Deeper crisis, higher skills demand? Impact of the European financial crisis on demand for German language skills

Abstract

We analyze the 2007 European financial crisis' impact on the demand for new language skills. The crisis affected German-speaking regions less. Learning German became relatively more attractive for migration and trade. We construct a sub-national database for German as a foreign language exam (TestDaF) participation rates between 2001–2013 and define regional crisis indicators. Using a multiple-group, multiple-period difference-in-differences framework with propensity score matching, we find that TestDaF participation increased significantly in crisis-affected regions, driven by youth and severely-affected Hellenic and Latin linguistic regions.