DP15158 A Second Chance? Labor Market Returns to Adult Education Using School Reforms
Author(s): | Patrick Bennett, Richard Blundell, Kjell G Salvanes |
Publication Date: | August 2020 |
Keyword(s): | Adult education, Fertility, Gender Inequality, Returns to education |
JEL(s): | I26, I28, J13 |
Programme Areas: | Labour Economics |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=15158 |
Roughly one third of a cohort drop out of high school across OECD countries, and developing effective tools to address prime-aged high school dropouts is a key policy question. We leverage high quality Norwegian register data, and for identifi?cation we exploit reforms enabling access to high school for adults above the age of 25. The paper fi?nds that considerable increases inhigh school completion and beyond among women lead to higher earnings, increased employment, and decreased fertility. As male education remains unchanged by the reforms, later life education reduces the pre-existing gender earnings gap by a considerable fraction.