Does Education Improve Cognitive Performance Four Decades After School Completion? A Replication Study of Nicole Schneeweis, Vegard Skirbekk and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer (Demography, 2014)

This paper replicates the analysis of Schneeweis et al. (2014) using their sample as well as an extended sample. Schneeweis et al. (2014) use the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) dataset and exploit compulsory schooling reforms implemented in six European countries to analyse the impact of education on cognitive functioning decades after leaving school. They find a positive effect of education on memory scores and some evidence of a protective effect of education on the decline in verbal fluency. Our results support their findings when we use the same waves as they do, but also when we extend the sample by including more countries and interview waves and use different variables for years of education.