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

2018/06/09 by Oriana Bandiera, Myra Mohnen, Imran Rasul +1 · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #School Choice and Performance #Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/ecoj.12624

openalex publication_date 2018/06/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

Abstract Why 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.

Citations

• Which Countries Have State Religions?
• Immigration in American Economic History
• Were Compulsory Attendance and Child Labor Laws Effective? An Analysis from 1915 to 1939
• Law and Finance

Cited by

• LITERACY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL EXPANSION IN PORTUGAL: 1940-62
• Education in the United States [wikipedia]

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• The Determinants of Early Investments in Urban School Systems in the United States
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• Finding a Balance in Education: Immigration, Diversity, and Schooling in Urban America, 1880-1900