Nation-building Through Compulsory Schooling during the Age of Mass Migration

Oriana Bandiera,Martina Viarengo,Myra Mohnen,Imran Rasul

doi:10.1111/ecoj.12624

Abstract

AbstractWhy did America introduce compulsory schooling laws at a time when financial investments in education and voluntary school attendance were high? We provide qualitative and quantitative evidence that states adopted compulsory schooling laws as a nation-building tool to instil civic values to the culturally diverse migrants during the ‘Age of Mass Migration’ between 1850 and 1914. We show the adoption of compulsory schooling laws occurred significantly earlier in states that hosted European migrants with lower exposure to civic values in their home countries. Using cross-county data, we show that these migrants had significantly lower demand for American schooling pre-compulsion.

Highlights

By the mid-19th century the American population was the best-educated in the world: ...nancial investments into the education system were substantial and voluntary attendance was high [Landes and Solomon 1972, Black and Sokolo¤ 2006, Goldin and Katz 2008, Go and Lindert 2010]
We present evidence that compulsory schooling was the key policy instrument used to nation-build, driven by the view that exposure to American public schools would instill the desired civic values among migrants, and a recognition that such values could be transmitted from children to their parents
It remains the case that the presence of European migrants from countries that do not have historic experience of compulsory schooling at home signi...cantly brings forward in time the passage of compulsory schooling: a one standard deviation increase in the population share of such Europeans is associated with a 65% higher hazard rate

Summary

Introduction

By the mid-19th century the American population was the best-educated in the world: ...nancial investments into the education system were substantial and voluntary attendance was high [Landes and Solomon 1972, Black and Sokolo¤ 2006, Goldin and Katz 2008, Go and Lindert 2010]. The ...gure highlights that US enrolment rates were always above 50% during this period, trending upwards, and diverging away from other countries from 1850 onwards This leads to the puzzle that lies at the heart of our study: why did US states start introducing compulsory schooling laws at a time when enrolment rates were high and trending upwards? The ...rst state to do was Massachusetts in 1852, and by 1920 most had done so These laws would not have been binding for the average American in each state, nor are they considered relevant for the marginal individual and the driving force behind ‘the educated American’ [Goldin and Katz 2003, 2008].

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Results

Conclusion