IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/hastef/0451.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effect of a Social Experiment in Education

Author

Listed:
  • Meghir, Costas

    (University College London)

  • Palme, Marten

    (Dept. of Economic Statistics, Stockholm School of Economics)

Abstract

The impact of compulsory schooling laws as well as the abolition of early selection by ability remain important issues in the educational debate. These issues were the focus of a major education reform in Sweden which was implemented in the 60s. The reform was preceded by a ``social experiment'' in which only a proportion of municipalities received the new school system. We use survey data linked with tax records covering 10\%\ of one of the cohorts who were educated during the experimental period, to evaluate the impact of the reform on educational attainment and earnings. We find significant increases in the educational attainment of individuals from poorer backgrounds. We also find that the largest impact on earnings was for higher ability individuals from poorer backgrounds. In addition we estimate the returns to education for those affected by the reform. By exploiting the differential impact of the reform by county we are able, in some cases, to distinguish its direct effect on earnings from the effect it had by increasing the quantity of education. We find that the main source of increased earnings came from increasing educational attainment.

Suggested Citation

  • Meghir, Costas & Palme, Marten, 2001. "The Effect of a Social Experiment in Education," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 0451, Stockholm School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:hastef:0451
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://swopec.hhs.se/hastef/papers/hastef0451.pdf
    File Function: Complete Rendering
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "Estimating the Payoff to Schooling Using the Vietnam-era Draft Lottery," Working Papers 670, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    2. David Card, 1994. "Earnings, Schooling, and Ability Revisited," Working Papers 710, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    3. David Card, 1994. "Earnings, Schooling, and Ability Revisited," Working Papers 710, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    4. Kristin F. Butcher & Anne Case, 1994. "The Effect of Sibling Sex Composition on Women's Education and Earnings," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 531-563.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jorgen, 2007. "A structural analysis of the correlated random coefficient wage regression model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 140(2), pages 827-848, October.
    2. Christian Belzil, 2008. "Testing the Specification of the Mincer Wage Equation," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 91-92, pages 427-451.
    3. Arendt, Jacob Nielsen, 2005. "Does education cause better health? A panel data analysis using school reforms for identification," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 149-160, April.
    4. Raquel Bernal & Adriana Camacho, 2010. "La importancia de los programas para la primera infancia en Colombia," Documentos CEDE 7605, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    5. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human DEvelopment," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 320-364, 04-05.
    6. Belzil, Christian, 2004. "On the Specification of Mincerian Wage Regressions with Heterogeneity, Non-Linearity, Non-Separability, and Heteroskedasticity," IZA Discussion Papers 1083, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. James Heckman & Flavio Cunha, 2007. "The Technology of Skill Formation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 31-47, May.
    8. Dinand Webbink, 2004. "Returns to university education; evidence from an institutional reform," CPB Discussion Paper 34, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    9. Andersson, Fredrik & Konrad, Kai A., 2002. "Taxation and education investment in the tertiary sector [Besteuerung und Bildungsinvestitionen im tertiären Sektor]," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Market Processes and Governance FS IV 02-17, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Flavio Cunha & James J. Heckman, 2009. "Human Capital Formation in Childhood and Adolescence," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 7(4), pages 22-28, 01.
    11. Dinand Webbink, 2004. "Returns to university education; evidence from an institutional reform," CPB Discussion Paper 34.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    12. Belzil, Christian & Hansen, Jörgen, 2005. "A Structural Analysis of the Correlated Random Coefficient Wage Regression Model with an Application to the OLS-IV Puzzle," IZA Discussion Papers 1585, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Kevin Milligan & Enrico Moretti & Philip Oreopoulos, 2003. "Does Education Improve Citizenship? Evidence from the U.S. and the U.K," NBER Working Papers 9584, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Vegard Skirbekk & Hans-Peter Kohler & Alexia Fürnkranz-Prskawetz, 2003. "Completing education and the timing of births and marriage: findings from a birth-month experiment in Sweden," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2003-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    15. James J. Heckman, 2008. "Schools, Skills, And Synapses," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(3), pages 289-324, July.
    16. Randi Hjalmarsson & Helena Holmlund & Matthew J. Lindquist, 2015. "The Effect of Education on Criminal Convictions and Incarceration: Causal Evidence from Micro‐data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(587), pages 1290-1326, September.
    17. James J. Heckman, 2007. "The Economics, Technology and Neuroscience of Human Capability Formation," NBER Working Papers 13195, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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. Behrman, Jere R., 1996. "Measuring the effectiveness of schooling policies in developing countries: Revisiting issues of methodology," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 345-364, October.
    2. Doan, Tinh & Stevens, Philip, 2011. "Labour market returns to higher education in Vietnam," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 5, pages 1-21.
    3. Maluccio, John A., 1998. "Endogeneity of schooling in the wage function," FCND discussion papers 54, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. William N. Evans & Edward Montgomery, 1994. "Education and Health: Where There's Smoke There's an Instrument," NBER Working Papers 4949, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Angel López-Nicolás & Jaume García & Pedro J. Hernández, 2001. "How wide is the gap? An investigation of gender wage differences using quantile regression," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 149-167.
    6. Balestra, Simone & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2017. "Heterogeneous returns to education over the wage distribution: Who profits the most?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 89-105.
    7. Carlos Pestana Barros, 2001. "Economic Return on Schooling for Soccer Players," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 2(4), pages 369-378, November.
    8. Concetta, MENDOLICCHIO, 2006. "A Disaggregate Analysis of Private Returns to Education in Italy," Discussion Papers (ECON - Département des Sciences Economiques) 2006054, Université catholique de Louvain, Département des Sciences Economiques.
    9. Joseph G. Altonji & Thomas A. Dunn, 1995. "The Effects of School and Family Characteristics on the Return to Education," NBER Working Papers 5072, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Giorgio Pietro, 2013. "Military conscription and university enrolment: evidence from Italy," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 619-644, April.
    11. Carlos Pestana Barros & J.C. Gomes Santos, 2003. "Earnings and Schooling of Cooperative Managers," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(3), pages 349-364, September.
    12. López Bóo, Florencia, 2010. "Returns to Education and Macroeconomic Shocks: Evidence from Argentina," IZA Discussion Papers 4753, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Pedro Telhado Pereira & Pedro Silva Martins, 2000. "Does education reduce wage inequality? Quantile regressions evidence from fifteen European countries," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp379, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    14. Koeniger, Winfried, 2001. "Labor and Financial Market Interactions: The Case of Labor Income Risk and Car Insurance in the UK 1969-95," IZA Discussion Papers 240, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Gruetter, Max, 2005. "Returns to Foreign Education: Yet Another But Different Cross Country Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 1615, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Hartog, Joop & Oosterbeek, Hessel, 1998. "Health, wealth and happiness: why pursue a higher education?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 245-256, June.
    17. Andy Dickerson & Steven McIntosh, 2013. "The Impact of Distance to Nearest Education Institution on the Post-compulsory Education Participation Decision," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(4), pages 742-758, March.
    18. Hazan, Moshe, 2006. "Longevity and Lifetime Labour Input: Data and Implications," CEPR Discussion Papers 5963, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Skalli, Ali, 2007. "Are successive investments in education equally worthwhile? Endogenous schooling decisions and non-linearities in the earnings-schooling relationship," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 215-231, April.
    20. Isabel V. Sawhill, 1995. "Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: The Economist vs. Madmen in Authority," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 3-13, Summer.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Returns to education; LATE; Propesity score matching.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:hhs:hastef:0451. 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: Helena Lundin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erhhsse.html .

    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.