What Drives Social Returns to Education? A Meta-Analysis

Arbeitspapier

Education can generate important externalities that contribute towards economic growth and convergence. In this paper, we study such externalities and their drivers by conducting the first meta-analysis of the social returns to education literature. We analyse over 1,000 estimates from 32 journal articles published since 1993, covering 15 countries of different levels of development. Our results indicate that: 1) there is publication bias (but not citation bias) in the literature; 2) spillovers slow down with economic development; 3) tertiary schooling and schooling dispersion increase spillovers; and 4) spillovers are smaller under fixed-effects and IV estimators but larger when measured at the firm level.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 14332

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Returns to Education ; Education: Government Policy ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials ; Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models: Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
• Subject: returns to education ; education externalities

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Cui, Ying ; Martins, Pedro S.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2021

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/236363
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET