← Search

Econometrica Vol. 82 No. 4 2014

How Responsive Is Investment in Schooling to Changes in Redistributive Policies and in Returns?

Ran Abramitzky1; Victor Lavy2,3

1 Stanford University · 2 National Research University Higher School of Economics · 3 University of Warwick

Abstract

This paper uses an unusual pay reform to test the responsiveness of investment in schooling to changes in redistribution schemes that increase the rate of return to education. We exploit an episode where different Israeli kibbutzim shifted from equal sharing to productivity-based wages in different years and find that students in kibbutzim that reformed earlier invested more in high school education and, in the long run, also in post-secondary schooling. We further show that the effect is mainly driven by students in kibbutzim that reformed to a larger degree. Our findings support the prediction that education is highly responsive to changes in the redistribution policy.

DOI
10.3982/ecta10763
Volume
82
Issue
4
Pages
1241-1272
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite