Working Paper: NBER ID: w25332
Authors: Victor Lavy; Assaf Kott; Genia Rachkovski
Abstract: We analyze in this paper the long term effect of a high school remedial education program, almost two decades after its implementation. We combine high school records with National Social Security administrative data to examine longer-term outcomes when students were in their early 30s. Our evidence suggest that treated students experienced a 10 percentage points increase in completed years of college schooling, an increase in annual earnings of 4 percentage points, an increase of 1.5 percentage points in months employed, and a significant increase in intergenerational income mobility. These gains are reflecting mainly improvement in outcomes of students from below median income families. Therefore, we conclude that remedial education program that targeted underachieving students in their last year of high school had gains that went much beyond the short term significant improvements in high school matriculation exams. A cost benefit analysis of the program suggests that the government will recover its cost within 7-8 years, implying a very high rate of return to this remedial education program.
Keywords: Remedial Education; Long-Term Effects; Labor Market Outcomes; Intergenerational Mobility
JEL Codes: I28; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Remedial education program (I24) | postsecondary schooling enrollment (I23) |
| Remedial education program (I24) | completed years of education (I21) |
| Remedial education program (I24) | annual earnings (J31) |
| Remedial education program (I24) | months employed (J63) |
| Remedial education program (I24) | intergenerational income mobility (J62) |
| Remedial education program (I24) | recovery of government costs (H12) |