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Therese Nilsson. Photo.

Therese Nilsson

Professor

Therese Nilsson. Photo.

The Long-Term Effects of Long Terms - Compulsory Schooling Reforms in Sweden

Author

  • Martin Fischer
  • Martin Karlsson
  • Therese Nilsson
  • Nina Schwarz

Summary, in English

We evaluate the impact on earnings, pensions, and further labor market outcomes of two parallel educational reforms increasing instructional time in Swedish primary school. The reforms extended the annual term length and years of compulsory schooling by comparable amounts. We find striking differences in the effects of the two reforms: at 5% the returns to the term length extension were sizeable and benefited broad ranges of the population. The compulsory schooling extension had small (2%) albeit significant effects, which were possibly driven by an increase in post-compulsory schooling. Both reforms led to increased sorting into occupations with heavy reliance on basic skills and the term extension reduced the gender gap in employment and earnings.

Department/s

  • Centre for Economic Demography
  • Department of Economics

Publishing year

2020-12

Language

English

Pages

2776-2823

Publication/Series

Journal of the European Economic Association

Volume

18

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Economics and Business

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1542-4774