EARNINGS FUNCTIONS AND RATES OF RETURN

James Heckman, Lance Lochner and Petra Todd
Additional contact information
James Heckman: University of Chicago, University College Dublin, and American Bar Foundation

No 200831, Working Papers from Geary Institute, University College Dublin

Abstract: The internal rate of return to schooling is a fundamental economic parameter that is often used to assess whether expenditure on education should be increased or decreased. This paper considers alternative approaches to estimating marginal internal rates of return for different schooling levels. We implement a general nonparametric approach to estimate marginal internal rates of return that take into account tuition costs, income taxes and nonlinearities in the earnings-schooling-experience relationship. The returns obtained by the more general method differ substantially from Mincer returns in levels and in their evolution over time. They indicate relatively larger returns to graduating from high school than from graduating from college, although both have been increasing over time.

Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2008-12-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (151)

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http://www.ucd.ie/geary/static/publications/workingpapers/gearywp200831.pdf First version, 2008 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Earnings Functions and Rates of Return (2008)
Working Paper: Earnings Functions and Rates of Return (2008)
Working Paper: Earnings Functions and Rates of Return (2008)
Working Paper: Earnings Functions and Rates of Return (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucd:wpaper:200831

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