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Compulsory Schooling and Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from a Nationwide Education Reform in Mexico

Author

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  • Diego De la Fuente Stevens

    (University of Sussex)

Abstract

This paper examines the long-term and intergenerational impacts of Mexico’s 1993 reform extending compulsory schooling from six to nine years. Exploiting the age-based discontinuity in exposure, the study implements a regression discontinuity and instrumental-variable strategy to estimate the causal effect of education. The reform increased schooling on average, with disproportionately large gains among Indigenous and rural populations. These educational improvements translated into lasting shifts in fertility, child mortality, employment, and internal migration. Intergenerationally, parental schooling gains raised secondary and upper-secondary enrolment among children. By following a single reform across demographic, labour-market, and intergenerational domains, the paper provides a life-course perspective on how expanded schooling reshapes life trajectories. The results highlight the role of compulsory schooling in reducing structural inequalities and demonstrate that, in the context of a large middle-income country, such reforms can generate sustained and intergenerational benefits beyond immediate educational attainment.

Suggested Citation

  • Diego De la Fuente Stevens, 2025. "Compulsory Schooling and Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from a Nationwide Education Reform in Mexico," Working Paper Series 0525, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
  • Handle: RePEc:sus:susewp:0525
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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • 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
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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