Instrumenting education in France: Using May 1968 events as a natural experiment?

Marie Baguet and Céline Lecavelier des Etangs-Levallois ()
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Céline Lecavelier des Etangs-Levallois: Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA

No 2017-13, THEMA Working Papers from THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise

Abstract: This study analyses the possibility to exploit the events of May 1968 in France as a natural experiment to instrument education. This strategy has been used in Maurin and McNally (2008) to assess both returns to education and intergenerational mobility. We implement a replication exercise and further investigate the validity of the instrument based on alternative data sets. It appears that the specific instrument constructed by Maurin and McNally (2008) is not convincing. We suggest an alternative instrumental variable to verify whether the events of May 1968 qualify at all as a suitable natural experiment. Finally, regardless of the choice of empirical procedure, even if the events of May 1968 increased the rate of success at the baccalauréat examination for year 1968, they had no impact on the final level of education - as students had the opportunity to take the examination more than once - and should not be used to instrument it.

Keywords: Natural experiment; education; France (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 I26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ema:worpap:2017-13

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