Education reform and labor market outcomes: The case of Argentina's Ley Federal de Educación

Abstract

In the nineties Argentina implemented a large education reform (Ley Federal de Educación – LFE) that mainly implied the extension of compulsory education in two additional years. The timing in the implementation substantially varied across provinces, providing a source of identification for unraveling the causal effect of the reform. The estimations from difference-in-difference models suggest that the LFE had a positive impact on years of education and the probability of high school graduation. The impact on labor market outcomes —employment, hours of work and wages— was positive for the non-poor youths, but almost null for the poor.