Labor Market Returns to Vocational Secondary Education

Mikko Silliman and Hanna Virtanen

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2022, vol. 14, issue 1, 197-224

Abstract: We study labor market returns to vocational versus general secondary education using a regression discontinuity design created by the centralized admissions process in Finland. Admission to the vocational track increases initial annual income, and this benefit persists at least through the mid-thirties, and present discount value calculations suggest that it is unlikely that life cycle returns will turn negative through retirement. Moreover, admission to the vocational track does not increase the likelihood of working in jobs at risk of replacement by automation or offshoring. Consistent with comparative advantage, we observe larger returns for people who express a preference for vocational education.

JEL-codes: D15 I21 I26 J24 J31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190782 (application/pdf)
https://doi.org/10.3886/E120746V1 (text/html)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190782.appx (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20190782.ds (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Labor Market Returns to Vocational Secondary Education (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:14:y:2022:i:1:p:197-224

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

DOI: 10.1257/app.20190782

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is currently edited by Alexandre Mas

More articles in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().