Reaching High: Occupational Sorting and Higher Education Wage Inequality in the UK

Jan Kleibrink () and Maren Michaelsen ()

No 377, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: We analyse wage differentials between Higher Education graduates in the UK, differentiating between polytechnic and university graduates. Polytechnic graduates earned on average lower wages than university graduates prior to the UK Further and Higher Education Act of 1992. The reform changed the system of Higher Education by giving all polytechnics university status. We show that wage differentials can be explained by a glass ceiling which prevented polytechnic graduates from reaching managerial and professional occupations. After the reform, they overtook graduates of traditional universities in terms of average wages.

Keywords: higher education; wage differentials; occupational sorting; glass ceiling; United Kingdom (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I23 I24 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Working Paper: Reaching High: Occupational Sorting and Higher Education Wage Inequality in the UK (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:377

DOI: 10.4419/86788432

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