IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18364.html

The Returns to Education in Arkansas: Evidence from the 1987 Compulsory Education Law

Author

Listed:
  • Patrinos, Harry

    (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville)

  • Rivera-Olvera, Angelica

    (World Bank)

Abstract

This paper estimates the returns to education in Arkansas — one of the last states to extend compulsory schooling — using ACS 2023 data and the 1987 Compulsory Schooling Law (CSL) reform as an instrument. OLS estimates imply returns of 9.5-10.4 percent per year of schooling. The CSL reform increased schooling among compliers by 0.67-0.73 years and yields IV returns of 10.4-11.7 percent, exceeding OLS estimates. The results indicate that those compelled to remain in school benefited most, consistent with global evidence on higher causal returns for disadvantaged students.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrinos, Harry & Rivera-Olvera, Angelica, 2026. "The Returns to Education in Arkansas: Evidence from the 1987 Compulsory Education Law," IZA Discussion Papers 18364, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18364
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18364.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David J. Deming, 2022. "Four Facts about Human Capital," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 75-102, Summer.
    2. 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.
    3. Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2016. "Estimating the return to schooling using the Mincer equation," World of Labour, LISER, pages 278-278, July.
    4. Melvin Stephens Jr. & Dou-Yan Yang, 2014. "Compulsory Education and the Benefits of Schooling," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1777-1792, June.
    5. Pedro Carneiro & James J. Heckman & Edward J. Vytlacil, 2011. "Estimating Marginal Returns to Education," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(6), pages 2754-2781, October.
    6. David Card, 1993. "Using Geographic Variation in College Proximity to Estimate the Return to Schooling," Working Papers 696, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    7. James J. Heckman & John Eric Humphries & Gregory Veramendi, 2018. "Returns to Education: The Causal Effects of Education on Earnings, Health, and Smoking," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(S1), pages 197-246.
    8. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Keueger, 1991. "Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 979-1014.
    9. repec:fth:prinin:317 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. George J. Borjas, 1991. "Immigration and Self-Selection," NBER Chapters, in: Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market, pages 29-76, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. David Card, 1993. "Using Geographic Variation in College Proximity to Estimate the Return to Schooling," NBER Working Papers 4483, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Philip Oreopoulos & Marianne E. Page, 2006. "The Intergenerational Effects of Compulsory Schooling," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(4), pages 729-760, October.
    13. Harry Krashinsky & Philip DeCicca, 2025. "Causal Returns to Education and Compulsory Schooling in the United States: The Importance of Opportunity Costs," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 78(4), pages 667-691, August.
    14. Barry Chiswick, 1999. "Are Immigrants Favorably Self-Selected?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 181-185, May.
    15. Kendall J. Kennedy, 2023. "Hidden schooling: endogenous measurement error and bias in education and labor market experience," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(4), pages 2691-2723, October.
    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. Thomas Carr & Toru Kitagawa, 2021. "Testing Instrument Validity with Covariates," Papers 2112.08092, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    2. David J. Deming & Mikko I. Silliman, 2024. "Skills and Human Capital in the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 32908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Tran, Anh Ngoc, 2021. "The Long-Term Effect of FIFA World Cup on Gender Gap in Education and Employment: Evidence from Vietnam," GLO Discussion Paper Series 893, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Nguyen, Cuong Viet & Chacaltana, Juan & Estupinan, Xavier & Huynh, Phu, 2025. "Manuscript: Heterogenous returns to education in labor markets: New evidence from Vietnam," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    5. Diego Ambasz & Anshuman Gupta & Harry A Patrinos, 2025. "A review of human development and environmental outcomes," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 45(4), pages 1687-1709.
    6. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Psacharopoulos, George, 2025. "Causal Returns to Education," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1653, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Freier, Ronny & Schumann, Mathias & Siedler, Thomas, 2015. "The earnings returns to graduating with honors — Evidence from law graduates," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 39-50.
    8. Marie Connolly & Catherine Haeck & Jean-William P. Laliberté, 2021. "Parental Education and the Rising Transmission of Income between Generations," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 289-315, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Lepinteur, Anthony & Nieto, Adrián, 2025. "All about the money? The gendered effect of education on industrial and occupational sorting," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Jiyuan Tan & Jose Blanchet & Vasilis Syrgkanis, 2026. "Partial Identification of Policy-Relevant Treatment Effects with Instrumental Variables via Optimal Transport," Papers 2604.12263, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2026.
    11. Ge, Suqin, 2013. "Estimating the returns to schooling: Implications from a dynamic discrete choice model," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 92-105.
    12. Rauh, Christopher, 2017. "Voting, education, and the Great Gatsby Curve," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1-14.
    13. Schumann, Mathias & Freier, Ronny & Siedler, Thomas, 2014. "The Economic Returns to Graduating with Honors - Evidence from Law Graduates," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100338, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Daeheon Choi & Chune Young Chung & Ha Truong, 2019. "Return on Education in Two Major Vietnamese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-30, September.
    15. Diane Charlton & J. Edward Taylor, 2020. "Rural school access and the agricultural transformation," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(5), pages 641-654, September.
    16. Suqin Ge & Elliott Isaac & Amalia Miller, 2022. "Elite Schools and Opting In: Effects of College Selectivity on Career and Family Outcomes," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(S1), pages 383-427.
    17. Mohitosh Kejriwal & Xiaoxiao Li & Evan Totty, 2020. "Multidimensional skills and the returns to schooling: Evidence from an interactive fixed‐effects approach and a linked survey‐administrative data set," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(5), pages 548-566, August.
    18. Sun, Zhenting & Wüthrich, Kaspar, 2025. "Pairwise valid instruments," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    19. Mogstad, Magne & Torgovitsky, Alexander, 2024. "Instrumental variables with unobserved heterogeneity in treatment effects," Handbook of Labor Economics,, Elsevier.
    20. Shen, Danqing, 2018. "Better Educated, Fewer Divorces: The Impact of College Education Quality on Marriage Outcomes," MPRA Paper 94198, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education

    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:iza:izadps:dp18364. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.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.