Canadian compulsory school laws and their impact on educational attainment
and future earnings
by Philip Oreopoulos
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research paper series, No. 251
Context
Compulsory school laws mandate the minimum length of time children
and youths must spend in school before having the legal option to leave.
The motivation for introducing these laws, or for updating them, often
relates to assumptions that children wishing to leave school early are
better off from staying on, or that society benefits collectively from
raising a country's overall education attainment because doing
so promotes good citizenship and economic development.
Objectives
This paper examines the impact of these laws on education attainment
and on subsequent social economic outcomes for individuals compelled
to stay in school.
Findings
The findings indicate that mandating education substantially increased
adult income and substantially decreased the likelihood of being below
the low income cut-off, unemployed, and in a manual occupation. Considering
possible costs incurred while attending school, these findings suggest
compulsory schooling legislation was effective in generating large lifetime
gains to would-be-dropouts.
Data sources
Censuses of 1921, 1931, 1941, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966 and 1971.
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