The Effect of Compulsory Schooling on Skills: Evidence from a Reform in Germany

Franziska Hampf

No 313, ifo Working Paper Series from ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich

Abstract: Based on high-quality skill data from PIAAC, this paper provides evidence on the effect of schooling on labor-market relevant cognitive skills. For identification, I exploit the staggered introduction of a compulsory ninth grade in basic track schools across German states, as well as a simultaneous reform that introduced short school years to harmonize the start of the school year nation-wide. Instrumental-variable results suggest that the additional year of compulsory schooling increased numeracy skills of basic-track students by about 0.2 standard deviations. Using superior skill data, the results contrast with previous evidence of zero skill effects of compulsory schooling in Germany

Keywords: Returns to education; compulsory schooling reform; skills; PIAAC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 I21 I24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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