The returns to returning to school

Benjamin Charles Adams

International Journal of Manpower, 2023, vol. 45, issue 4, 714-732

Abstract: Purpose - This work examines the returns to education for workers who pursue additional education after time out of the labor force. It compares those who remain in the labor force during additional education with those who drop out of the labor force during additional education. It compares two cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Design/methodology/approach - This work utilizes a difference equation to estimate the returns to education for workers who pursue additional education after time spent out of school and in the labor force. Findings - The results indicate a sheepskin return of approximately 14% for those who remain in the labor force and a return of approximately 9% to years of additional education for those who drop out of the labor force. This contrasting pattern of returns is robust to sample selection correction and a variety of checks. Research limitations/implications - This work does not fully account for all threats to causation. Further research could pursue these and make use of data from more clearly defined periods of education. Practical implications - This work finds key differences between the internal labor market faced by those remaining in the labor force and the external labor market faced by those dropping out of the labor force. A policy focused on re-training workers should account for these differences. Originality/value - This is the first work to compare workers who pursue additional education while remaining in the labor force to workers who pursue additional education and drop out of the labor force.

Keywords: Labor market; Further education; Education; Working patterns; I26; J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
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:eme:ijmpps:ijm-01-2023-0044

DOI: 10.1108/IJM-01-2023-0044

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Manpower is currently edited by Professor Adrian Ziderman

More articles in International Journal of Manpower from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().