The effect of schooling on worker productivity: evidence from a South African industry panel

Rulof Burger and Francis J. Teal

No 2014-10, CSAE Working Paper Series from Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford

Abstract: Schooling is typically found to be highly correlated with individual earnings in African countries. However, African firm or sector level studies have failed to identify a similarly strong effect for average worker schooling levels on productivity. This has been interpreted as evidence that schooling does not increase productivity levels, but may also indicate that the schooling effect cannot be identified when using a schooling measure with limited variation. Using a novel South African industry-level dataset that spans a longer period than typical firm-level panels, this paper identifies a large and significant schooling effect. This result is highly robust across different estimators that allow for correlated industry effects, measurement error, heterogeneous production technologies and cross-sectional dependence.

Keywords: Returns to schooling; human capital; labour demand; panel data econometrics; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 D24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-eff
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Effect of Schooling on Worker Productivity: Evidence from a South African Industry Panel (2015)
Working Paper: The effect of schooling on worker productivity: Evidence from a South African industry panel (2014)
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