Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/246781 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 985
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
This paper examines the effects of increasing the compulsory school leaving age from 16 to 18 in Hungary using a difference-in-regression-discontinuities design identification strategy. While the reform increased the length of schooling, it did not decrease the probability of dropping out of secondary school, either on average or among the most at-risk group of Roma ethnic minority young people. Due to grade retentions, marginal students were older than their peers and couldn't have made it to the final grade of secondary school by age 18. Neither did the reform increase the probability of employment at age 20 and 25. I show descriptive evidence that the share of disadvantaged students increased heavily in vocational training schools -that most marginal students attended- and potentially crowded out resources. This mechanism raises concerns about using school leaving age reforms as instrumental variables for education as it may violate its monotonicity assumption.
Subjects: 
compulsory school leaving age
differences-in-regression discontinuities
dropping out
JEL: 
I2
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.