[2] In particular, Oosterbeek has conducted extensive research on the returns to schooling, the economics of training, investment contracts, and overeducation and has performed impact evaluations for various interventions in especially education.
His research with Dinand Webbink in De Economist on higher education enrollment in the Netherlands won the 1997 Hennipman Award.
[14] Finally, in work with Leuven and Hans van Ophem, Oosterbeek observes that about one third of the variation in wage differentials between skill groups in developed economies are explained by differences in the net supply of skill groups, with relative demand and supply being a particularly strong determinant of relative wages of low-skilled workers.
[19] Further topics in the economics of education wherein Oosterbeek has performed important research include the impacts of extra funding for IT on disadvantaged pupils' school achievement, of financial rewards for students, of entrepreneurship education, student exchanges, class size, and differences in gender-specific competitiveness.
[21] Regarding secondary school, he finds gender-specific differences in competitiveness among Dutch high school students to explain about a fifth of gender differences in the choice of academic tracks, wherein boys tend to choose substantially more prestigious and thus more math- and science-intensive tracks than girls, as they tend to be more competitive (with Thomas Buser and Muriel Niederle).
[25] Lastly, Oosterbeek has also conducted miscellaneous research on topics such as public-private wage differentials, ultimatum games and gender diversity: