Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP9565
Authors: Magali Beffy; Denis Fougre; Arnaud Maurel
Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of employment while in college on graduation, using data from the French Labour Force Surveys over the period 1992 to 2002. Using spatial variation in low-skill youth unemployment rates to circumvent the endogeneity of college employment decisions, we find a significant and very large detrimental effect of working while in college on graduation probability. We argue that this may be due to the lack of flexibility of the French university system, which does not offer much complementarity between schooling and in-school employment.
Keywords: Bivariate probit models; Postsecondary educational attainment; Students and labour supply
JEL Codes: C35; I20; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| local unemployment rates (J69) | college employment decisions (I23) |
| college employment decisions (I23) | graduation probabilities (C29) |
| local unemployment rates (J69) | graduation probabilities (C29) |
| working during final year of study (M53) | graduation probabilities (C29) |
| working 16 hours or more per week (J22) | graduation probabilities (C29) |