Estimating the Effects of Delayed Entry into Higher Education: A Discussion

In Denmark many high school graduates choose to delay their entry into higher education. A number of studies have investigated the effects of the delay on the educational and labour market careers. The existing studies are likely to suffer from selection bias, and this problem is unlikely to be remedied by use of control variables. More advanced techniques that can eliminate the selection bias are needed in order to identify causal effects. For policy purposes it would thus be preferable to focus on the economic losses associated with the years lost in the skilled labour market which are potentially substantial.