Anne Toft Hansen defends her PhD thesis at the Department of Economics

Candidate: Anne Toft Hansen

Title: "Topics in Economics of Higher Education: Choices and Returns"

Time and venue
1st of November 2019 at 13:00, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, CSS, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, building 26, room 26.2.21.

Evaluation committee
Associate Professor Miriam Würst , Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (chairman)
Professor Björn Öckert, Institute for Evaluation of Labor Market and Education Policy, Uppsala, Sweden
Professor Arnaud Chvalier, Royal holloway, University of London, UK

Abstract

This thesis comprises of three self-contained chapters each dealing with different aspects of higher education. 

Chapter 1 examines gender differences in the choice of education. The results suggest that females anticipate the wage gender gap when applying for higher education. Furthermore, the expected probability of having children is a determinant of females’ choice of education and not for males’ choice. (joint work with Helene Willadsen)

Chapter 2 examines the effect of university location on the choice of where to live and work of Danish university graduates. The chapter provides evidence that pushing university applicants to study in a non-metropolitan region will result in some of these graduates staying and entering the labor market in non-metropolitan regions.

Chapter 3 exploits a Danish grading reform that causes variation in university graduates' GPA. The findings show that a higher GPA caused by the grading reform yields higher earnings in the first two years after graduation, thereafter the signaling effect goes to zero. (joint work with Ulrik Hvidman and Hans Henrik Sievertsen).