Schooling, occupation and cognitive function: Evidence from compulsory schooling laws

Emma Gorman

No t647a, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: This paper assesses whether additional schooling has lasting causal effects on cognitive function, and explores the role of occupation type in shaping these effects. Exploiting quasi-experimental variation from the 1972 raising of the school leaving age in England and Wales, an additional year of schooling improves working memory by one- to two-thirds of a standard deviation. Limited evidence was detected for causal effects on verbal fluency and numeric ability. Analyses of the underlying mechanisms show occupation can explain up to about one-fifth of schooling’s effects on memory. However these figures are imprecisely estimated, and the role of occupation remains an area for further study.

Date: 2017-10-23
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:t647a

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/t647a

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