IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1800.html

Education and Earnings in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Patrinos, Harry Anthony
  • Rivera-Olvera, Angelica

Abstract

Schooling increases earnings but getting causal information on the impact of schooling requires generating evidence from policy changes. In this paper, we estimate causal effects of additional education on earnings using new compulsory schooling law data across 16 European countries. We use recent and comparable microdata and analyze the impact of reforms on schooling and earnings. Results show that a year of education substantially increases earnings, especially for those with tertiary education.

Suggested Citation

  • Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Rivera-Olvera, Angelica, 2026. "Education and Earnings in Europe," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1800, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1800
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/342693/1/GLO-DP-1800.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giorgio Brunello & Margherita Fort & Guglielmo Weber, 2009. "Changes in Compulsory Schooling, Education and the Distribution of Wages in Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 516-539, March.
    2. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Introduction to "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings"," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 1-4, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Trostel, Philip & Walker, Ian & Woolley, Paul, 2002. "Estimates of the economic return to schooling for 28 countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1, October.
    5. Costas Meghir & Mårten Palme, 2005. "Educational Reform, Ability, and Family Background," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 414-424, March.
    6. Colm Harmon & Ian Walker & Niels Westergaard-Nielsen, 2001. "Introduction [to Education and earnings in Europe : a cross country analysis of the returns to education]," Open Access publications 10197/757, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    7. repec:eme:rleczz:s0147-9121(2012)0000035031 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Barro, Robert J. & Lee, Jong Wha, 2013. "A new data set of educational attainment in the world, 1950–2010," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 184-198.
    9. 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.
    10. Filer, Randall K. & Jurajda, Stepan & Planovsky, Jan, 1999. "Education and wages in the Czech and Slovak Republics during transition," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 581-593, November.
    11. Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2016. "Estimating the return to schooling using the Mincer equation," World of Labour, LISER, pages 278-278, July.
    12. Ufuk Akcigit & Jeremy Pearce & Marta Prato, 2025. "Tapping into Talent: Coupling Education and Innovation Policies for Economic Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 92(2), pages 696-736.
    13. George Psacharopoulos & Harry Anthony Patrinos, 2018. "Returns to investment in education: a decennial review of the global literature," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 445-458, September.
    14. 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.
    15. Noam Angrist & Kevin Winseck & Harry Anthony Patrinos & Joshua Graff Zivin, 2026. "Human Capital and Climate Change," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 108(4), pages 1027-1034, July.
    16. Clark, Damon, 2023. "School quality and the return to schooling in Britain: New evidence from a large-scale compulsory schooling reform," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    17. Card, David, 2001. "Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on Some Persistent Econometric Problems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(5), pages 1127-1160, September.
    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. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Psacharopoulos, George, 2026. "Causal returns to education," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    2. 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.
    3. Yasser Razak Hussain & Pranab Mukhopadhyay, 2023. "How Much do Education, Experience, and Social Networks Impact Earnings in India? A Panel Data Analysis Disaggregated by Class, Gender, Caste and Religion," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    4. Ukaj MIC & Mustafa Topxhiu RAHMIJE, 2019. "The returns to investment in education: Some theoretical and empirical insights," Economics and Applied Informatics, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 1, pages 193-203.
    5. Stanislav Avdeev, 2020. "Zero Returns To Higher Education: Evidence From A Natural Experiment," HSE Working papers WP BRP 236/EC/2020, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    6. Helal, Al Mansor & Hiraki, Ryotaro & Patrinos, Harry Anthony, 2026. "Returns to Education in the United States: A Comparison of OLS and Double Machine Learning Methods," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1733, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Karlis Vilerts & Olegs Krasnopjorovs & Edgars Brekis, 2015. "Does Education Affect Wages During and After Economic Crisis? Evidence from Latvia (2006–2012)," Working Papers 2015/03, Latvijas Banka.
    8. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila, 2018. "Is additional schooling worthless? Revising the zero returns to compulsory schooling in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181528, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Nicholas Sim, 2015. "Astronomics In Action: The Graduate Earnings Premium And The Dragon Effect In Singapore," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(2), pages 922-939, April.
    10. Bilo,Simon & Ajwad,Mohamed Ihsan & Alansari,Ebtesam & Alhumaidan,Lama & Alrashidi,Faleh M F E, 2021. "The Long Shadow of Short-Term Schooling Disruption : Analysis of Kuwait's Civil Service Payroll Data," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9641, The World Bank.
    11. Harmon, Colm & Hogan, Vincent & Walker, Ian, 2003. "Dispersion in the economic return to schooling," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 205-214, April.
    12. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    13. Meyer, Andrew, 2015. "Does education increase pro-environmental behavior? Evidence from Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 108-121.
    14. Arrazola, María & de Hevia, José, 2008. "Three measures of returns to education: An illustration for the case of Spain," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 266-275, June.
    15. Matt Dickson, 2013. "The Causal Effect of Education on Wages Revisited," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(4), pages 477-498, August.
    16. Murat G. Kirdar & Meltem Dayioglu & Ismet Koç, 2013. "Does Longer Compulsory Education Equalize Educational Attainment? Evidence From A Major Policy Reform," Working Papers 777, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2013.
    17. Assaad, Ragui & Aydemir, Abdurrahman B. & Dayıoğlu, Meltem & Kırdar, Murat Güray, 2026. "Wage returns to human capital resulting from an extra year of primary school: Evidence from Egypt," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    18. Thomas Melonio & Xavier Timbeau, 2006. "L'immatérielle richesse des nations," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 97(2), pages 329-363.
    19. Simon Bilo & Mohamed Ihsan Ajwad & Ebtesam AlAnsari & Lama AlHumaidan & Faleh AlRashidi, 2024. "Estimating Long-Term Impacts of Wartime Schooling Disruptions on Private Returns to Schooling in Kuwait," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 111-152, March.
    20. Francis Teal, 2010. "Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa: a Review of Channels and Interactions," Economics Series Working Papers CSAE WPS/2010-25, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

    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:zbw:glodps:1800. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.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.