Quality of higher education and earnings: evidence from Finland using field-of-study-level quality measures

Using administrative data from Finland, this paper empirically examines the relationship between university graduates’ early career earnings and three measures of university quality: the number of teachers per student, the number of publications per researcher and the number of applicants per admitted student. A distinction to previous studies is made by paying special attention to field-of-study heterogeneity: the quality measures are allowed to vary by a student’s field, while the heterogeneity of earnings and individuals across fields is accounted for in the analysis. For the most part, the results indicate that the relationship between institution quality and earnings is rather weak; ho…

Studies on higher education choices and spatial labour markets

Mikä on tutkintotodistuksesi tuotto?

Odotettujen tulojen tiedetään vaihtelevan koulutusasteiden ja -alojen välillä, mutta kuinka suuria erot tarkemmin ottaen ovat ja miten erot ovat kehittyneet viime vuosina? Artikkelissa pyritään antamaan vastauksia näihin ysymyksiin Tilastokeskuksen yksilötason rekisteriaineistojen analyysin avulla. Tulosten mukaan parhaassa työiässä olevien 36–45-vuotiaiden suomalaisten koulutukselleen saama tuotto on pysynyt keskimäärin korkeana 1990-luvun puolivälin jälkeen ikäryhmän koulutustason merkittävästä kasvusta huolimatta. Sekä tuottojen tasossa että niiden trendeissä havaitaan kuitenkin merkittäviä eroja eri opintoaloilta valmistuneiden välillä. nonPeerReviewed

Are there returns from university location in a state-funded university system?

Abstract A location in an economically active, high-amenity region could in many ways be a significant advantage for a university and its students and thus could also be positively linked to students' subsequent earnings. Based on this hypothesis, the present study empirically examines the effect of university location choice on earnings in Finland, focusing on the following question: To what extent does the choice of university location explain the observed positive early-career earnings premium for students graduating from the Helsinki metropolitan area rather than from one of the nine other university cities? The results suggest that no positive average earnings premium exists for metro …

Estimating regional differences in returns to education when schooling and location are determined endogenously

While the growing supply of university skills is known to have agglomerated towards the large centers in Finland, there is no research knowledge available on the development of regional demands. This paper attempts to fill this gap by analyzing regional variation in the private-sector return to university education in Finland for the period 1970 - 2004. In the analysis, we focus on studying 1) whether there are differences in the return to university between different region types, and 2) to what extent can these differences - if they exist - be explained by differences in regional skill supply and unemployment. For the econometric analysis, we use a large register-based dataset constructed…

Spatial variation in the development of the return to university education in Finland, 1970-2004

While the growing supply of university skills is known to have agglomerated towards the large centers in Finland, there is no research knowledge available on the development of regional demands. This paper attempts to fill this gap by analyzing regional variation in the private-sector return to university education in Finland for the period 1970-2004. In the analysis, we focus on studying 1) whether there are differences in the return to university between different region types, and 2) to what extent can these differences - if they exist - be explained by differences in regional skill supply and unemployment. For the econometric analysis, we use a large register-based dataset constructed b…