The Changing Economic Value of Higher Education in Developed Economies: A Report to the O.E.C.D

Richard Freeman

No 820, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper analyses the changing economic value of higher education in the major O.E.C.D. countries. The first part of the study examines data on earnings by education or earnings in occupations composed of per- sons with different educational attainments. A second part looks at un- employment rates and the occupations attained by college graduates. Both the relative earnings data and the unemployment and occupational attainment data suggest that the heralded decline in the economic value of higher education in the U.S. is not a unique North American phenomenon, but rather, a general development throughout the developed world. On the basis of evidence on elasticities of substitution and the observed growth in the supply of college graduates the paper suggests that the decline in the premium to the educated reflects movement along a reasonably well-defined demand for graduates schedule due to the growth of the college and university systems of the various countries.

Date: 1981-12
Note: LS
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w0820.pdf (application/pdf)

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:nbr:nberwo:0820

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w0820

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().