Research

PhD Job Market Paper

Too young to quit school? Increasing the Compulsory Schooling Leaving age and students' educational paths

I study how a significant increase in the compulsory schooling leaving age, from 15 to 18 years old, can contribute to reducing early school leaving and changing students’ educational paths. I analyse the Portuguese reform of 2009, exploiting the fact that grade retention in the 7th grade in this year provides quasi-experimental variation in exposure to the new policy. While effects for the overall student population are small or null, lower-achieving students significantly increase their schooling duration. Additionally, some sub-groups of lower-achieving students, particularly boys and those enrolling in upper-secondary school, increased their graduation probabilities.

Publications

The effect of a specialized versus a general upper-secondary school curriculum on students’ performance and inequality. A difference-in-differences cross-country analysis (Applied Economics, 2020), with Josep-Oriol Escardíbul, Luís Catela Nunes, Ana Balcão Reis, and Carmo Seabra

The Termination of Publicly Funded Private School Contracts: Supply and Demand Side Effects (Journal of School Choice, 2023) with João Firmino, André Guilherme, and Luís Catela Nunes

Working Papers

Pupil Well-being in Danish Primary and Lower Secondary Schools (Economics Working Papers, Aarhus University)