show little impact, several measures of institutional structures and of the quality of the teaching force can account for significant portions of the large international differences in the level and equity of student achievement. Variations in skills measured by the international tests are in turn strongly related to individual labor-market outcomes and, perhaps more importantly, to cross-country variations in economic growth.

Cognitive functioning of elderly individuals may be affected by events such as the loss of a (grand)child or partner or the onset of a serious chronic condition, and by negative economic shocks such as job loss or the reduction of pension benefits. It is conceivable that the impact of such events is stronger if conditions early in life were adverse. In this paper we address this using a Dutch longitudinal database that follows elderly individuals for more than 15 years and contains information on demographics, socio-economic conditions, life events, health, and cognitive functioning. We exploit exogenous variation in early-life conditions as generated by the business cycle. We also examine to what extent the cumulative effect of consecutive shocks later in life exceeds the sum of the separate effects, and whether economic and health shocks later in life reinforce each other in their effect on cognitive functioning.

This paper formulates and estimates multistage production functions for children's cognitive and noncognitive skills. Skills are determined by parental environments and investments at different stages of childhood. We estimate the elasticity of substitution between investments in one period and stocks of skills in that period to assess the benefits of early investment in children compared to later remediation. We establish nonparametric identfication of a general class of production technologies based on nonlinear factor models with endogenous inputs. A by-product of our approach is a framework for evaluating childhood and schooling interventions that does not rely on arbitrarily scaled test scores as outputs and recognizes the differential effects of the same bundle of skills in different tasks. Using the estimated technology, we determine optimal targeting of interventions to children with different parental and personal birth endowments. Substitutability decreases in later stages different parental and personal birth endowments. Substitutability decreases in later stages of the life cycle in the production of cognitive skills. It is roughly constant across stages of the life cycle in the production of noncognitive skills. This finding has important implications for the design of policies that target the disadvantaged. For most configurations of disadvantage, it is optimal to invest relatively more in the early stages of childhood than in later states.

The General Educational Development (GED) credential is issued on the basis of an eight hour subject-based test. The test claims to establish equivalence between dropouts and traditional high school graduates, opening the door to college and positions in the labor market. In 2008 alone, almost 500,000 dropouts passed the test, amounting to 12% of all high school credentials issued in that year. This chapter reviews the academic literature on the GED, which finds minimal value of the certificate in terms of labor market outcomes and that only a few individuals successfully use it as a path to obtain post-secondary credentials. Although the GED establishes cognitive equivalence on one measure of scholastic aptitude, recipients still face limited opportunity due to deficits in noncognitive skills such as persistence, motivation and reliability. The literature finds that the GED testing program distorts social statistics on high school completion rates, minority graduation gaps, and sources of wage growth. Recent work demonstrates that, through its availability and low cost, the GED also induces some students to drop out of school. The GED program is unique to the United States and Canada, but provides policy insight relevant to any nation's educational context.

Using data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and fitting family fixed-effects models of child health and cognitive development, we test if left-handed children do significantly worse than their right-handed counterparts. The health measures cover both physical and mental health, and the cognitive development test scores span (1) Memory, (2) Vocabulary, (3) Mathematics, (4) Reading and (5) Comprehension. We find that while left-handed children have a significantly higher probability of suffering an injury needing medical attention, there is no difference in their experience of illness or poor mental health. We also find that left-handed children have significantly lower cognitive development test scores than right-handed children for all areas of development with the exception of reading. Moreover, the left-handedness disadvantage is larger for boys than girls, and remains roughly constant as children grow older for most outcomes. We also find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not related to the socioeconomic characteristics of the family, such as income or maternal education. All these results tend to support a difference in brain functioning or neurological explanation for handedness differentials rather than one based on left-handed children living in a right-handed world.

The growth in labor market participation among women with young children has raised concerns about the potential negative impact of the mother's absence from home on child outcomes. Recent data show that mother's time spent with children has declined in the last decade, while the indicators of children's cognitive and noncognitive outcomes have worsened. The objective of our research is to estimate a model of the cognitive development process of children nested within an otherwise standard model of household life cycle behavior. The model generates endogenous dynamic interrelationships between the child quality and employment processes in the household, which are found to be consistent with patterns observed in the data. The estimated model is used to explore the effects of schooling subsidies and employment restrictions on household welfare and child development.

The negative association between obesity and labor market outcomes has been widely documented, yet little is known about the mechanisms through which the association arises. Using rich and unique data on 450,000 Swedish men enlisting for the military, we find that the crude obesity penalty in earnings, which amounts to about 18 percent, is linked to supply-side characteristics that are associated with both earnings and obesity. In particular, we show that the penalty reflects negative associations between obesity, on the one hand, and cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills, and physical fitness, on the other. Our results suggest that employers use obesity as a marker for skill limitations in order to statistically discriminate.

Dieser Artikel präsentiert Ergebnisse mehrerer international vergleichender und deutschermikroökonometrischer Untersuchungen zum Zusammenhang zwischen frühkindlicher Bildungund späteren kognitiven und nicht-kognitiven Fähigkeiten anhand der TIMSS-, PISA-,IGLU- und DJI-Kinderpanel-Datensätze. Die teils neue Evidenz belegt, dass der Besuch frühkindlicherBildungseinrichtungen meist positiv mit späteren kognitiven und sozialen Kompetenzenzusammenhängt. Die international vergleichende Evidenz zu kognitiven Fähigkeitendeutet insbesondere auf eine große Bedeutung für die Chancengleichheit sowie auf die Wichtigkeitvon Qualitäts- und Wettbewerbsaspekten in frühkindlichen Bildungssystemen hin.Deutschland-spezifische Analysen legen die Bedeutung des vor der Schule erreichten Kompetenzniveausnahe, wohingegen die Evidenz zu den Effekten der zumeist als Betreuungseinrichtungenkonzipierten deutschen Kindergärten weniger eindeutig ist. Weitere Evidenzbelegt, dass ein früheres Eintrittsalter in den Kindergarten Kinder durchsetzungsfähiger machtund sie leichter Freundschaften schließen lässt.