Is additional schooling worthless? Revising the zero returns to compulsory schooling in Germany

Kamila Cygan-Rehm

VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: This study estimates the effect of compulsory schooling on earnings. For identification, I exploit a German reform that extended the duration of secondary schooling in the 1960s. I find that hourly wages increase by 8% per additional year of schooling. This result challenges a study by Pischke and von Wachter (2008) who find zero returns to schooling using the same survey data and reform. I show that their small and insignificant estimates suffer from unconsidered institutional details. A complementary analysis using social security records confirms significant effects on earnings, but yields no effects on employment and eligibility for public transfers.

JEL-codes: I21 I26 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Working Paper: Is Additional Schooling Worthless? Revising Zero Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Germany (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc18:181528

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