Are There No Wage Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Germany? A Reassessment

Kamila Cygan-Rehm

No 14470, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This study replicates and challenges the finding of zero wage returns to compulsory schooling in Germany by Pischke and von Wachter (Review of Economics and Statistics, 90(3) 2008, 592-598), which is unusual in the literature yet widely cited and until now uncontradicted. I document that this finding is sensitive to minor changes in sample restrictions and model specification. Further results suggest that their estimates are potentially confounded by previously unconsidered institutional details. These findings render the conclusion that compulsory schooling in Germany yields no wage returns at a minimum controversial.

Keywords: replication; Germany; wages; education; returns to schooling; reassessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I26 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2021-06
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Published - published in: Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2022, 37 (1), 218 - 223

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Working Paper: Are There No Wage Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Germany? A Reassessment (2021)
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