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Schooling, occupation and cognitive function: Evidence from compulsory schooling laws

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  • Gorman, Emma

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

This paper assesses whether additional schooling has lasting causal effects on cognitive function, and explores the role of occupation type in shaping these effects. Exploiting quasi-experimental variation from the 1972 raising of the school leaving age in England and Wales, an additional year of schooling improves working memory by one- to two-thirds of a standard deviation. Limited evidence was detected for causal effects on verbal fluency and numeric ability. Analyses of the underlying mechanisms show occupation can explain up to about one-fifth of schooling’s effects on memory. However these figures are imprecisely estimated, and the role of occupation remains an area for further study.

Suggested Citation

  • Gorman, Emma, 2017. "Schooling, occupation and cognitive function: Evidence from compulsory schooling laws," SocArXiv t647a, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:t647a
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/t647a
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lorenzo Cappellari & Daniele Checchi & Marco Ovidi, 2022. "The effects of schooling on cognitive skills: evidence from education expansions," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def122, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).

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