Compulsory Education and the Benefits of Schooling” by Melvin Stephens, Jr. and Dou-Yan Yang examines the relationship between state compulsory attendance laws and outcomes such as wages, unemployment, and divorce. They conclude, “Our fi ndings show no evidence of benefits to additional schooling using variation generated by compulsory schooling laws.” (p. 16)

The “compulsory schooling laws” mentioned above refer to state laws that compel students to enter and drop out/graduate from public schools at certain ages, not the general compulsory education statutes common among the states.

What are the practical applications of this?  Lawmakers should recognize that lowering the school starting age and/or raising the dropout age do not appear to deliver significant social and economic benefits.  This is consistent with a great deal of research (pdf) that finds little benefit to raising the dropout age from, say, 16 to 18-years-old.