The Long-Run Effects of Attending an Elite School: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of elite school attendance on long-run outcomes including completed education, income, and fertility. Our data consist of individuals born in the 1950s and educated in a UK district that assigned students to either elite or non-elite secondary schools. Using instrumental variables methods that exploit the school assignment formula, we find that elite school attendance had large impacts on completed education. Surprisingly, there are no significant effects on most labor market outcomes except for an increase in female income. By contrast, we document a large and significant negative impact on female fertility. (JEL I21, I24, I26, J13, J16, J24, J31)