Enduring Effects of Education

PWP-CCPR-2014-001

Abstract

Social scientists have found strong and persistent causal effects of education on various outcomes over the life course, even after using various methods to control for pre-existing selection into educational treatments. Research suggests that educational attainment is an important causal factor in determining labor market outcomes, social status, physical and mental health, marriage and fertility, civic participation, and social attitudes. As education plays a central role in the causal processes of so many outcomes of interest, understanding the effects of education is a primary concern to social scientists. The effects of education are complex and vary across demographic groups, appearing greatest for marginal students. Furthermore, after controlling for individual educational attainment, aggregate levels of education can affect economic and non-economic outcomes at both the aggregate and individual level. Building on the literature on the effects of education, we suggest promising areas for future research, including: assessing effect heterogeneity across individual and contextual characteristics; rigorously identifying and testing causal pathways and mechanisms that link education to associated outcomes; and attending to equilibrium effects, where aggregate levels of education may influence the relationship between individual education and a variety of individual outcomes.