The Heterogeneous Effect of Post-Compulsory Education on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence Based on Marginal Treatment Effect

Tianyu Jin and Huiqin Liu ()
Additional contact information
Tianyu Jin: Tsinghua University
Huiqin Liu: Tsinghua University

Applied Research in Quality of Life, 2023, vol. 18, issue 6, No 1, 2876 pages

Abstract: Abstract The education-happiness puzzle has long been debated in the existing literature with conflicting results. Based on the generalized Roy model, this study evaluates the marginal treatment effect of post-compulsory education on subjective well-being in China using individual-level microdata. The results indicate that post-compulsory education has a positive and robust impact on subjective well-being, especially for those with fewer opportunities for further education, such as women and rural residents. Regarding the mechanisms, our findings suggest that while post-compulsory education can enhance both income and health on average. However, it's the impact on health, not income, that explains the heterogenous effect of education on subjective well-being. Our research suggests that post-compulsory education can be a crucial tool for increasing social equity in subjective well-being. It is therefore important for policy makers to recognize the importance of assessing the heterogeneous effects of education across individuals.

Keywords: Education economics; Marginal treatment effect; Post-compulsory education; Subjective well-being; Happiness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 I26 I31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-023-10210-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:18:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1007_s11482-023-10210-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11482

DOI: 10.1007/s11482-023-10210-y

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Research in Quality of Life is currently edited by Daniel Shek

More articles in Applied Research in Quality of Life from Springer, International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().