IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/series/v8y2017i4d10.1007_s13209-017-0163-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effects of vocational education on adult skills, employment and wages: What can we learn from PIAAC?

Author

Listed:
  • Giorgio Brunello

    (University of Padova
    Cesifo
    IZA
    ROA)

  • Lorenzo Rocco

    (University of Padova)

Abstract

We have shown that vocational education does not perform as well as academic education both in labour market outcomes and in the level of basic skills, including literacy and numeracy. This is especially true for higher education. Only at the upper secondary or post-secondary level does vocational education perform slightly better than academic education in the probability of being currently employed as well as in the time spent in paid employment, although the differences we find are small.

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Rocco, 2017. "The effects of vocational education on adult skills, employment and wages: What can we learn from PIAAC?," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 315-343, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:series:v:8:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s13209-017-0163-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s13209-017-0163-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13209-017-0163-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13209-017-0163-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniele Checchi & Luca Flabbi, 2013. "Intergenerational Mobility and Schooling Decisions in Germany and Italy: The Impact of Secondary School Tracks," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, issue 3, pages 7-57, July-Sept.
    2. Jörn-Steffen Pischke & Till von Wachter, 2008. "Zero Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Germany: Evidence and Interpretation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 592-598, August.
    3. Pedro Carneiro & James J. Heckman, 2002. "The Evidence on Credit Constraints in Post--secondary Schooling," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(482), pages 705-734, October.
    4. Oosterbeek, Hessel & Webbink, Dinand, 2007. "Wage effects of an extra year of basic vocational education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 408-419, August.
    5. Cattaneo, Matias D., 2010. "Efficient semiparametric estimation of multi-valued treatment effects under ignorability," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 155(2), pages 138-154, April.
    6. Joseph G. Altonji & Erica Blom & Costas Meghir, 2012. "Heterogeneity in Human Capital Investments: High School Curriculum, College Major, and Careers," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 185-223, July.
    7. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    8. Dearden, Lorraine, et al, 2002. "The Returns to Academic and Vocational Qualifications in Britain," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 249-274, July.
    9. Caroline Hall, 2012. "The Effects of Reducing Tracking in Upper Secondary School: Evidence from a Large-Scale Pilot Scheme," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(1), pages 237-269.
    10. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective: Corrigendum," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 767-767, September.
    11. Lawrence Hotchkiss, 1993. "Effects of Training, Occupation, and Training-Occupation Match on Wage," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(3), pages 482-496.
    12. Josef Fersterer & Jörn‐Steffen Pischke & Rudolf Winter‐Ebmer, 2008. "Returns to Apprenticeship Training in Austria: Evidence from Failed Firms," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(4), pages 733-753, December.
    13. Matias D. Cattaneo, 2010. "multi-valued treatment effects," The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics,, Palgrave Macmillan.
    14. Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Rocco, 2015. "The effects of vocational education on adult skills and wages: What can we learn from PIAAC?," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 168, OECD Publishing.
    15. Meer, Jonathan, 2007. "Evidence on the returns to secondary vocational education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 559-573, October.
    16. Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2007. "Inverse probability weighted estimation for general missing data problems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1281-1301, December.
    17. Bishop, John H. & Mane, Ferran, 2004. "The impacts of career-technical education on high school labor market success," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 381-402, August.
    18. Lorraine Dearden & Leslie McGranahan & Barbara Sianesi, 2004. "An In-Depth Analysis of the Returns to National Vocational Qualifications Obtained at level 2," CEE Discussion Papers 0046, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
    19. Giorgio Brunello & Guglielmo Weber & Christoph T. Weiss, 2017. "Books are Forever: Early Life Conditions, Education and Lifetime Earnings in Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(600), pages 271-296, March.
    20. Giorgio Brunello & Guglielmo Weber & Christoph T. Weiss, 2017. "Books are Forever: Early Life Conditions, Education and Lifetime Earnings in Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(600), pages 271-296, March.
    21. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 34-92, March.
    22. Ofer Malamud & Cristian Pop-Eleches, 2010. "General Education versus Vocational Training: Evidence from an Economy in Transition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 43-60, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gershoni, Naomi & Stryjan, Miri, 2023. "Do Deadlines Affect Project Completion? Experimental Evidence from Israeli Vocational Colleges," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 359-375.
    2. Jie Chen & Francesco Pastore, 2024. "Dynamics of returns to vocational education in China: 2010–2017," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Vandenberg, Paul & Laranjo, Jade, 2021. "Vocational training and labor market outcomes in the Philippines," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    4. Chen, Jie & Pastore, Francesco, 2021. "Does Vocational Education Pay Better, or Worse, Than Academic Education?," IZA Discussion Papers 14445, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Chiara Cavaglia & Sandra McNally & Guglielmo Ventura, 2020. "Do Apprenticeships Pay? Evidence for England," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(5), pages 1094-1134, October.
    6. Simona Lorena Comi & Mara Grasseni & Federica Origo, 2022. "Sometimes it works: the effect of a reform of the short vocational track on school-to-work transition," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(7), pages 1601-1619, April.
    7. Guo, Dong & Wang, Anyi, 2020. "Is vocational education a good alternative to low-performing students in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Celeste K. Carruthers & Christopher Jepsen, 2020. "Vocational Education: An International Perspective," CESifo Working Paper Series 8718, CESifo.
    9. repec:cep:cepisp:is03 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Dai, Li & Martins, Pedro S., 2024. "The Wage Effects of Polytechnic Degrees: Evidence from the 1999 China Higher Education Expansion," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1399, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Lorenzo Cappellari & Daniele Checchi & Marco Ovidi, 2022. "The effects of schooling on cognitive skills: evidence from education expansions," DISCE - Working Papers del Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza def122, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    12. Heller-Sahlgren, Gabriel, 2023. "Lifelong learning and employment outcomes: evidence from Sweden," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115171, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Sami Ullah & Zilakat K. Malik, 2020. "Analysis of the Determinants of Participation, Strengths and Weaknesses of Vocational Trainings of Federally Administered Tribal Area's Development Authority," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 10(3), pages 149-157.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brunello, Giorgio & Rocco, Lorenzo, 2015. "The Labour Market Effects of Academic and Vocational Education over the Life Cycle: Evidence from Two British Cohorts," IZA Discussion Papers 9275, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Huzeyfe Torun & Semih Tumen, 2019. "Do vocational high school graduates have better employment outcomes than general high school graduates?," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(8), pages 1364-1388, August.
    3. Irene Brunetti & Lorenzo Corsini, 2019. "School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 40(8), pages 1411-1437, July.
    4. Werner Eichhorst & Núria Rodríguez-Planas & Ricarda Schmidl & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2015. "A Road Map to Vocational Education and Training in Industrialized Countries," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(2), pages 314-337, March.
    5. Hector Espinoza & Stefan Speckesser, 2019. "A Comparison of Earnings Related to Higher Level Vocational/Technical and Academic Education," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 502, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    6. Eichhorst, Werner & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria & Schmidl, Ricarda & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2012. "A Roadmap to Vocational Education and Training Systems Around the World," IZA Discussion Papers 7110, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Neyt, Brecht & Verhaest, Dieter & Baert, Stijn, 2020. "The impact of dual apprenticeship programmes on early labour market outcomes: A dynamic approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Eric A. Hanushek & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann & Lei Zhang, 2017. "General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 48-87.
    9. Tomáš Jagelka, 2017. "The Specificity of Human Capital Investment under Agent Heterogeneity and Market Frictions: Theory and Empirics," LIS Working papers 688, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    10. Hall, Caroline, 2013. "Does more general education reduce the risk of future unemployment? Evidence from labor market experiences during the Great Recession," Working Paper Series 2013:17, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    11. Hall, Caroline, 2016. "Does more general education reduce the risk of future unemployment? Evidence from an expansion of vocational upper secondary education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 251-271.
    12. Hector Espinoza & Stefan Speckesser, 2019. "A comparison of earnings related to higher level vocational/technical and academic education," CVER Research Papers 019, Centre for Vocational Education Research.
    13. Giorgio Brunello & Lorenzo Rocco, 2017. "The Labor Market Effects of Academic and Vocational Education over the Life Cycle: Evidence Based on a British Cohort," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 106-166.
    14. Werner Eichhorst, 2015. "Does vocational training help young people find a (good) job?," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 112-112, January.
    15. Celeste K. Carruthers & Christopher Jepsen, 2020. "Vocational Education: An International Perspective," CESifo Working Paper Series 8718, CESifo.
    16. Polidano, Cain & Tabasso, Domenico, 2014. "Making it real: The benefits of workplace learning in upper-secondary vocational education and training courses," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 130-146.
    17. Franziska Hampf & Ludger Woessmann, 2017. "Vocational vs. General Education and Employment over the Life Cycle: New Evidence from PIAAC," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 63(3), pages 255-269.
    18. Hofmarcher, Thomas, 2021. "The effect of education on poverty: A European perspective," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    19. Machin, Stephen & McNally, Sandra & Terrier, Camille & Ventura, Guglielmo, 2020. "Closing the Gap between Vocational and General Education? Evidence from University Technical Colleges in England," IZA Discussion Papers 13837, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. repec:cep:cepisp:is03 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Zilic, Ivan, 2018. "General versus vocational education: Lessons from a quasi-experiment in Croatia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1-11.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Vocational education; Academic education; PIAAC; Skills; Employment; Wage;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:series:v:8:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s13209-017-0163-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.