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The causal effect of education on earnings

01 Jan 1999-Handbook of Labor Economics (Elsevier)-pp 1801-1863
TL;DR: This paper surveys the recent literature on the causal relationship between education and earnings and concludes that the average (or average marginal) return to education is not much below the estimate that emerges from a standard human capital earnings function fit by OLS.
Abstract: This paper surveys the recent literature on the causal relationship between education and earnings. I focus on four areas of work: theoretical and econometric advances in modelling the causal effect of education in the presence of heterogeneous returns to schooling; recent studies that use institutional aspects of the education system to form instrumental variables estimates of the return to schooling; recent studies of the earnings and schooling of twins; and recent attempts to explicitly model sources of heterogeneity in the returns to education. Consistent with earlier surveys of the literature, I conclude that the average (or average marginal) return to education is not much below the estimate that emerges from a standard human capital earnings function fit by OLS. Evidence from the latest studies of identical twins suggests a small upward "ability" bias -- on the order of 10%. A consistent finding among studies using instrumental variables based on institutional changes in the education system is that the estimated returns to schooling are 20-40% above the corresponding OLS estimates. Part of the explanation for this finding may be that marginal returns to schooling for certain subgroups -- particularly relatively disadvantaged groups with low education outcomes -- are higher than the average marginal returns to education in the population as a whole.
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Dissertation
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: The authors used 2001 Canadian Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF) Census data to assess three dimensions of Aboriginal educational attainment: (1) what proportion of Aboriginals fail to complete high school; (2) what is the return to different levels of education for Aboriginal individuals; and (3) the earnings return to schooling for certain Aboriginal groups.
Abstract: I use 2001 Canadian Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF) Census data to assess t\VO dimensions of Aboriginal educational attainment: (1) what proportion of Aboriginals fail to complete high school; and (2) what is the return to different levels of education for Aboriginals. I find that Aboriginals, for certain age groups, are two times more likely than non Aboriginals to leave high school before completion. Further, I find that in terms of high school completion within the Aboriginal population, registered Indians fare worst, band members better, those with self reported Aboriginal identity better still, and those with Aboriginal ethnic ancestry perform the best. I also find that the returns to high school education are higher for Aboriginals than for the white control group, and that this return varies significantly by Aboriginal group, gender, and census metropolitan area. Further, for certain Aboriginal groups the earnings return to schooling is greater than the income return, suggesting that government transfers reduce the incentive for Aboriginals to pursue further education.

1 citations

01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an analysis of the contribution of the productivite du travail to the adoption of new technologies in the context of information and communication technologies (TIC) in Canada.
Abstract: ON ADMET GENERALEMENT QUE l’accroissement marque de l’utilisation de l’ordinateur, et de facon plus generale des technologies de l’information et des communications (TIC), est le principal changement qui s’est produit dans les milieux de travail au cours de la derniere decennie. Entre 1989 et 2000, la croissance de l’investissement reel dans les ordinateurs au Canada a atteint un niveau phenomenal de 30 % par annee. En 2000, l’investissement dans les TIC en general representait pres du tiers de tous les investissements commerciaux dans les machines et le materiel au Canada. L’accroissement de l’investissement dans les TIC au Canada a donne lieu a une acceleration de la croissance de la productivite du travail dans la derniere partie des annees 90. Dans le secteur des entreprises, la croissance annuelle de la productivite du travail a ete plus elevee de plus d’un point pendant la periode 1996-2000 qu’entre 1989 et 1996. L’adoption des nouvelles technologies a coincide avec des besoins croissants de capital humain pendant cette periode, traduisant par la la complementarite entre ces deux formes d’investissement dans le processus de production. Meme si l’on accepte en general l’existence d’un lien entre la technologie, le capital humain et la productivite, tres peu d’etudes au niveau des entreprises ont evalue de facon empirique les gains de productivite associes a l’utilisation de ces technologies au Canada. De plus, les etudes microeconomiques n’ont pas ete en mesure d’examiner directement l’influence que la combinaison des investissements dans la technologie et le capital humain a exerce sur la productivite des entreprises et les salaires des travailleurs, indiquant ainsi en grande partie le manque de donnees a la fois sur les caracteristiques des

1 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors find out that in Deutschland there is no Effekt von Schulbildung in spateren Schuljahren auf kognitive Fahigkeiten.
Abstract: Mit Hilfe des Sozio-okonomischen Panels sowie regionalen Unterschieden in der Mindestschulzeit und dem Angebot an Schulen untersuchen wir den kausalen Einfluss von Bildung auf Einkommen und kognitive Fahigkeiten. Drei unterschiedliche Instrumente erlauben dabei die Schatzung nicht nur eines lokalen Treatment-Effekts (local average treatment effect), sondern auch die Betrachtung heterogener Effekte fur unterschiedliche Gruppen von Schulern. Unsere Ergebnisse stimmen mit denen vorheriger Studien uberein, die keinen Effekt einer Mindestschulzeitanderung auf Lohne feststellen. Wir finden zudem keinen kausalen Einfluss von Bildung in spateren Schuljahren auf kognitive Fahigkeiten. Damit liefern wir empirische Evidenz fur eine haufig vorgebrachte Hypothese, weshalb man in Deutschland keinen Effekt von Schulbildung auf Lohne findet: die Befunde legen nahe, dass grundlegende (arbeitsmarktrelevante) Fahigkeiten in Deutschland womoglich vor, jedenfalls aber nicht nach der achten Klasse erlernt werden.

1 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: Chen et al. as mentioned in this paper used the Taiwan Quasi Longitudinal Data Archive (1979-2003) to estimate the male marital wage premium and found that most of the marital premium can be explained by pre-existing productivity differentials between married and unmarried men.
Abstract: The study of factors determining wages has been an important topic in the field of labor and family economics in the past few decades. Among different factors that account for individual wage differentials, marital status has received special attention. There are at least two competing hypotheses that explain the male marriage premium: the specialization hypothesis and the selection hypothesis. Using the Taiwan Quasi Longitudinal Data Archive (1979-2003), my estimation results support the selection hypothesis; most of the marital premium can be explained by pre-existing productivity differentials between married and unmarried men. In addition, I found that the male marital premium varies among different age groups and it also varies among different geographical areas. Special thanks are due to Tsui-Fang Lin for her valuable comments on a draft of this paper. The author alone is responsible for errors and opinions. Citation: Chen, Jennjou, (2007) "Marital Wage Premium or Ability Selection? The Case of Taiwan 1979-2003." Economics Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 15 pp. 1-11 Submitted: September 27, 2007. Accepted: October 18, 2007. URL: http://economicsbulletin.vanderbilt.edu/2007/volume10/EB-07J30016A.pdf

1 citations

01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, a survey and panel data methodology was used to study the impact of ageing populations on intergenerational relations. But the authors did not consider the gender, ethnic and social inequality.
Abstract: Survey and panel data methodology; income and poverty dynamics; gender, ethnic and social inequality; unemployment; segmentation of labour markets; education and training; social protection and redistributive policies; impact of ageing populations; intergenerational relations; regional development and structural change.

1 citations