Great Expectations: The Determinants of Female University Enrolment in Europe

Alessandra Casarico, Paola Profeta and Chiara Pronzato

No 3406, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: We empirically investigate the determinants of the female decision of investing in post-secondary education, focusing on the role played by the context where young women take their education decision. We first develop a stylized two-period model to analyze the female decision of investing in education and highlight two main determinants: the time to be devoted to child care and the probability of working in a skilled job. We then use data on educational decisions of women in the 17-21 age group drawn from EU-Silc, available for the years 2004-2008. From the same survey we construct context indicators at the regional level, and exploit regional variability to identify how women’s educational investment reacts to changes in the surrounding context. We find that the share of working women with children below 5 and the share of women with managerial positions or self-employed positively affect the probability that women enrol in post-secondary education. The same does not hold for men.

Keywords: post-secondary education; university; child care time requirement; managerial positions; self-employment; context; EU-Silc data; repeated cross-section (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Great expectations: The determinants of female university enrolment in Europe (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3406

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