Returns to Higher Education - a regional perspective

Mikaela Backman and Lina Bjerke ()
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Lina Bjerke: CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

No 171, Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation from Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

Abstract: The returns to education have been thoroughly investigated and Sweden has shown to have a relatively low return compared to other countries in Europe. Nevertheless, few studies have combined the regional perspective with returns to education. Hence, the purpose of the paper is to analyze regional differences in their returns to higher education within natural science, engineering and medicine. We assume that individuals maximize expected utility; they will try to attain the highest expected return to education as possible. The regional sum of employment possibilities as well as unemployment shares may differ between regions. Therefore, it is plausible to believe that the regional return to education varies between locations which accounted for in the empirical part of the paper. The result shows that there are clear differences between regional classifications concerning returns to higher education. Central urban regions, except the three largest cities and ten largest universities have the highest return to education. These regions may need to compensate the individuals with a higher return. The three largest cities in Sweden have a relatively low return but have other amenities that attract individuals.

Keywords: returns to higher education; regional attractiveness; Sweden; Mincer equation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 I22 J61 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2009-03-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-geo, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Chapter: Returns to higher education: a regional perspective (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0171

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