Compulsory Education and the Benefits of Schooling

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stephens, Melvin, Jr.; Yang, Dou-Yan
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research; Carnegie Mellon University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.104.6.1777
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 1777-1792
• 关键词: adult mortality; returns; LAWS; attendance; regression; earnings; QUALITY; average; tests

摘要

Causal estimates of the benefits of increased schooling using US state schooling laws as instruments typically rely on specifications which assume common trends across states in the factors affecting different birth cohorts. Differential changes across states during this period, such as relative school quality improvements, suggest that this assumption may fail to hold. Across a number of outcomes including wages, unemployment, and divorce, we find that statistically significant causal estimates become insignificant and, in many instances, wrong-signed when allowing year of birth effects to vary across regions.