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Duration of pre-university education and labour market outcomes: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in Ghana

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Listed:
  • Emmanuel Adu Boahen
  • Kwadwo Opoku
  • Simone Schotte

Abstract

This paper provides new evidence on the causal effect of shortening the duration of pre-university education on long-term labour market outcomes in Ghana. We use the education reform of 1987 as a natural experiment, which reduced the years of education prior to university from 17 to 12 years. Our identification strategy uses a regression discontinuity design, taking advantage of the situation that pre- and post-reform birth cohorts entered the labour market around the same time, thus facing similar conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Emmanuel Adu Boahen & Kwadwo Opoku & Simone Schotte, 2020. "Duration of pre-university education and labour market outcomes: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in Ghana," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-106, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-106
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emmanuel Adu Boahen & Chikako Yamauchi, 2018. "Corrigendum: The Effect of Female Education on Adolescent Fertility and Early Marriage: Evidence from Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education in Ghana," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(2), pages 249-249.
    2. Stephan L. Thomsen, 2015. "The impacts of shortening secondary school duration," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 166-166, July.
    3. Büttner Bettina & Thomsen Stephan L., 2015. "Are We Spending Too Many Years in School? Causal Evidence of the Impact of Shortening Secondary School Duration," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 65-86, February.
    4. Ahmed Elsayed & Olivier Marie, 2015. "How Does Reducing Years of Compulsory Schooling Affect Education and Labor Market Outcomes in a Developing Country?," Working Papers 944, Economic Research Forum, revised Sep 2015.
    5. Imbens, Guido W. & Lemieux, Thomas, 2008. "Regression discontinuity designs: A guide to practice," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 615-635, February.
    6. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1975. "The Theory of "Screening," Education, and the Distribution of Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 283-300, June.
    7. Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth, 2010. "Africa's education enigma? The Nigerian story," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 128-139, January.
    8. Hendrik Thiel & Stephan L. Thomsen & Bettina Büttner, 2014. "Variation of learning intensity in late adolescence and the effect on personality traits," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 177(4), pages 861-892, October.
    9. Guido Imbens & Karthik Kalyanaraman, 2012. "Optimal Bandwidth Choice for the Regression Discontinuity Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(3), pages 933-959.
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    11. Tobias Meyer & Stephan L. Thomsen & Heidrun Schneider, 2019. "New Evidence on the Effects of the Shortened School Duration in the German States: An Evaluation of Post‐secondary Education Decisions," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 20(4), pages 201-253, November.
    12. Mathias Kuepié & Christophe J. Nordman, 2016. "Where Does Education Pay Off in Sub-Saharan Africa? Evidence from Two Cities of the Republic of Congo," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 1-27, January.
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    14. Emmanuel Adu Boahen & Chikako Yamauchi, 2018. "The Effect of Female Education on Adolescent Fertility and Early Marriage: Evidence from Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education in Ghana," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(2), pages 227-248.
    15. Jacob Mincer, 1991. "Education and Unemployment," NBER Working Papers 3838, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Tobias Meyer & Stephan L. Thomsen, 2016. "How Important Is Secondary School Duration for Postsecondary Education Decisions? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(1), pages 67-108.
    17. Gordon Abekah‐Nkrumah & Patrick Opoku Asuming & Hadrat Yusif, 2019. "Duration of High School Education and Youth Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Policy Experiment in Ghana," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 617-631, October.
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    Keywords

    Years of education; Labour market; Labour market outcomes; Regression discontinuity; Ghana;
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