Author(s)
Patrick Bennett
Richard Blundell
Kjell Salvanes

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 finds that considerable increases in high 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.

Publication Type
Working Paper
File Description
First version, August 3, 2020
JEL Codes
I26: Returns to Education
I28: Education: Government Policy
J13: Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Keywords
adult education
returns to education
fertility
gender inequality