| By: |
Alonso-Soto, Daniel (OECD);
Nopo, Hugo R. (GRADE) |
| Abstract: |
Indicators for quality of schooling are not only relatively new in the world
but also unavailable for a sizable share of the world's population. In their
absence, some proxy measures have been devised. One simple but powerful idea
has been to use the schooling premium for migrant workers in the U.S.
(Bratsberg and Terrell, 2002). In this paper we extend this idea and compute
measures for the schooling premium of immigrant workers in the U.S. over a
span of five decades. Focusing on those who graduated from either secondary or
tertiary education in Latin American countries, we present comparative
estimates of the evolution of such premia for both schooling levels. The
results show that the schooling premia in Latin America have been steadily low
throughout the whole period of analysis. The results stand after controlling
for selective migration in different ways. This contradicts the popular belief
in policy circles that the education quality of the region has deteriorated in
recent years. In contrast, schooling premium in India shows an impressive
improvement in recent decades, especially at the tertiary level. |
| Keywords: |
schooling premium, returns to education, wage differentials, immigrant workers |
| JEL: |
J31 J61 |
| Date: |
2017–09 |
| URL: |
https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11030&r=lam |