The effects of compulsory schooling reforms on women’s marriage outcomes—evidence from Britain

This paper estimates the policy effect of a compulsory schooling reform in Britain in 1972 on women’s marriage outcomes. Using a regression discontinuity design and data from the General Household Survey 1982–2001, I find that although the reform reduced women’s probability of marriage as a teenager, it has no effects on their probability of never being married. For ever married women, I find that the effects of the reform on their probability of being divorced or separated are not statistically significant. Moreover, for currently married women, I find that the reform reduces the age gap between husband and wife by about 0.3 to 0.4 years. To explore the mechanisms, I find that the reform increases women’s probability of marrying a similarly aged husband by about 4.8 to 5.8 percentage points, implying that the reform strengthens assortative mating in terms of age. Overall, the findings imply that compulsory schooling reforms aimed at improving citizens’ educational attainment can also have substantial impacts on their marriage outcomes.