Beyond the mincer equation: the internal rate of return to higher education in Colombia

Andrés Felipe García Suaza (), Juan Guataquí, Jose-Alberto Guerra and Darío Maldonado
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Andres Garcia-Suaza

No 5745, Documentos de Trabajo from Universidad del Rosario

Abstract: In order to present an estimation of the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) to higher education in Colombia we take advantage of the methodological approach provided by Heckman, Lochner and Todd (2005). Trying to overcome the criticism that surrounds interpretations of the education coefficient of Mincer equations as being the rate ofreturn to investments in education we develop a more structured approach of estimation, which controls for selection bias, includes more accurate measures of labor income and the role of education costs and income taxes. Our results implied a lower rate of return than the ones found in the Colombian literature and show that the Internal Rate ofReturn for higher education in Colombia lies somewhere between 0.074 and 0.128. The results vary according to the year analyzed and individual´s gender. This last result reinforces considerations regarding gender discrimination in the Colombian labor market.

Keywords: Education returns; Mincer Equation; Internal Rate of Return; Colombia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I28 J11 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2009-08-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Journal Article: Beyond the Mincer equation: the internal rate of return to higher education in Colombia (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000092:005745

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