6533b7dbfe1ef96bd1271144
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Graduate employment and the returns to higher education in Africa
Mahdi Barouni Stijn Broeckesubject
Diplômé de l'enseignement supérieurJEL : I - Health Education and Welfare/I.I2 - Education and Research Institutions/I.I2.I23 - Higher Education • Research InstitutionsJEL : J - Labor and Demographic Economics/J.J3 - Wages Compensation and Labor Costs/J.J3.J31 - Wage Level and Structure • Wage Differentials[SHS.EDU]Humanities and Social Sciences/Education[SHS.EDU] Humanities and Social Sciences/Education[ SHS.EDU ] Humanities and Social Sciences/EducationJEL: I - Health Education and Welfare/I.I2 - Education and Research Institutions/I.I2.I21 - Analysis of EducationJEL: I - Health Education and Welfare/I.I2 - Education and Research Institutions/I.I2.I23 - Higher Education • Research InstitutionsRendement de l'enseignementJEL: J - Labor and Demographic Economics/J.J3 - Wages Compensation and Labor Costs/J.J3.J31 - Wage Level and Structure • Wage Differentialsreturns to education[SHS.ECO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and Financegraduate unemploymenthigher educationChômage des diplômés[ SHS.ECO ] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economies and finances[SHS.ECO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Economics and FinanceJEL : I - Health Education and Welfare/I.I2 - Education and Research Institutions/I.I2.I21 - Analysis of Educationdescription
http://cemapre.iseg.utl.pt/educonf/2e3/files/submissions_to_web/Barounia%20Mahdi_Broeckeb%20%20Stijn.docx; In this paper, we estimate the return to higher education for 12 African countries using recent data and a variety of methods. Importantly, one of our methods adjusts for the effect of higher education on the rate of joblessness, which is substantial in most African countries, and particularly for women. Our results confirm that Mincerian coefficients cannot be interpreted as a true rate of return, and that the latter (even after taking into account the employment effect) is considerably lower than what has previously been suggested in the literature (less than half). For Sub-Saharan Africa, we also uncover an interesting relationship between a country's level of education and the return to higher education: contrary to expectations, we find that in countries where a high proportion of the working age population is educated to tertiary level, the return to higher education is highest.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-01-18 |