Post-secondary education in Canada: can ability bias explain the earnings gap between college and university graduates?

Vincenzo Caponi and Miana Plesca ()

Canadian Journal of Economics, 2009, vol. 42, issue 3, 1100-1131

Abstract: Using the Canadian General Social Survey we compute returns to post-secondary education relative to high school. Unlike previous research using Canadian data, our data set allows us to control for ability selection into higher education. We find strong evidence of positive ability selection into all levels of post-secondary education for men and weaker positive selection for women. Since the ability selection is stronger for higher levels of education, particularly for university, the difference in returns between university and college or trades education decreases slightly after accounting for ability bias. However, a puzzling large gap persists, with university-educated men still earning over 20% more than men with college or trades education.

JEL-codes: C31 I2 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5982.2009.01540.x (text/html)
access restricted to subscribers

Related works:
Working Paper: Post-Secondary Education in Canada: Can Ability Bias Explain the Earnings Gap Between College and University Graduates? (2007)
Working Paper: Post-Secondary Education in Canada: Can Ability Bias Explain the Earnings Gap Between College and University Graduates? (2007)
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:cje:issued:v:42:y:2009:i:3:p:1100-1131

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.economic ... ionen/membership.php

Access Statistics for this article

Canadian Journal of Economics is currently edited by Zhiqi Chen

More articles in Canadian Journal of Economics from Canadian Economics Association Canadian Economics Association Prof. Werrner Antweiler, Treasurer UBC Sauder School of Business 2053 Main Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Prof. Werner Antweiler ().