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Do a Few Months of Compulsory Schooling Matter? The Education and Labour Market Impact of School Leaving Rules

Author

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  • Del Bono, Emilia

    (ISER, University of Essex)

  • Galindo-Rueda, Fernando

    (Office of National Statistics)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the understanding of how compulsory schooling regulations affect educational attainment and subsequent labour market outcomes. It uses valuable information from a natural experiment driven by rules that allow for variation in legal dropout dates. Since the school leaving rule bites in the middle of a school year cohort, our identification approach is immune to other relative age/peer effects. Information on the precise month of birth enables us to show that students compelled to stay on in education as a result of this compulsory school leaving rule attain higher qualification levels and see their participation and employment probability as adults enhanced. We show that the estimated genuine impact of attaining an academic qualification on participation and employment is always statistically significant, in particular for women, although IV coefficients are usually below OLS estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Del Bono, Emilia & Galindo-Rueda, Fernando, 2004. "Do a Few Months of Compulsory Schooling Matter? The Education and Labour Market Impact of School Leaving Rules," IZA Discussion Papers 1233, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1233
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Leigh, Andrew & Ryan, Chris, 2008. "Estimating returns to education using different natural experiment techniques," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 149-160, April.
    2. Puhani, Patrick A. & Weber, Andrea M., 2005. "Does the Early Bird Catch the Worm? Instrumental Variable Estimates of Educational Effects of Age of School Entry in Germany," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 25840, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    3. Fertig, Michael & Kluve, Jochen, 2005. "The Effect of Age at School Entry on Educational Attainment in Germany," RWI Discussion Papers 27, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    4. William Collier & Javier Valbuena & Yu Zhu, 2011. "What Determines Post-Compulsory Educational Choice? Evidence from the Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England," Studies in Economics 1112, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    5. Erich Battistin & Barbara Sianesi, 2006. "Misreported schooling and returns to education: evidence from the UK," CeMMAP working papers CWP07/06, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. Dolton, Peter & Sandi, Matteo, 2017. "Returning to returns: Revisiting the British education evidence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 87-104.
    7. Battistin, Erich & De Nadai, Michele & Sianesi, Barbara, 2014. "Misreported schooling, multiple measures and returns to educational qualifications," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 181(2), pages 136-150.
    8. Dickson, Matt & Smith, Sarah, 2011. "What determines the return to education: An extra year or a hurdle cleared?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1167-1176.
    9. Dolton, Peter & Sandi, Matteo, 2017. "Returning to returns: revisiting the British education evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 85152, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    school leaving rules; instrumental variables; education; participation; employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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