More than 1 in 7 people in Europe live in a household whose income is below the national poverty line, but more than 30% of people consider themselves to live in poverty. This study provides evidence on the causal relationship between education and various dimensions of poverty. I construct a novel database comprising compulsory schooling reforms in 32 European countries and use them as instruments for education. I find economically large poverty-reducing effects of education. This holds true for several objective poverty measures, which are both absolute and relative in nature, and a subjective poverty measure. An additional year of education thus reduces not only the likelihood of being classified as living in poverty but also the likelihood of considering oneself to live in poverty. Increases in labor force participation and full-time employment as well as better health are potential mechanisms behind these results. Notably, countries in Eastern Europe seem to drive the results.

欧洲有七分之一的人生活在收入低于国家贫困线以下的家庭中，但超过30％的人认为自己生活在贫困中。这项研究提供了关于教育与贫困各个层面之间因果关系的证据。我建立了一个包含32个欧洲国家义务教育改革的新颖数据库，并将其用作教育工具。我发现教育在经济上具有巨大的减贫效果。这对于本质上是绝对的和相对的客观减贫措施以及主观的减贫措施来说都是正确的。因此，接受额外一年的教育不仅减少了被归类为生活贫困的可能性，而且还降低了考虑自己生活在贫困中的可能性。这些结果背后的潜在机制是增加了劳动力的参与和全职工作以及更好的健康状况。值得注意的是，东欧国家似乎在推动结果。