Kumulative Dissertation, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2019

The dissertation is located intersection between the economics of education and health economics. After an introduction in chapter 1, it is structured in two parts. The first part (chapters 2 and 3) focuses on an educational production function with non-cognitive skills and institutional factors as inputs and competence measurements as output factors, whereas the second part (chapters 4 and 5) analyzes the relationship between institutional factors as input into health as a dimension of human capital. Chapter 2 studies, together with Anika Bela and Guido Heineck, the relationship between preschoolers' self-regulation and their mathematical competences. In chapter 3 Stefanie P. Herber, Guido Heineck and I assess whether the shift into daylight saving time (which affects sleep and the relative timing of school start) affects European elementary students' performance in international student assessments. Chapters 4 and 5 assess the health effects of the German reforms shortening school duration in the academic track. In chapter 4, I assess the effects of the reform on mental health and well-being in a natural experiment. Chapter 5 is joint work with Simon Reif. We use regional variation in the timing of the reforms as well as data on students while they are still in school and after graduation to further deconstruct the health effects of the reforms.