Saved by the bell? The effects of compulsory schooling laws on self-employment and earnings in Australia

Extending the research on secondary education and entrepreneurship, we ask whether compulsory schooling laws influence selection into and earnings from self-employment. We exploit the increase in the minimum school-leaving age from 14 to 15 in the mid-1960s in Victoria and South Australia. The findi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of evolutionary economics Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 227 - 296
Main Author Patel, Pankaj C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Compulsory education
Earnings
Economic Growth
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods
Economics
Economics and Finance
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Five factor model
Human capital
Institutional/Evolutionary Economics
Labor market
Locus of control
Microeconomics
Personality
Profitability
Profits
R & D/Technology Policy
Regular Article
Secondary education
Self employment
Students
Self-employment
L26
Compulsory education law
Earnings
J24
I20
Online AccessGet full text

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Summary:Extending the research on secondary education and entrepreneurship, we ask whether compulsory schooling laws influence selection into and earnings from self-employment. We exploit the increase in the minimum school-leaving age from 14 to 15 in the mid-1960s in Victoria and South Australia. The findings show that for both males and females, likelihood and income from self-employment declined. The additional year of schooling did not influence self-employment through cognitive abilities, locus of control, well-being outcomes, or Big-Five personality dimensions.
ISSN:0936-9937
1432-1386
DOI:10.1007/s00191-023-00846-2