Raphael Brade

@raphaelbrade.bsky.social

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Econ postdoc @ifo_Institut @ifoeducation.bsky.social. Interested in Economics of Education, Public Economics, Behavioral Economics, and Applied Microeconomics. Views are my own. https://sites.google.com/view/raphaelbrade/

Paper Title: Information Framing and Student Decisions: Evidence from an Opportunity Cost Intervention
Authors: Lars Behlen, Raphael Brade, Oliver Himmler, Robert Jäckle
Abstract: Opportunity costs are central to economic decision-making but often neglected. In a pre-registered experiment with 2,222 German university freshmen, one treatment provides salary information; another additionally frames it as the opportunity cost of delayed graduation. Only the opportunity cost framing causes students to update salary expectations. We find no effect on academic progress but a 2.8 percentage points increase in first-semester dropout (p=0.080), concentrated among high-dropout-probability students (5.9 pp, p=0.025). For these marginal students, dropping out instead of progressing faster is the actionable margin. By semester three, dropout rates converge, suggesting acceleration of eventual exits rather than additional dropouts.
Keywords: natural field experiment, opportunity cost neglect, earnings expectations, academic achievement
JEL Codes: C93, D84, D91, I21, I23