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A Large Scale Experiment : Wages and Educational Expansion in France

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  • Marc Gurgand

    (Crest)

  • Eric Maurin

    (Crest)

Abstract

We evaluate the wage impact of the strong and rapid increase in schoolinglevels experienced by the cohorts born after WWII in France. In order toidentify the causal effect of education, we exploit the fact that the smallgroup of people graduating from elite education (Grandes Ecoles) remainedstable, while the rest of the system experienced tremendous transformation.This provides a well defined control group. Using large scale labor forcesurveys for the 1990's, we find that the cohorts that received more educationhave a lower wage gap, relative to Grandes Ecoles. We show that such alarge scale experiment measures a social return to schooling even in thepresence of signaling, whereas strategies based on quasi-experiments are notnecessarily robust to signaling. Our instrumental variable estimation findsreturns to schooling very similar to the rest of the literature, which is a strongcase against the signaling hypothesis.

Suggested Citation

  • Marc Gurgand & Eric Maurin, 2007. "A Large Scale Experiment : Wages and Educational Expansion in France," Working Papers 2007-31, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    • Handle: RePEc:crs:wpaper:2007-31
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Daron Acemoglu & Joshua Angrist, 2001. "How Large Are Human Capital Externalities? Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 9-74, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Acemoglu, Daron & Pischke, J. -S., 2001. "Changes in the wage structure, family income, and children's education," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 890-904, May.
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    1. Etilé, Fabrice & Jones, Andrew M., 2011. "Schooling and smoking among the baby boomers - An evaluation of the impact of educational expansion in France," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 811-831, July.
    2. Michele Raitano & Francesco Vona, 2015. "Measuring the link between intergenerational occupational mobility and earnings: evidence from eight European countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(1), pages 83-102, March.
    3. Francesco Vona, 2011. "Does the Expansion of Higher Education Reduce Educational Inequality? Evidence from 12 European Countries," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2011-12, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    4. Canaan, Serena, 2020. "The long-run effects of reducing early school tracking," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    5. Marie Baguet & Céline Lecavelier des Etangs-Levallois, 2017. "Instrumenting education in France: Using May 1968 events as a natural experiment?," THEMA Working Papers 2017-13, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.

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