Tracking Pupils Into Adulthood: Selective Schools and Long-Term Human Capital

Chiara Pastore, Nigel Rice and Andrew Jones

A chapter in Recent Developments in Health Econometrics, 2024, vol. 297, pp 7-36 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: We explore the effect of selective schooling, where students are assigned to different schools by ability, on adult health, well-being and labour market outcomes. We exploit the 1960s transition from a selective to a non-selective secondary schooling system in England and Wales. The introductio3n of mixed-ability schools decreased average school quality and peer ability for high-ability pupils, while it increased them for low-ability pupils. We therefore distinguish between two treatment effects: that of high-quality school attendance for high-ability pupils and that of lower-quality school attendance for low-ability pupils, with mixed-ability schools as the alternative. We address selection bias by balancing individual pre-treatment characteristics via entropy balancing, followed by ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Selective schooling does not affect long-term health and well-being, while it marginally raises hourly wages, compared to a mixed-ability system, and school aspirations for high-ability pupils. Cognitive and non-cognitive abilities measured prior to secondary school are significantly and positively associated with all adult outcomes.

Keywords: Ability tracking; educational reform; well-being; health; entropy balancing; instrumental variables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ceazzz:s0573-855520240000297002

DOI: 10.1108/S0573-855520240000297002

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