e-journal

The gender gap of returns on education across West European countries

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the gender specific private returns on education (RE)
in Europe in a comparative perspective. The authors extend the model of de la Fuente (2003) by
estimating the parameters by gender and introducing maternity leaves and benefits. The paper
analyses the impact of the public policy variables evaluating the elasticities with respect to
unemployment benefits, marginal and average tax rates, maternity leave and childcare benefits.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors estimate the Mincerian coefficients, with the
Heckman’ selection model, for 12 West European countries using the EU-SILC data. The authors then
use them as input to calibrate the decision model.
Findings – The RE of females tend to be higher than those of males in all the Europeans countries but
Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The gender gap can be explained mainly by the wage premia
and labour income taxes which more than compensate the negative effects on females’ returns
triggered by higher unemployment rates and maternity-related benefits.
Practical implications – The tax system has the most pronounced effect on RE. An increase in the
marginal tax rates has a negative impact. An increase in the average tax rates can have a negative
or positive impact, depending on the progressivity of the tax system. An increase in unemployment
benefits and maternity or child-care benefits has a negative but fairly small impact.
Social implications – The analysis considers just one dimension of maternity related policies: the
effect on RE and differences across gender. These policies may have aims which are beyond
the scope of this paper, for instance to increase fertility. From this viewpoint, the small values of the
elasticities presented are reassuring in that they suggest that they can be implemented at a fairly small
cost in terms of investment in human capital.
Originality/value – The authors compute the RE using a model which allows us to take into
account and assess the significance of relevant variables: wage premium, income tax, some public
transfers and benefits, costs of the investments. Moreover, the authors estimate the wage premia using
relatively recent EU-SILC data. Finally, the paper compares 12 EU countries spanning quite different
labour market conditions and institutions.

Keywords Education, Europe, Public policy, Human capital

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

International Journal of Manpower

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

: Emerald Group., 2014

Deskripsi Fisik

International Journal of Manpower Vol. 35 No. 3, 2014 pp. 219-249

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

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Klasifikasi

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

PENDIDIKAN

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

Asmawati/Syahrial

Versi lain/terkait

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