Vocational training, educational attainment, and inequality: evidence from a nationwide expansion

Joao R. Ferreira and Pedro Martins

Nova SBE Working Paper Series from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics

Abstract: We evaluate the impact of vocational education and training (VET) in a setting with high dropout rates and socio-economic inequality in educational attainment. We estimate that the introduction of VET courses across public upper secondary schools in Portugal was associated with a 2.7 percentage points increase in on-time graduation rates (6% of the baseline rate). Our identification strategy exploits the staggered introduction of the VET track, which created quasi-experimental variation in the local availability of VET across school districts and cohorts. Drawing on a comprehensive student-school matched panel spanning 2006-2017, we implement an event-study design and three complementary IV strategies. We find substantial positive effects of VET take-up on graduation rates, especially among previously low-achieving and socio-economically disadvantaged students.

Keywords: Vocational education; Educational attainment; Educational inequality; Matched student-school data; Portugal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 I28 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 77 pages
Date: 2026
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Working Paper: Vocational Training, Educational Attainment, and Inequality: Evidence from a Nationwide Expansion (2026)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unl:unlfep:wp690

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