This paper delves into the well-known phenomenon of shrinking wage elasticities for married women in the US over recent decades. The results of a novel model experimental approach via sample data ordering unveil considerable heterogeneity across different wage groups. Yet, surprisingly constant...

This paper re-examines the instrumental variable (IV) approach to estimating returns to education by use of compulsory school law (CSL) in the US. We show that the IV-approach amounts to a change in model specification by changing the causal status of the variable of interest. From this...

This paper re-examines the instrumental variable approach to estimating the effect of compulsory school law on education in the US pioneered by Angrist and Krueger (1991). We show that the approach not only yields empirically inconsistent estimates but is conceptually confused. The confusion...