Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/334704 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18289
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We estimate the effects of exposure to income and wealth inequality during adolescence on long-term educational and labor market outcomes. Using detailed Swedish register data covering all students completing compulsory education between 1989 and 2013, we construct measures of inequality among students' school-cohort peers and exploit variation between cohorts within schools to identify causal effects of inequality exposure. We find no evidence that exposure to inequality affects GPA, high school graduation, university enrollment, university completion, or income up to age 35. These null results are precisely estimated and robust to alternative measures of inequality, sample definitions, and specifications. Moreover, we find no evidence of systematic heterogeneity by socioeconomic background. Taken together, these findings suggest that school integration policies mixing students from different socioeconomic backgrounds do not necessarily carry hidden long-run costs stemming from exposure to inequality. More broadly, they challenge the view that school-based exposure to peer inequality during adolescence is a causal driver of human capital accumulation or later-life mobility.
Subjects: 
inequality
school
causal
education
labor outcomes
JEL: 
D31
124
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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