Forced to Be Rich? Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Britain

36 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2008

See all articles by Paul J. Devereux

Paul J. Devereux

University College Dublin - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Robert A. Hart

University of Stirling - Department of Economics; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 2008

Abstract

Do students benefit from compulsory schooling? Researchers using changes in compulsory schooling laws as instruments have typically estimated very high returns to additional schooling that are greater than the corresponding OLS estimates and concluded that the group of individuals who are influenced by the law change have particularly high returns to education. That is, the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) is larger than the average treatment effect (ATE). However, studies of a 1947 British compulsory schooling law change that impacted about half the relevant population have also found very high instrumental variables returns to schooling (about 15%), suggesting that the ATE of schooling is also very high and higher than OLS estimates suggest. We utilize the New Earnings Survey Panel Data-set (NESPD), that has superior earnings information compared to the datasets previously used and find instrumental variable estimates that are small and much lower than OLS. In fact, there is no evidence of any positive return for women and the return for men is in the 4-7% range. These estimates provide no evidence that the ATE of schooling is very high.

Keywords: compulsory schooling, return to education

JEL Classification: J01

Suggested Citation

Devereux, Paul J. and Hart, Robert A., Forced to Be Rich? Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Britain (February 2008). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP6679, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1140961

Paul J. Devereux (Contact Author)

University College Dublin - Department of Economics ( email )

Belfield
Dublin 4, 4
Ireland

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Robert A. Hart

University of Stirling - Department of Economics ( email )

Stirling, Scotland FK9 4LA
United Kingdom
+44 1786 467 471 (Phone)
+44 1786 467 469 (Fax)

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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