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Revisiting Sweden's comprehensive school reform: Effects on education and earnings

Author

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  • Martin Fischer
  • Gawain Heckley
  • Martin Karlsson
  • Therese Nilsson

Abstract

We revisit a Swedish comprehensive school reform first evaluated by Meghir and Palme (2005). This reform increased years of schooling and abolished tracking. We extend the original analysis to the full population and introduce an improved education measure. Our results confirm the original overall finding of small average earnings effects. However, we find considerably larger increases in educational attainment and no evidence of decreased labor earnings for students with high‐educated fathers. Our analysis provides two new important insights: First, we find no evidence that de‐tracking had differential earnings effects across socioeconomic groups. Second, previous instrumental variable (IV) estimates using similar administrative education data are substantially upward biased.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Fischer & Gawain Heckley & Martin Karlsson & Therese Nilsson, 2022. "Revisiting Sweden's comprehensive school reform: Effects on education and earnings," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(4), pages 811-819, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:japmet:v:37:y:2022:i:4:p:811-819
    DOI: 10.1002/jae.2881
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Clark, Gregory & Nielsen, Christian Alexander Abildgaard, 2024. "The Returns to Education: A Meta-study," CEPR Discussion Papers 18769, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Gawain Heckley & Dennis Petrie, 2024. "Taking an Extra Moment to Consider Treatment Effects on Distributions," Papers 2024-18, Centre for Health Economics, Monash University.
    3. Almén, Daniel & Elinder, Mikael & Engström, Per & Erixson, Oscar & Lundberg, Erik & Palme, Mårten, 2025. "Does Education Foster Civic-Minded Citizens? Evidence from a Compulsory Schooling Reform," Working Paper Series 1515, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    4. repec:osf:socarx:f5uzg_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Grätz, Michael & Heers, Marieke, 2023. "Tracking in Context: Variation in the Effects of Reforms in the Age at Tracking on Educational Mobility," SocArXiv f5uzg, Center for Open Science.

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