TY - JOUR

T1 - Does raising the school leaving age reduce teacher effort?

T2 - Evidence from a Policy Experiment

AU - Green, Colin

AU - Navarro Paniagua, Maria

PY - 2012/10

Y1 - 2012/10

N2 - This paper examines the effect of an increase in the compulsory school leaving age on a measure of high school teachers' effort. Differences-in-Differences estimates using count data methods demonstrate that the policy led to teachers increasing their hours of sickness absence by roughly 15%. This result implies that raising the compulsory school leaving age reduces teaching inputs, and hence schooling quality. A policy implication is that these laws should be coupled with measures to compensate teachers for the additional disutility. This also suggests that instrumental variable estimates of returns to education that utilize these changes for identification may be downwardly biased.

AB - This paper examines the effect of an increase in the compulsory school leaving age on a measure of high school teachers' effort. Differences-in-Differences estimates using count data methods demonstrate that the policy led to teachers increasing their hours of sickness absence by roughly 15%. This result implies that raising the compulsory school leaving age reduces teaching inputs, and hence schooling quality. A policy implication is that these laws should be coupled with measures to compensate teachers for the additional disutility. This also suggests that instrumental variable estimates of returns to education that utilize these changes for identification may be downwardly biased.

U2 - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00386.x

DO - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00386.x

M3 - Journal article

VL - 50

SP - 1018

EP - 1030

JO - Economic Inquiry

JF - Economic Inquiry

SN - 0095-2583

IS - 4

ER -