IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/evarev/v44y2020i5-6p437-470.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Compulsory Schooling on Hourly Wage: Evidence From the 1999 Education Reform in Poland

Author

Listed:
  • Jacek LiwiÅ„ski

Abstract

Background: In 1999, an education reform was implemented in Poland, which added 1 year to the shortest available educational path—that of basic vocational education. Under the new system, students choosing this path receive one additional year of general education. According to the authors of the reform, this should improve the students’ position in the labor market, as a shortage of general skills was identified as the main deficit of basic vocational school leavers prior to the reform. Purpose: The study assesses the impact of the 1999 reform on the hourly wage of individuals who completed formal education after obtaining a basic vocational school certificate. Methods: The analysis is based on individual data from the Polish Labor Force Survey for the years 2001–2016. As the education reform was implemented simultaneously across the country, a regression discontinuity design is used to assess its impact. Results and Conclusions: The study finds that one additional year of general education has led to a 13% increase in the hourly wages of individuals who completed basic vocational schools. This effect is higher than those reported in studies for other countries where the wage premium is typically found to be under 10%. This may be because the extension of compulsory schooling in Poland affected individuals with relatively low general skills and abilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Jacek LiwiÅ„ski, 2020. "The Impact of Compulsory Schooling on Hourly Wage: Evidence From the 1999 Education Reform in Poland," Evaluation Review, , vol. 44(5-6), pages 437-470, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:44:y:2020:i:5-6:p:437-470
    DOI: 10.1177/0193841X20987104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0193841X20987104
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0193841X20987104?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jörn-Steffen Pischke & Till von Wachter, 2008. "Zero Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Germany: Evidence and Interpretation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 592-598, August.
    2. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00754526 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Oosterbeek, Hessel & Webbink, Dinand, 2007. "Wage effects of an extra year of basic vocational education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 408-419, August.
    4. Paul J. Devereux & Robert A. Hart, 2010. "Forced to be Rich? Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(549), pages 1345-1364, December.
    5. Colm Harmon; & Ian Walker, 1995. "Estimates of Economic Return to Schooling in the UK," Economics Department Working Paper Series n540195, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    6. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Eble, Alex & Hu, Feng, 2019. "Does primary school duration matter? Evaluating the consequences of a large Chinese policy experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 61-74.
    8. Harmon, Colm & Walker, Ian, 1995. "Estimates of the Economic Return to Schooling for the United Kingdom," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1278-1286, December.
    9. Callan, Tim & Harmon, Colm, 1999. "The economic return to schooling in Ireland," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 543-550, November.
    10. Julien Grenet, 2013. "Is Extending Compulsory Schooling Alone Enough to Raise Earnings? Evidence from French and British Compulsory Schooling Laws," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00754526, HAL.
    11. Fischer, Martin & Karlsson, Martin & Nilsson, Therese & Schwarz, Nina, 2016. "The Sooner the Better? Compulsory Schooling Reforms in Sweden," IZA Discussion Papers 10430, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Vieira, Jose A. C., 1999. "Returns to education in Portugal," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 535-541, November.
    13. Upalat Korwatanasakul, 2019. "Revisiting the returns to education during rapid structural and rural transformation in Thailand: A regression discontinuity approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-105, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    15. Fuwa, Nobuhiko & Korwatanasakul, Upalat, 2017. "Revisiting the Returns to Education in Thailand: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," 2017 ASAE 9th International Conference, January 11-13, Bangkok, Thailand 284851, Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE).
    16. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    17. Pekkarinen, Tuomas & Uusitalo, Roope & Kerr, Sari, 2009. "School tracking and intergenerational income mobility: Evidence from the Finnish comprehensive school reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(7-8), pages 965-973, August.
    18. Levin, Jesse & Plug, Erik J. S., 1999. "Instrumenting education and the returns to schooling in the Netherlands," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 521-534, November.
    19. Brunello, Giorgio & Miniaci, Raffaele, 1999. "The economic returns to schooling for Italian men. An evaluation based on instrumental variables1," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 509-519, November.
    20. Julien Grenet, 2013. "Is Extending Compulsory Schooling Alone Enough to Raise Earnings? Evidence from French and British Compulsory Schooling Laws," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 115(1), pages 176-210, January.
    21. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    22. Philip Oreopoulos, 2006. "Estimating Average and Local Average Treatment Effects of Education when Compulsory Schooling Laws Really Matter," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(1), pages 152-175, March.
    23. Jakubowski, Maciej & Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Porta, Emilio Ernesto & Wisniewski, Jerzy, 2010. "The impact of the 1999 education reform in Poland," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5263, The World Bank.
    24. Lee, David S. & Card, David, 2008. "Regression discontinuity inference with specification error," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 655-674, February.
    25. Harmon, Harmon & Ian Walker, 1995. "Estimates of the economic return to schooling for the UK," IFS Working Papers W95/12, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    26. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Siddhartha Chib & Liana Jacobi, 2016. "Bayesian Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Analysis and Returns to Compulsory Schooling," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1026-1047, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liwiński, Jacek, 2018. "The Impact of Compulsory Schooling on Earnings. Evidence from the 1999 Education Reform in Poland," GLO Discussion Paper Series 253, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    2. Seeun Jung, 2014. "Does Education Affect Risk Aversion?: Evidence from the 1973 British Education Reform," PSE Working Papers halshs-00967229, HAL.
    3. Seeun Jung, 2015. "Does education affect risk aversion? Evidence from the British education reform," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(28), pages 2924-2938, June.
    4. Stanislav Avdeev, 2020. "Zero Returns To Higher Education: Evidence From A Natural Experiment," HSE Working papers WP BRP 236/EC/2020, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    5. Julien Grenet, 2013. "Is Extending Compulsory Schooling Alone Enough to Raise Earnings? Evidence from French and British Compulsory Schooling Laws," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 115(1), pages 176-210, January.
    6. Liwiński, Jacek, 2018. "The Impact of Compulsory Education on Employment and Earnings in a Transition Economy," GLO Discussion Paper Series 193, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila, 2018. "Is additional schooling worthless? Revising the zero returns to compulsory schooling in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181528, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Gregory Clark & Christian Abildgaard Nielsen, 2024. "The Returns to Education: A Meta-study," Working Papers 0249, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    9. Daniel A. Kamhöfer & Hendrik Schmitz, 2013. "Analyzing Zero Returns to Education in Germany – Heterogeneous Eff ects and Skill Formation," Ruhr Economic Papers 0446, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    10. Paul J. Devereux & Robert A. Hart, 2010. "Forced to be Rich? Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Britain," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(549), pages 1345-1364, December.
    11. Ragui Assaad & Abdurrahman Aydemir & Meltem Dayioglu & Guray Kirdar, 2016. "Returns to Schooling in Egypt," Working Papers 1000, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2016.
    12. Gehrsitz, Markus & Williams, Jr., Morgan C., 2024. "The Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Health and Hospitalization over the Life Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 17050, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. repec:zbw:rwirep:0446 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Kamhöfer, Daniel & Schmitz, Hendrik, 2013. "Analyzing Zero Returns to Education in Germany: Heterogeneous Effects and Skill Formation," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79910, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    15. Buscha, Franz & Dickson, Matt, 2015. "The Wage Returns to Education over the Life-Cycle: Heterogeneity and the Role of Experience," IZA Discussion Papers 9596, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Assaad, Ragui & Aydemir, Abdurrahman B. & Dayioglu-Tayfur, Meltem & Kirdar, Murat Güray, 2023. "Wage Returns to Human Capital Resulting from an Extra Year of Primary School: Evidence from Egypt," IZA Discussion Papers 16037, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Markus Gehrsitz & Morgan C. Williams, "undated". "The Effects of Compulsory Schooling on Health and Hospitalization over the Life Cycle," Working Papers 2303, University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics, revised May 2020.
    18. Meyer, Andrew G., 2017. "The impact of education on political ideology: Evidence from European compulsory education reforms," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 9-23.
    19. Kamila Cygan‐Rehm, 2022. "Are there no wage returns to compulsory schooling in Germany? A reassessment," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(1), pages 218-223, January.
    20. Carlos Pestana Barros, 2006. "Earnings, Schooling and Social Capital of Cooperative Managers," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(1), pages 1-20, March.
    21. Matt Dickson, 2013. "The Causal Effect of Education on Wages Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(4), pages 477-498, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:evarev:v:44:y:2020:i:5-6:p:437-470. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.