Returns to schooling in Egypt

الملخص EN

This paper estimates the returns to schooling in Egypt using a policy reform that reduced primary school from 6 to 5 years.

As a result of this reform, which was implemented in 1988, compulsory schooling declined from 9 to 8 years.

The results indicate that the reform led to a substantial decline in completed years of schooling among the affected cohorts.

We exploit this policy change to estimate the causal impact of schooling on wages and find that among men ages 20 to 45 the return of schooling is between 2.0 to 5.7 percent.

These estimated returns are much lower than the wage returns estimated in other developing countries with the exception of Turkey where returns to schooling are found to be similarly low.