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School quality and the return to schooling in Britain: New evidence from a large-scale compulsory schooling reform

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  • Clark, Damon

Abstract

What is the causal effect of schooling on subsequent labor market outcomes? In this paper I contribute evidence on this question by re-examining a British compulsory schooling reform that yields large-scale and quasi-experimental variation in schooling. First, I note that this reform was introduced in 1947, when British students attended higher-track (for the “top” 20%) or lower-track (for the rest) secondary schools. The reform increased the minimum school leaving age from 14 to 15 and I show that the vast majority (over 95%) of affected students attended lower-track schools. Second, I show that the additional schooling induced by the reform had close to zero impact on a range of labor market outcomes. Third, I attribute these findings to the quality of these lower-track schools, which I argue was low along several dimensions.

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  • Clark, Damon, 2023. "School quality and the return to schooling in Britain: New evidence from a large-scale compulsory schooling reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:223:y:2023:i:c:s0047272723000841
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104902
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    Cited by:

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    2. Moschion, Julie & van Ours, Jan C., 2025. "Lifting up the lives of extremely disadvantaged youth: The role of staying in school longer," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    3. Jack Britton & Nick Ridpath & Carmen Villa & Ben Waltmann, 2025. "The short- and long-run effects of paying disadvantaged teenagers to go to school," IFS Working Papers W25/06, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Psacharopoulos, George, 2025. "The Effect of Raising School Quality on Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 17939, IZA Network @ LISER.
    5. Masuda, Kazuya & Shigeoka, Hitoshi, 2023. "Education and Later-life Mortality: Evidence from a School Reform in Japan," CINCH Working Paper Series (since 2020) 78763, Duisburg-Essen University Library, DuEPublico.
    6. Teresa Barbieri & Vito Peragine & Michele Raitano, 2025. "The effect of education on earnings dynamics: evidence from Italy," SERIES 03-2025, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Oct 2025.
    7. Afonso Câmara, 2024. "Too young to quit school? Increasing the compulsory schooling leaving age and students’ educational paths," Working Papers hal-04829754, HAL.
    8. Parker, Simon C., 2026. "Schooling and entrepreneurship: Evidence from a regression discontinuity design," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 41(1).
    9. Masuda, Kazuya & Shigeoka, Hitoshi, 2023. "Education and Later-Life Mortality: Evidence from a School Reform in Japan," IZA Discussion Papers 16310, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Psacharopoulos, George, 2026. "Causal returns to education," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    11. Clark, Gregory & Nielsen, Christian Alexander Abildgaard, 2024. "The Returns to Education: A Meta-study," CEPR Discussion Papers 18769, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    12. Fan Qin & Yinhe Liang, 2025. "Children’s access to public education and maternal employment: evidence from China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 1-35, December.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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