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The relationship between education and labor market is significant and complex. Education increases employment opportunities and reduces the chance of occurrence and duration of unemployment. Earnings, among other things, represent private returns on investment in education and are in the center of the analysis of this article. The main aim of this article is to estimate private and social returns on investment in primary, secondary and tertiary education in selected old and new member states of the European Union (EU) by using two methods (Earnings function and Short-cut method) based on the Mincer equation. Results have shown that there is no statistically significant difference between the estimated private and social returns on investment in primary, secondary and tertiary education in groups of old and new EU members. New members converge towards the old members, at least when it comes to returns on investment in these three education levels. The results also indicate the existence of low and negative returns on investment in education in both old and new EU members. Thus, this article with its new findings contributes significantly to the literature that studies the universality of conclusions on returns on investment in education and the methodology that is used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine the convenience of investing in more years of education after graduating from high school, the aim is to analyze a scenario under uncertainty as well as the household valuation of risk given the US subprime bubble. By using real option value and expected utility the main results are: 1) The optimal choice is to invest in more years of education immediately after graduating from high school; 2) The expected utility of investing is higher for risk-averse households and 3) No important differences were found in the observed periods, except with the reduction in wages between 2009 and 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document analyzes the variables in the determination of the income of the workers of a spare parts retailer in the metropolitan zone of Guadalajara. The allocation of income is vital as it guarantees employee satisfaction and helps the organization. In the absence of an adequate compensation system, it is likely that employees leave the organization and it is necessary to recruit new staff. The balance point between satisfaction with the compensation obtained and the competitive capacity of the company must be found. The methodology used consisted in making a series of regressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The children of high-income parents often become high-income adults, while their low-income peers often become low-income adults. Education plays a central role in this intergenerational income persistence. Because education-based inequalities grew in recent decades, many scholars predicted that intergenerational income persistence would increase. However, previous research suggests that it remained stable across recent cohorts. We address this puzzle. Analyzing National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth data, we find that growing educational inequality by parental income, along with rising economic returns to education, increased intergenerational persistence, as scholars expected. However, two countervailing trends offset this increase. The expansion of higher education reduced persistence, because completing college helps low-income children become high-income adults. Yet, this reduction in persistence was far from enough to offset the increase in persistence associated with growing educational inequality and rising educational returns. Intergenerational persistence would have increased if not for another change: within educational groups, parental income became less predictive of adult income. New methodological tools underlie these findings, tools that quantify, for the first time, education's full force in intergenerational income persistence. These findings suggest that to reduce intergenerational persistence, educational policies should focus less on how many people complete college and more on who completes college. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a detail overview of technology enhanced learning implementation vis a vis ITC business opportunities for shake hand in (FATA) Pakistan. An effort has been made to use technology enhanced learning in FATA Pakistan for provision of quality and affordable education to male and female (equally) students of higher education, in a view to eliminate gender discrimination. At the same time business opportunities have been explored and identified in information and telecommunication technology sector, analysis of the opportunity and identification of the vacuum available in telecomm sector for good return on investment (ROI). For this purpose SWOT analysis and a test, pilot project has been carried out in village Bagan of lower Kurram Agency FATA Pakistan, to calculate the potential of opportunities in the area and acceptance of technology enhance learning in hostile local unfriendly education culture and traditional environment. For which E-learning Facilitation Centre (EFC) has been established and ICT tools have been used to communicate, learn and access to quality, affordable educational contents. Various e-learning aids and e-learning framework have been developed to fulfil the requirement of local students of FATA. The paper identified number of limitation with regards to social, cultural and economic aspects. The limitation approaches through effective technology enhance learning tools for the desirable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investment in the capabilities of the world's 1·2 billion adolescents is vital to the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda. We examined investments in countries of low income, lower-middle income, and upper-middle income covering the majority of these adolescents globally to derive estimates of investment returns given existing knowledge. The costs and effects of the interventions were estimated by adapting existing models and by extending methods to create new modelling tools. Benefits were valued in terms of increased gross domestic product and averted social costs. The initial analysis showed high returns for the modelled interventions, with substantial variation between countries and with returns generally higher in low-income countries than in countries of lower-middle and upper-middle income. For interventions targeting physical, mental, and sexual health (including a human papilloma virus programme), an investment of US$4·6 per capita each year from 2015 to 2030 had an unweighted mean benefit to cost ratio (BCR) of more than 10·0, whereas, for interventions targeting road traffic injuries, a BCR of 5·9 (95% CI 5·8-6·0) was achieved on investment of $0·6 per capita each year. Interventions to reduce child marriage ($3·8 per capita each year) had a mean BCR of 5·7 (95% CI 5·3-6·1), with the effect high in low-income countries. Investment to increase the extent and quality of secondary schooling is vital but will be more expensive than other interventions-investment of $22·6 per capita each year from 2015 to 2030 generated a mean BCR of 11·8 (95% CI 11·6-12·0). Investments in health and education will not only transform the lives of adolescents in resource-poor settings, but will also generate high economic and social returns. These returns were robust to substantial variation in assumptions. Although the knowledge base on the impacts of interventions is limited in many areas, and a major research effort is needed to build a more complete investment framework, these analyses suggest that comprehensive investments in adolescent health and wellbeing should be given high priority in national and international policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The profitability of an investment in education in Indonesia has been a discussed issue for the past decades. Both Deolalikar (1993) and Duflo (2001) provided comprehensive estimates of returns to investment in education in Indonesia and both of them argued that schooling was a profitable investment. This paper updates the evidence on the profitability of an investment in education in Indonesia, using OLS and IV approaches. It describes the statistical relationship among market earnings, years of schooling, age and job tenure (experience), and quadratics of age and tenure, marital status, male-female and rural-urban dummies. In the analysis, we use primary data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey 4 (IFLS4). IFLS4 is a nationally representative sample comprising 13,536 households and 50,580 individuals, spread across provinces on the islands of Java, Sumatra, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi. The earnings function is estimated on three samples: a combined sample of males and females (with a female intercept shift term), and separate samples of male and female workers. The empirical results show that the returns to schooling in Indonesia are 4.72 per cent for the combined sample, 4.36 per cent for males, and 5.26 per cent for females. However, the relationship between years of schooling and earnings is not statistically significant in any of the IV estimations. We also make comparisons with the findings of Duflo (2001), based on earlier data for 1995. These comparisons enable an assessment of any changes in the ability bias over this period of market reform. The IV estimates are the same as, or greater than, the OLS estimates. This is consistent with the literature for developed countries, and suggests that ability does not attract a wage premium but may be correlated with the instruments. Although adopting the IV approach increases the estimated returns to schooling in Indonesia, these returns remain low compared to other Asian as well as less developed countries. Therefore, the marketoriented economic reforms that has been going on over the past several decades should be evaluated by the policy makers considering whether these reforms generating higher jobless growth or not and take proper policy measure, if there is any. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study is to estimate the effects of education on earnings of Malaysians. To achieve the objective, a Mincerian earning function has been estimated using Malaysia's Household Income Survey 2009. Apart from considering levels of qualification, factors such as age, marital status, ethnicity, occupational types and geographical locations have been considered in the estimations. The results show that the rates of return in Malaysia are high and positive, especially at the upper secondary and university education levels. Male workers, on average, received 40.3% higher than their female counterparts, holding other factors constant. There is also significant evidence of wage differential attributable to regional/urban-rural locations in Malaysia. By occupational activities, our estimates suggest that employers received the highest income, followed by those in public service, private sector, and then self-employed workers. Wage differential in Malaysia is also explained by ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the rate of return to education for 12 African countries using recent data and a range of methodologies, which we apply consistently across all countries. Our findings confirm that the return to basic education is the lowest (7–10%). The returns to upper secondary and tertiary education are similar to one another (25–30%). Accounting for the risk of joblessness increases these rates of return, particularly for basic education and for women at tertiary level. Our results at the country level suggest that great care should be taken in choosing the appropriate methodology to estimate rates of return. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of the study was to explore differences between dairy cattle farmers in Bulgaria, according to certain factors. Information about the social characteristics of the farmers (educational level, gender, and age), and about the farm characteristics (number of cows in the main herd, average milk yield, and the rate of return on investment) was collected. Sixty percent of the farmers were up to 50 years of age. Fifty percent of the farmers had had a secondary education and the rest had gained a university degree. The study found that only one of the 20 farmers was a woman. It was found that the group of farmers with a university degree had lower average age than the group of farmers with secondary school. There was no significant difference in the rate of return between the two groups of farms in terms of the effectiveness of the farm. The difference in the number of cows in the main herd was not significant too. The research identified a need for additional training for farmers in order to reduce their dependence on hired workers. It was found that farmers attend basic courses in the field of agriculture and livestock breeding in order to fill the gap between the existing levels of knowledge of farmers and the necessary skills for the effective management of dairy farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The returns to education are similar for opportunity entrepreneurs and employees. [•] Necessity entrepreneurs have 3%-points lower returns to education. [•] Pooled estimates hide this heterogeneity, which leads to misguided conclusions. [•] The results may explain Europe–US differences in entrepreneurial returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the health returns to schooling, using a twin design. For this purpose, I use data on monozygotic twins from the Midlife in the United States survey. The results suggest that completing high school improves health, as measured through self-reported health, chronic conditions, and exercise behavior, but that additional schooling does not lead to additional health gains. Controlling for certain early life factors that may vary within twin pairs does not alter the main conclusions of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Return on personal investment is an important factor affecting the decision to invest in education. This article analyzes the personal education costs of no-fee preservice students, estimates and forecasts the return on their personal education investment, and compares the costs and benefits of for-fee preservice students and nonteaching students. It finds that the expected return on personal investment in education is higher for no-fee preservice students than for-fee preservice students, but lower for nonteaching students. This finding has reference value for attracting more outstanding students to choose no-fee teacher education. However, given that the expected return on personal investment in education is lower for preservice teaching students than for nonteaching students, we recommend that the Chinese government consider diverse methods to encourage no-fee teacher education. Reducing the personal cost of education and increasing teacher salaries and subsidies, for example, would increase the expected return on personal investment in education, thereby attracting more outstanding students to the teaching profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Business intelligence applications are supposed to provide accurate, on-time reports to business analysts and executives. However, when the latter are concerned, it seems that reports they receive just contain tabular and/or visualized data (charts, dials and other visualizations) and little or no information. No matter how well presented, data has no meaning unless it is interpreted – only then it becomes information and only then can it provide actionable insight (knowledge) into how business is doing. Since this interpretation is performed manually by users, numerous issues can affect the quality of derived information: data volume and presentation, user’s concentration, previous knowledge, experience, bias, etc. A solution for automated interpretation of (business) key performance indicator values is presented in this paper. It uses domain knowledge and expert system technology to transform business data into information. Information is then presented as natural-language-like sentences and incorporated into reports. An implementation of this solution and its application as an educational tool are presented and evaluated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Taiwan's education rate of return has increased incrementally over the long term, and education is the primary factor impacting income inequality. Its impact has been increasing every year. Having their children attend college is the way for disadvantaged households to escape poverty, but the high tuition policy is putting the poor in an increasingly difficult situation. In 1986, disadvantaged households were able to pay a portion of tuition costs; their borrowing amounted to less than their spending on education. Since 1996, however, the borrowing of disadvantaged households has been far higher than their spending on education, and the gap between the two has increasingly expanded. Moreover, disadvantaged households have to pay more tuition to have the same number of children attend university, possibly because it is more difficult for children from poor households to access quality, inexpensive public universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is one of the most important elements of human capital that determines economic development at macro level and individual income at micro level. For this reason, spending on education is an investment, whether it is done by individuals or by the state. Evaluation of education as an investment brings the question to mind-"What is the return on this investment, compared to other alternative investments?" Return on investments in education is calculated by taking into consideration the education expenditures made during the training, opportunity cost of time spent on education and expectations of future returns. The purpose of this study is to calculate the private rate of return on their investment for the university training of graduate students from faculty of humanities, faculty of education, faculty of law, faculty of communication sciences and faculty of economics and administrative sciences providing education at the undergraduate level of Eskisehir Anadolu University. For this purpose, a survey was made to those who has graduated from these faculties between the years 1999-2009 and the return on higher education were calculated in respect to the data obtained. A cost-benefit analysis method was used for calculating the internal rate of return. As a result of research, among related faculties, the highest return on education investment was found to be law school faculty. Respectively faculty of communication sciences, faculty of economic and administrative sciences, faculty of education and faculty of humanities followed this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper estimates the distribution of educational returns by gender for India. While previous studies focus on mean returns, the variance of educational returns has important implications for policy-making and micro-level decision making with respect to education. If the variance of educational returns is large, it can leave large sections of the population with negative returns; if the variance of educational returns is gender specific, it can influence households’ decisions to educate girls versus boys. Our econometric results provide evidence that India''s labor markets are characterized by significant uncertainty and that the uncertainty is systematically larger for women. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate the incidence of educational mismatch in Italy and the return to investment in education, controlling for employees' ability. Contrary to most existing studies, the heterogeneity of individual performance is measured directly through the assessment of required and provided skills. Design/methodology/approach – Based on original data including over 3,600 face-to-face interviews, this paper appraises the incidence of self-assessed educational mismatch in the Italian private sector and estimates wage models of the economic returns to educational mismatch, skill requirements and provided skills. Findings – In Italy, under-educated employees outnumber over-educated ones and returns to required education and over-education are lower than in other industrialised countries. Individual heterogeneous ability, as captured by individual skills, is a significant determinant of wage, although the inclusion of direct measures of required and provided skills does not substantially affect the estimated coefficients of the return to investment in education. Practical implications – The omission of controls for the heterogeneous ability of employees biases the results of traditional ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates of wage models. However, the bias may be small enough to make simple OLS estimates on existing cross-sectional data an acceptable compromise to provide policy makers with reasonably accurate and up-to-date information. Originality/value – The paper provides a direct appreciation of individual heterogeneity that other studies can capture only through sophisticated indirect econometric techniques. In addition, the paper extends the set of available cross-country comparisons by estimating the educational mismatch and the returns to educational and skill mismatches in the overall Italian private labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we look at the income distribution by cohort in Chile. We construct a synthetic panel from cross section surveys and estimate the income distribution for cohorts born between 1902 and 1978. We then decompose the evolution of these distributions into age, year and cohort effects. The cohort effects show a period where inequality increases, to then decrease. We attempt to explain this evolution. The rise can be explained by variables associated with education, while the fall appears to be the consequence of a flattening of the income-age profile and hence a reduction in the returns to experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, I estimate the effect of state school inputs on labor market returns to schooling. The method follows and , but I extend their analysis in two ways. First, I correct state-level returns to schooling for selective migration, adapting a method from . Second, I use more recent data and assess the degree to which the 1999 labor market capitalized school inputs (with 2000 Census data). Higher state-level school inputs are associated with higher returns to schooling after correcting for selective migration. These positive effects are present in all Census years I study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines whether the results of the earnings equation developed in the over-education/required education/under-education (ORU) literature are sensitive to whether the usual or reference levels of education are measured using the Realized Matches or Worker Self-Assessment methods. The analyses are conducted for all male native-born and immigrant workers in the US, by level of skill, and by occupation. While point estimates differ, particularly when earnings equations are estimated for the smaller samples of sub-groups of the workforce, the general findings are robust to this measurement issue. Thus, the answers provided to the typical research questions in the ORU literature on the productivity of schooling are independent of the measure of the usual or reference level of education used in the analyses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper adds to the sparse literature on the consequences of education–occupation mismatches. It examines the income penalty for field of education–occupation mismatches for men and women with higher education degrees in Sweden and reveals that the penalty for such mismatches is large for both men and women. For mismatched men the income penalty is about twice as large as that found for US men, whereas for women the penalty is of about the same size as for US women. Controlling for cognitive ability further establishes that the income penalty is not caused by a sorting by ability, at least for Swedish men. The income penalty for men decreases with work experience, which is an indication that education-specific skills and work experience are substitutes to some extent. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper looks at the economic returns to different fields of study in Ireland in 2004 and also the value placed on various job-related competencies, accumulated on completion of higher education, in the Irish labour market. In examining these issues, the paper also analyses, through quantile regression, how the returns vary across the earnings distribution. The impact that education-job mismatch, both education level and field, has on earnings is also taken into consideration. The results derived indicate that, relative to the base case, there are higher returns to Medicine & Veterinary, Education, Engineering & Architecture, Science and Computers & IT. Small but significant returns were found for some of the competencies analysed, in particular technical skills. The quantile regression analysis reveals that both field and competency returns vary across the wage distribution and that, apart from Medicine & Veterinary and technical skills, field and competency-specific returns diminish as one moves up the earnings distribution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the feasibility of teaching senior school students in Australia the methods of calculating the rate of return on investments. Since students know the concept of a compound interest rate, the computations for the internal rate of return (IRR) and the continuously rate of return may be taught with efficiency. The computations for equations reducible to quadratics and integration involving exponential functions are explained. Integrating such calculations into the curriculum of senior school students will reportedly allow them to be exposed to the financial world.

Abstract: In a recent paper, García-Mainar and Montuenga-Gómez [García-Mainar, I. & Montuenga-Gómez, V. M. (2005). Education returns of wage earners and self-employed workers: Portugal vs. Spain. Economics of Education Review, 24(2), 161−170] apply the generalized IV model of Hausman and Taylor to estimate education returns of wage earners and the self-employed in Portugal and in Spain. Our examination reveals several problems which relate to the validity and documentation of the instrumental variables, as well as the robustness of the results. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Theory says that, in an overlapping-generations context, intergenerational transfer agreements are efficient if they induce equality between certain implicit rates of return. We apply this theory to the case of public education and pensions, where public education is interpreted as a loan from middle age to young, and pensions are the repayment of this loan, plus interest, from middle age to old. We use micro- and macrodata from Spain to estimate how far actual arrangements are from the normative goal. When demographic stationarity is assumed, efficiency appears reachable. When demographic change is accounted for, efficiency is far from being achieved. Nevertheless, and contrary to earlier predictions in the generational accounting literature, our findings suggest that future generations may not necessarily be worse off than current ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Students in majors with higher average quantitative graduate records exam (GRE) scores are less likely to attend graduate school whereas students in majors with higher average verbal GRE scores are more likely to attend graduate school. This sorting effect means that students whose cognitive skills are associated with lower earnings at the bachelor''s level are the most likely to attend graduate school. As a result, there is a substantial downward bias in estimated returns to graduate education. Correcting for the sorting effect raises estimated annualized returns to a Master''s or doctoral degree from about 5% to 7.3% and 12.8%, respectively. Estimated returns to professional degrees rise from 13.9% to 16.6%. These findings correspond to a large increase in relative earnings received by postgraduate degree holders in the United States over the past 20 years. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

While it might be expected that demand for schooling will depend positively on the economic returns to education (ER) in the local labor market, in fact there is theoretical ambiguity about the sign of the schooling-ER relationship when households are liquidity-constrained. Whether the relationship is positive or negative depends on which effect dominates - the positive substitution effect of an increase in ER on years of education, or the negative income effect. For India, we find a positive relationship between the rate of return to education for adults in the local labor market and school attainment of girls and non-poor boys. The size of the effect of ER on years of education acquired is large for some groups. However, for poor boys the negative income effect dominates the positive substitution effect. Thus, while improved economic incentives for acquiring education have a positive impact on educational attainment of girls and non-poor boys, they worsen the educational attainment of poor boys. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyse the relationship between wages and education at a European level, using a quantile regression in order to be able to extend the study along the whole wage distribution. This analysis is carried out for a sample of 14 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom), using the European Community Household Panel data-set. The paper aims to investigate whether the relationship between wages and education at European level is homogeneous and stable through time by running regressions for average and current (log)wages. Policy implications are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of educational level on income wages in Mexico, for the period 1987-2004. For this reason, we assess the historical evolution of educational returns using data from the National Survey of Urban Employment (ENEU). Also, we estimate three alternative models: first, taking years of study as a major explanatory variable; secondly, incorporating dummy variables for kinship and marital status; and, thirdly, considering educational levels. The results obtained show that the highest marginal returns correspond to individuals with higher educational levels. On the other hand, when getting the yields by gender, it seems that those of women surpass men's. Finally, a sharp decline in returns during periods of economic crisis can be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disciplinary alternative schools have a reputation as gateways to the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The authors conducted an evaluation of an intervention (Strategies for Success) designed to divert seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade alternative school students from this gateway. They used propensity score matching and a multivariate random effects model to estimate program impacts and found that the program not only increased attendance rates, at least in the short term, but also increased the likelihood of reassignment to alternative schools. The discussion focuses on possible reasons and solutions for high rates of return to alternative school and for the erosion of program effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we study the connection between growth and human capital in a convergence regression for the panel of Italian regions. We include measures of average primary, secondary and tertiary education. We find that increased education seems to contribute to growth only in the South. Decomposing total schooling into its three constituent parts, we find that only primary education in the South seems to be important, while tertiary education seems to have a negative impact on regional growth. Our main results are robust to the inclusion of additional variables in the regression analysis and the use of an IV estimator. Overall, this study suggests that Italian growth benefited from the elimination of illiteracy in the South, mainly in the 60s. It also suggests a possible relationship between the level of development of an economy and returns to different levels of education, with Italian regions still far from being able to capture the positive returns from higher levels of education. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examined the new learning that occurred in a professional development program for participants who aspire to the community college presidency. Knowledge construction occurred on three levels: personal, professional, and disciplinary. Reframing, embracing, and embodying activities toward knowledge construction were evident, and new knowledge was expressed cognitively, affectively, and conatively. The new learning approach can be used to capture actual learning in a professional development venue, bring the learning into the participants' full consciousness, stimulate individual and group processing for iterative knowledge construction, and provide a higher level of program evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A vast body of research finds an association between missteps taken during the teen years (such as motherhood or dropping out of high school) and poor economic and educational outcomes. However, youth who take major missteps as teens often have subsequent success in school or the labor market. This paper attempts to draw lessons from youth who appear headed for a poor start in life, yet manage to have a positive economic or educational outcome by their early 20s. Using National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS), we provide one of the first longitudinal analyses of well-being for teen mothers and high school dropouts that includes a nationally-representative population of Hispanic and Asian youth. In general, the predictors of positive outcomes are similar for those with high probabilities of poor starts as for the general population. A few high-school-age behaviors and community measures have additional associations with positive outcomes for likely poor starters. However, these correlates do not appear for all groups of likely poor starters, and they are not always in the expected direction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper develops a theoretical model of optimal schooling levels where ability and family background are the central explanatory variables. We derive schooling demand and supply functions based on individual wealth maximization. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 data, we stratify our sample into 1-yr full-time equivalent (FTE) work experience cohorts for 1985–1989. The estimated Mincerian “overtaking” cohort (the years of work experience at which individuals’ observed earnings approximately equal what they would have been based on schooling and ability alone) corresponds to 13 FTE years of experience, yielding on average a rate of return of 10.3% and an average (optimal) 11.4 yr of schooling. ( JEL J24, J31, J22) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the literature on the return to education and economic growth in China and offers new perspectives and estimations. The return to education has been rising since the reform. While the overall rate of return is still low compared to other countries, young workers and workers in the private sector enjoy significantly higher returns to education than the average. This indicates that the productivity-related traits such as education are more rewarded where market forces are functioning. Moreover, the return to education is non-linear in the sense that the return to secondary education or above is much higher. In addition, due to the spatial segmentation of labor markets in China, wide variations in return to education exist across regions. Studies at the macro-level show that the return to public education is much higher than return to private education. Using recent data (1982-2001) across provinces, this paper examines how education contributes to China's economic growth. It finds that the increase in educational attainment plays an important role in China's economic growth as well as the initial level of educational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk of investment in schooling has largely been ignored. We mimic the investment decision facing a student and simulate risky earnings profiles in alternative options, with parameters taken from the very limited evidence. The distribution of rates of return appears positively skewed. Our best estimate of ex ante risk in university education is a coefficient of variation of about 0.3, comparable with that in a randomly selected financial portfolio with some 30 stocks. With risk attitudes varying by parental background, this may be relevant for differences in schooling participation rates. Allowing for stochastic components in earnings also markedly affects expected returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To investigate the extent of over-education for recently arrived tertiary educated male immigrants in order to ascertain if higher educated immigrants face assimilation hurdles in the Australian labour market. Design/methodology/approach - Using immigrant longitudinal data (LSIA), this paper uses the job analysis/objective method of defining over-education. Also, bivariate probits are used to account for selectivity into employment when studying the determinants of graduate over-education. The over, required and under-education (ORU) earnings function is utilised to find the rates of return to education investment. Findings - It is found that English speaking background (ESB) immigrants to have similar rates of over-education compared to the native born, while only Asian non-English speaking background (NESB) immigrants see a rise in over-education after tighter immigration and welfare policies were introduced. Returns to required schooling are substantial, but the penalty for excess years of schooling is large, though consistent with the stylised facts of over-education. Research limitations/implications - Short time-frame (up to five years) only allows for an investigation of initial assimilation. Originality/value - Using panel data, this paper is the first to study the initial phase of highly educated immigrant assimilation into the Australian labour market from the viewpoint of job matching rather than just employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the returns to education for adult male workers in regular and casual wage employment using Indian national survey data at three points in time spanning almost two decades. Both standard and augmented Mincerian wage equations are estimated using a set of human capital measures and other controls after addressing the issue of potential selection bias. This paper finds that the returns to education are significantly different for the two types of workers—while casual workers face at best flat returns to education, the returns to education for regular workers are positive and U‐shaped with respect to education levels. There is also some evidence of a widening wage gap between regular workers with graduate and primary education that could possibly be a consequence of trade liberalization and other reforms pursued during the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, rates of return to education for men and women have been estimated for the Spanish case, controlling for the biases appearing in the least squares estimation of the basic Mincerian equation. The results show that the returns for women are greater than those for men. The gender differential increases when taking into account the endogeneity of the education and the selection bias, and appears to be specially important for vocational and university studies. The results are consistent with the evolution of the demand for education in Spain in the past two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the validity of two education requirement measures. This is important because a key part of the ongoing discussion concerning overeducation is about measurement. Thanks to the Dutch Institute for Labour Studies, we have been given a unique opportunity to compare two education requirement measures: first, Huijgen''s rather dated measure and, second, the new measure of Statistics Netherlands. To investigate the validity of these two measures we apply two existing methods as well as develop and apply a new method. This new method can also be used when only one measure is available. In the end, the Statistics Netherlands measure proved to be more valid than the Huijgen measure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A questionnaire-based methodology for constructing an overall index of school effectiveness is reported, focusing on within-school conditions of schools, which is currently being used in the Free State of South Africa. The article reports the construction and use of a straightforward instrument for measuring the effectiveness of key aspects of the conditions for school effectiveness in the Free State, using a variety of dimensions. It indicates how this instrument can identify where to intervene in improving schools in order to gain the maximum return on investment of time, effort, development activity and support. The instrument provides aggregated and disaggregated data for individual schools, groups of schools and whole districts, both at a single point in time and over time, thereby enabling the most economical and beneficial development to be planned for targeted individual schools and groups of schools. It enables users to identify the key drivers of the internal school conditions for effectiveness, development and change in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of Return on Investment (ROI) in training has hitherto been largely associated with the corporate world where Kirkpatrick's model of training evaluation is widely used. Interest in Kirkpatrick is growing in the public sector. This article examines how the Kirkpatrick model is actually used in a range of commercial organisations and reports that, despite the continuing respect for the model as a whole, there are few examples of organisations moving beyond Kirkpatrick's first level evaluation. Using a grounded theory analysis of interviews with over 40 key decision-makers in a variety of businesses, the article explores what practitioners believe to be important when judging the overall effectiveness of training, and presents a five-stage holistic model for evaluating ROI based on their views and experience. The article concludes with some thoughts on the possible applicability of the five-stage model to the evaluation of public sector education and training initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We examine the correlation between modern human capital and income among adult men in four foraging-horticultural societies of Bolivia. Despite their remote location, we find results similar to those found in developed nations. We find that: (a) education correlates with 4.5% higher overall income and with 5.9% higher wages and math skills correlates with 13.5% higher cash income, and (b) the positive correlation between education or math skills and income is higher among households closer to market towns. The high returns to modern human capital even in highly autarkic economies might explain why people in those societies reduce investments in the accumulation of traditional folk knowledge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Economic assumptions and other factors affecting the economics of nurse anesthesia education are presented in Part 2 of this 2-part column. In Part 1, published in the October 2004 issue of the AANA Journal, general economic principles and healthcare economic principles in particular were described, explained, and related to the current US health- care system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Returns to investment in education based on human capital theory have been estimated since the late 1950s. In the 40-plus year history of estimates of returns to investment in education, there have been several reviews of the empirical results in attempts to establish patterns. Many more estimates from a wide variety of countries, including over-time evidence, and estimates based on new econometric techniques, reaffirm the importance of human capital theory. This paper reviews and presents the latest estimates and patterns as found in the literature at the turn of the century. However, because the availability of rate of return estimates has grown exponentially, we include a new section on the need for selectivity in comparing returns to investment in education and establishing related patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]