76

During the 1960s, lower secondary education was unified in France and, between 1985 and 1995, access to upper-secondary education was significantly enlarged. Those were times during which there was a rapid reduction in the schooling gap between elite children who accessed the most prestigious tracks of higher education and the large majority who, right after World War II, could hardly receive more than primary education. We demonstrate that these periods of schooling expansion have come with a significant reduction in wage inequalities within the age cohorts affected by those reforms. Progressively increasing school attendance of the 95% of the population who cannot access the grandes écoles elite system has indeed resulted in better relative wages for them. Enlarging access to education raises many difficulties in the short term, however. It has less directly observable effects in the long run, but still very positive outcomes for their beneficiaries.