This study assesses whether an additional year of secondary schooling has lasting causal effects on cognitive function. I use data from Understanding Society, the largest longitudinal household study in the United Kingdom, and exploit quasi-experimental variation in schooling from the 1972 raising of the school-leaving age in England and Wales. This reform increased the minimum secondary school‒leaving age from 15 to 16 years. Cognitive function outcomes were measured when participants were aged 48 to 60. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, I show that remaining in school until age 16 improved working memory by one third to one half of a standard deviation. I find limited evidence for causal effects on verbal fluency and measures of numeric ability. Analyses of potential mechanisms showed statistically significant effects of remaining in school until age 16 on the type of occupation entered immediately after leaving school and at older ages. These patterns are consistent with basic education improving cognitive outcomes through occupation choice. The findings are robust to sensitivity analyses.

中文翻译：

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学校教育对认知功能有持久影响吗？义务教育法的证据

这项研究评估了额外一年的中学教育是否对认知功能有持久的因果影响。我使用英国最大的纵向家庭研究《理解社会》的数据，并利用 1972 年英格兰和威尔士提高离校年龄以来学校教育的准实验变化。这项改革将中学毕业最低年龄从 15 岁提高到 16 岁。认知功能结果是在参与者 48 岁至 60 岁之间进行测量的。通过模糊回归断点设计，我发现，在 16 岁之前继续上学可以将工作记忆改善三分之一到二分之一标准差。我发现关于言语流畅性和数字能力测量的因果影响的证据有限。对潜在机制的分析表明，16 岁之前继续上学对离开学校后立即进入的职业类型和年龄较大的职业类型有统计学上的显着影响。这些模式与通过职业选择改善认知结果的基础教育是一致的。研究结果对于敏感性分析是稳健的。