Abstract - Miguel Almanzar

This paper analyzes whether state compulsory education laws have increased education attainment and in what periods of time such laws have been most effective.  Compulsory education laws have a long history in the world and play an important part in the current political discourse. In the United States compulsory schooling laws date from the 19th century, although the year such laws were passed varies from state to state, as does the number of years of education required. This essay takes advantage of this variation in examining the effects of compulsory education in the general population. When the data is disaggregated by educational level, the laws appear to affect groups they are not supposed to affect, which suggests that there is a problem in identifying which groups these laws affect. This makes using compulsory schooling laws as instruments for education somewhat questionable. Several economic articles have explored the consequences of education on crime, mortality and labor productivity, but a problem arises when the effect of schooling is measured against the number of years of education of an individual. This essay concludes that such laws have increased average education and reduced race and class educational disparities.  As a result, in jurisdictions with compulsory education laws, individuals who otherwise would have dropped out of school will have an increased number of years of education for reasons unrelated to individual characteristics. It can therefore be argued that there is a causal relation between these extra years of education and health, crime rate, etc., and this will have important policy consequences. The paper also provides extensions to this research and recommendations for future research. 

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