We provide a detailed picture of the causal relationship between schooling and earnings dynamics by relying on the Italian case and estimating the effect of education on earnings level, mobility and volatility over the career. To our aim, we exploit the 1962 reform that extended compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years and adopt a regression discontinuity design. We do not find a statistically significant effect of educationâ€™s increase on men's earnings, whereas we find that extra schooling increases female earnings. We also find that, for female workers, the increase in compulsory education established by the reform contributed to reduce earnings mobility. Finally, we find a high degree of heterogeneity across regional macro-areas in terms of compliance with the policy and, consequently, in the effect of education on earnings

Baribieri, Teresa; Peragine, Vito; Raitano, Michele

We provide a detailed picture of the causal relationship between schooling and earnings dynamics by relying on the Italian case and estimating the effect of education on earnings level, mobility and volatility over the career. To our aim, we exploit the 1962 reform that extended compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years and adopt a regression discontinuity design. We do not find a statistically significant effect of educationâ€™s increase on men's earnings, whereas we find that extra schooling increases female earnings. We also find that, for female workers, the increase in compulsory education established by the reform contributed to reduce earnings mobility. Finally, we find a high degree of heterogeneity across regional macro-areas in terms of compliance with the policy and, consequently, in the effect of education on earnings

Teresa Baribieri (), Vito Peragine () and Michele Raitano ()
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Teresa Baribieri: University of Bari
Vito Peragine: University of Bari
Michele Raitano: Sapienza University of Rome

No 03-2025, SERIES from Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro"

Keywords: returns to education, compulsory schooling reforms, earnings mobility and volatility, lifecycle effects; earnings dynamics. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I28 J18 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 277
Date: 2025-10, Revised 2025-10
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