TY  - JOUR
AU  - Oreopoulos,Philip
TI  - Do Dropouts Drop Out Too Soon? International Evidence From Changes in School-Leaving Laws
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10155
PY  - 2003
Y2  - December 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10155
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10155.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Philip Oreopoulos
Department of Economics
University of Toronto
150 St. George Street
Toronto, ON  M5S 3G7
Canada
E-Mail: philip.oreopoulos@utoronto.ca
AB  - This paper studies high school dropout behavior by estimating the long-run consequences to leaving school early. I measure these consequences using changes in minimum school leaving ages often introduced to prevent dropping out    and compare results across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Students compelled to stay in school experience substantial gains to lifetime wealth, health, and other labor market activities for all three countries, and these results hold up against a wide array of specification checks. I estimate dropping out one year later increases present value income by more than 10 times forgone earnings and more than 2 times the maximum lifetime annual wage. The one-year cost to attending high school would have to be extremely large to offset these gains under a model that views education as an investment. Other, sub-optimal, explanations for why dropouts forgo these benefits are considered.
ER  -