Stanislav Avdeev is presenting his paper at the conference of the European Economic Association

Stanislav Avdeev, Research Assistant at CInSt, is presenting his paper "Zero Returns to Higher Education: Evidence from a Natural Experiment" at the 35th Congress of the European Economic Association at 17:30 (UTC+3) on August 26th.

Although many papers estimate returns to education, little causal evidence is found for low– and middle–income countries. This paper estimates the causal effect of one year of university education on wages and employment in Russia. In 2011, the Bologna reform shortened the university study period by one year and reduced the content of the curricula but did not change the quality of admitted students. The author exploits this reform as a natural experiment and uses a difference–in–differences design. The author finds no adverse effect of a one–year reduction on wages and on the probability of being employed. This suggests that the reform lowered the opportunity costs of education but did not affect the accumulation of specific skills relevant for the labour market.

Information about the speaker

To read the full paper, please follow the link