Declining rates of return to education: evidence for Indonesia

In 1977, American labour economist Richard Freeman documented a fall in the return to education in the US, and attributed it to the expansion of the country's education sector. This article shows, similarly, that the returns to education in Indonesia generally declined between 1993 and 2007–08, following the large-scale expansion of the sector. The changes, however, were reasonably modest, and sometimes differed between males and females. This suggests that both recent growth in the education sector (which by itself could depress the return to education) and uneven growth across the Indonesian economy (which could differentially increase demand for graduates at various levels of education) have played a role in determining the pattern of change over time in the profitability of education in Indonesia.     

Private rates of return to education of Africans in South Africa for 1995: a Double Hurdle model

In this study, the private rates of return to education of African males and females in South Africa are estimated. Both Heckman's (1976) two-stage selection model and the more recent Double Hurdle model, with correlated errors between the participation and employment equations, is found to be more suitable for the earnings analysis than the one with uncorrelated errors. This might imply that people make the decisions to participate in the labour force and to take up a job offer simultaneously. The private rate of return to education of Africans is found to be 12 and 11 per cent for males and females, respectively. These rates are significantly higher than those found in previous analyses of rates of return to education in South Africa. In these older studies, the private rate of return to education of Africans was found to vary from 2,5 to 7,7 per cent.     

Superior female education: Explaining the gender earnings gap trend in Thailand

It is well-known that along with Thailand's remarkable increase in real income per capita during 1985–2005, an increase in overall income inequality was observed. What is not documented in the literature is that, during the same time period, the gender earnings inequality declined considerably. This paper seeks to identify the main factors that contributed to the decline in gender earnings gap in Thailand's wage and salary sector during 1985–2005. A parametric methodology, the Neumark (1988) version of the Blinder–Oaxaca (1973) method, is implemented in order to decompose gender earnings gap. I also make a methodological contribution by proposing a way to modify the DiNardo–Fortin–Lemieux (1996) nonparametric decomposition method so that its results are comparable to those from the Neumark version of the Blinder–Oaxaca method. The key findings of this paper are as follows. First, I find that increases in female education and changes in unobserved factors, which were concurrent with modernization, were the main sources of the decline in gender earnings gap. Second, over time, improvements in the education of females in this sector surpassed that of males. However, the superior education of females did not result in females earning higher than males due to the existing counteracting effect of the unexplained factors. Finally, the nonparametric investigation corroborated the results from the parametric methodology.     

Youth wage employment and parental education in Malawi

This paper looks at the relationship between the likelihood of being in regular wage employment and parental education for Malawian youth. It uses data from the third integrated household survey (IHS3). Only a mother's education is found to have a statistically significant effect on the likelihood of being in regular wage employment for young females and males. It is established that the effect of a mother's education on young males is significantly larger than that for young females. The paper also finds that, regardless of gender, a mother's education complements/reinforces the positive effect of a youth's own education on the probability of being in wage employment. The evidence from this paper points to the existence of an intergenerational poverty trap; with children of uneducated mothers or mothers with low education finding themselves outside regular wage jobs.     

Gender earnings differentials in Taiwan: A stochastic frontier approach

We examine Taiwan's male–female earnings gaps over the past three decades in order to assess the progress in assimilating women into the labor market. Two alternative methods of evaluating earnings gaps are employed in this paper: the traditional Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition method and the less well-known method of evaluating labor market efficiency. Men and women's earnings are converging during this period (1978–2003) while at the same time there is little change in the level of gender discrimination measured by the standard Oaxaca–Blinder method. Using the labor market efficiency (stochastic frontier) model we find increases in labor market efficiency over time for both males and females; however, females enjoy a much faster rate of increase in efficiency. We conclude that the relative increase in female efficiency represents a decline in discrimination against females.     

Rates of return to education of blacks in South Africa

The aim of this empirical study was to calculate private and social rates of return to education and to test the hypothesis that education is a major determinant of earning differentials for blacks in South Africa. Data for 23 278 working men and women were extracted from the 1985 Current Population Survey files. This comprised a sample representative of the black population in the Republic of South Africa excluding the former Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei territories. Lifetime earnings profiles were constructed from these data for five educational levels, namely, no schooling up to Standard 1; Standards 2 to 4; Standards 5 to 7; Standards 8 to 9; and Standard 10. Schooling was assumed to account for 60 per cent of the earnings differentials between these profiles. Imputed average household outlays on schooling were taken as the private direct cost of education. These were supplemented by estimates of per pupil spending by the various government departments responsible for black education, to calculate the social costs per year of primary and secondary schooling. Indirect costs in the form of imputed foregone earnings were included from Standard 5 (age 15) onwards. The private internal rates of return to education of males were found to be about 16 per cent at primary level and 24 per cent for secondary schooling. Corresponding social rates of return are about 6 per cent for primary and 15 per cent for secondary education. Estimates for females showed negative rates of return between no schooling and Standards 2 to 4, the private and social rates being estimated at ‐1 per cent and ‐4 per cent respectively; from Standards 2 to 4 to Standards 5 to 7, a private rate of 12 per cent and a social rate of 4 per cent are reported; and for the remaining secondary school phases private rates of about 32 per cent and social rates of about 15 per cent are estimated. The study confirms that education is a major determinant of earnings differentials and education expansion can be regarded as a powerful earnings equaliser.     

Gendered trends in poverty in the post-apartheid period, 1997–2006

This study investigates whether trends in the extent and depth of poverty in South Africa over the past decade have been gendered. We examine whether females are more likely to live in poor households than males and whether this has changed over time, and how poverty has changed for female-headed and male-headed households. We use data from the 1997 and 1999 October Household Surveys and the 2004 and 2006 General Household Surveys, which have the advantage of collecting information on the individual receipt of social grant income. We find that although poverty rates have fallen for both males and females, and for male-headed and female-headed households, the decline has been larger for males and for male-headed households. Gender differences in poverty rates have therefore widened over the period. We show that these findings are robust to the possible underestimation of household income and to adjustments for household composition.     

Male–female wage differentials in Japan

This paper empirically analyzes the gender wage gap in Japan using a new data set KHPS2004 which contains a wealth of information on the work history of individuals. KHPS2004 enables us to estimate wage functions without overstating individual’s human capital accumulation by work experience especially for females. Neuman-Oaxaca decomposition method is employed to analyze why the gender wage gap appears to exist in Japan. Main reasons as follows. First, full-time work experience and seniority which affect significantly wages is shorter for females than for males. Second, there are significant differences in evaluation of full-time experience between males and females.     

二元结构下我国城镇劳动力市场中的性别工资差异研究

文章利用CHIP2002和CHIP2013数据,采用基于RIF无条件分位数回归的分解法,比较了不同时间维度和不同分位数水平上,我国农民工和城镇职工的性别工资差距及其形成机理。研究结果表明：第一,我国城镇劳动力市场中的性别工资差距不断扩大,其中农民工的性别工资差距全方位扩大,且低分位数上的增速最快,致使2013年其各分位数上的性别工资差距超过城镇职工。其中,低收入城镇职工与中等收入农民工群体的性别工资差距及其来源具有相似特征。第二,系数效应是造成城镇职工和农民工性别工资差异的主要因素,两个群体的性别歧视均有所增强。但与城镇职工相比,农民工群体的性别歧视较大且增速较快。由于低收入群体中性别歧视的快速增长,城镇劳动力市场中遭受性别歧视最严重的群体由2002年的高收入的城镇女性职工和高收入的女性农民工,转变为2013年中等收入的女性农民工和低收入的城镇女性职工。第三,尽管针对中高收入城镇女性职工的市场前歧视和市场歧视均有所弱化,但低收入的城镇女性人力资本水平及其回报率仍低于同类男性,呈现与女性农民工相似的特点。上述结果意味着,城镇劳动力市场中不同户籍、不同收入水平的女性,遭受着不同程度的性别歧视,应针对不同群体采用差别化的性别干预政策。     

Does Education Still Pay Off in Rural China： Revisit the Impact of Education on Off-farm Employment and Wages

The present study considers how education affects off-farm job participation and wages. We use a nationally representative dataset from a survey conducted in 5 provinces, 101 villages and 808 households by the authors in early 2005. The empirical results show that educational attainment, skill training and years of experience of rural residents have positive, statistically significant effects on off-farm employment. The average return to a year of education is 7percent, which is higher than those observed in previous studies. We also find the return to an additional year of schooling to be higher for post-junior high schooling than for junior high and below schooling： 11.8 versus 3.2 percent. We conclude that not only does education still pays off in rural China, but also the rate of return to education is increasing over time.     

Intergenerational education transmission in China: The gender dimension

This paper explores gender differences in intergenerational patterns of education attainment in China. Using the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) survey for 2016, we find that intergenerational ‘persistence’, as reflected in high regression and correlation coefficients between an individual's and their parents' education levels, is higher for females than males for the entire sample and for each of four age cohorts. This result stems primarily from the relative lack of upward mobility among females from families with low levels of education, as confirmed by a series of educational mobility matrices and a multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results offer novel insights into gender differences in the unequal transmission of education across generations, with significant implications for gender inequality more broadly in Chinese society.     

Gender Differences in Schooling in Indonesia

Despite almost universal primary education in Indonesia, and increasing female educational participation, gender differences remain in access to Indonesian education. This paper attempts to measure and explain these differences at primary and secondary level in Indonesia's provinces between 1980 and 1985. It examines the relationship between provincial school enrolment ratios for males and females and four factors: school availability, formal sector employment, ‘drop-out’ patterns and marriage patterns. School availability is found to be a strong predictor of enrolment levels, and stronger for females than for males. Relationships between enrolment patterns and the other three factors appear less clear cut.     

Decomposition of the increase in earnings inequality in urban China: A distributional approach

This study examines changes in Chinese urban income distribution from 1987 to 1996 and 1996 to 2004 using nationwide household data and investigates the causes of these changes. The Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2007, 2009) method based on unconditional quantile regressions is used to decompose changes in income distribution and income inequality measures, such as variance and a 10:90 ratio. The decomposition results show that wage structure effects, such as a widening gender earnings gap, increases in returns to college education, and increases in earnings differentials between industries, company ownership types, and regions, have been the major contributors to the overall increases in income inequality. It was also found that at different points on the income distribution (e.g., the lower or upper half), the contributing factors that increase income inequality are different.     

Glass ceiling or sticky floor? Evidence from a distributional approach of the gender wage gap among PhD holders in South Korea

This study examines the gender wage gap, to explore whether a glass ceiling (large unexplained wage gaps in the upper percentiles) or sticky floor (large unexplained wage gaps in the lower percentiles) exists in the wage distribution of the most educated Koreans. This study focuses on seeking these distributional patterns for a theoretically homogeneous gender group, relying on a smaller dataset of PhD holders. Counterfactual methods combining recentered influence function decomposition with propensity score matching allow us to estimate how the wage gap between statistically similarly matched males and females, varies across the unconditional wage distribution. There is evidence of a strong sticky floor and a limited glass ceiling among Korean PhD holders. Results show that a negative relationship between a high level of education and the gender wage gap cannot be taken for granted, at least in South Korea. Even female PhD holders suffer from gender discrimination, especially when they are at the bottom end of the wage distribution.     

城镇居民的大学教育收益率估计:倾向指数匹配方法

本文利用全国综合社会调查数据(CGSS2003),首先使用Probit模型估计了个体上大学的概率,然后运用倾向指数匹配方法估计了2002年我国城镇居民的大学教育收益率.Probit估计结果表明家庭背景及地区对个人上大学的概率具有显著影响.匹配方法估计结果显示,大学毕业相对于高中毕业的教育收益率在79.1%以上,年均超过19.8%.传统的OLS方法估计的大学教育收益率仅为56.1%,低于匹配方法的估计结果.另外,高中组个体的潜在大学教育收益率可能高于大学组的大学教育收益率.     

Family and sex-specific U.S. immigration from Europe, 1870–1910: A panel data study of rates and composition

This paper develops and estimates models of family and sex-specific emigration, as well as the sex composition of this emigration, from 12 European source countries to the U.S. for the period 1870–1910. The models are based on the distinction between economic migrants (males, single females, and some married females) and tied or trailing migrants (females) and are estimated with panel data, including data that relate to the occupational/industrial structure of male and female economic activity in source countries. Hausman-Taylor instrumental variable estimates suggest that although both males and females responded to labor-market signals, males were more responsive than females to per capita GDP differences. Moreover, compared to the rest of Europe, Ireland, and Scandinavia were the sources of many young, single male, and female migrants, who responded strongly to gaps in economic opportunities. In fact, much of the European response to such gaps appears to be due to migrants from Ireland and Scandinavia. Females tended to originate in English-speaking countries and countries that were agriculturally oriented. Service and manufacturing jobs in source countries discouraged the migration of females relative to males. Males tended to follow recent migrants more than females, but females responded more to long-term influences as measured by stocks of migrants from their source countries who had previously settled in the U.S. Countries with high birth rates had relatively fewer female emigrants, whereas those with high rates of natural increase 20 years earlier experienced relatively more male emigration. Intact families, other family members (including family-strategy male migrants and trailing female migrants), and single males and females responded strongly to economic incentives, but the singles were most responsive followed by family-strategy males.     

Beauty premium in China's labor market: Is discrimination the main reason?

Based on data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), this paper analyzes the effects of the height as well as other appearance characteristics of workers on their wages. Regression results show that after controlling for social network, human capital, and other endowment characteristics, the effects of the appearance characteristics become smaller and statistically insignificant. The decomposition results of the wage-appearance differentials show that higher wages for good-looking workers are mainly attributable to differences in individual characteristics. Among them, the lower wages for shorter males and higher wages for thinner females are mainly attributable to the unexplained parts of discrimination. Males suffer more from “shortness penalty”, whereas females may earn from “pretty face”. Further results showed that height may influence blue-collar workers’ wages through the effect on physical strength. Empirical evidence also demonstrates that there are strong correlations between appearance and working ability (social network and human capital). Thus, our results confirmed the little beauty premium in the Chinese labor market and the relatively wages differentials are not mainly due to discrimination from consumers or employers, instead attributable mainly to differences of individual endowment characteristics.     

Employment,Wages, and Alcohol Consumption in Russia

This article investigates the association between alcohol consumption and labor market outcomes in Russia, using data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS). It estimates cross-sectional and fixed effects models of the impacts of alcohol consumption on employment and wages for males and females using three different measures of drinking. The cross-sectional findings indicate that alcohol consumption has an inverse U-shaped impact on employment and wages for females. The impact on males appears to be positive but the inverse-U shape is less pronounced. Once the unobserved individual heterogeneity is accounted for using fixed effects, alcohol consumption is found to have no significant effect on employment for either males or females. The fixed effect wage models indicate that alcohol consumption has a small, positive, but linear impact on the wage rate for both males and females. Models including fixed effects generate estimates that are smaller in magnitude compared with those of cross-sectional models. The findings are robust to several diagnostic checks.     

Parenthood penalty and gender wage gap: Recent evidence from Thailand

This study first examines the evolution of gender wage gap in Thailand, using cross-sectional data from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) for 1985–2017. We find that education, occupation, and industry significantly contribute to gender wage gap convergence in Thailand. Furthermore, for females, the wage gap between mothers and non-mothers has increased over time, while for males, the changes are relatively small. Thereafter, we examine the gender wage gap associated with marriage and parental status, using panel data from the Socio-Economic Survey (SES) for 2005–2012, and find wage penalty for both motherhood and fatherhood in Thailand.     

Examining employment discrimination in South Africa, 1997–2016

This study examines employment discrimination by race and gender in 1997–2016 by employing a sample that represents the labour force (excluding informal sector workers, agricultural workers, domestic workers, self-employed and employers) aged between 15 and 65 years. Probit models are conducted to estimate labour force participation, employment and occupational attainment likelihoods. This is followed by the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, and the results indicate that the unexplained component of the white–African employment probability gap reveals a downward trend in absolute terms in 2002–2014, but in relative terms it still accounts for about 50% of the gap in 2016. The unexplained component is most dominant in the male–female employment gap decomposition. While these results suggest that employment discrimination (unexplained component) against Africans and females remains serious, the improvement of education and skills level of the workseekers (explained component) from the previously disadvantaged groups remain crucial to improve their employment prospects.