Unbundling returns to degrees and skills: Evidence from postsecondary education in Colombia

Arbeitspapier

This paper shows that returns to education are not enough to capture all the returns to human capital. Using longitudinal data of all college graduates in Colombia, we estimate labor market returns to postsecondary degrees and to various skillsincluding literacy, numeracy, foreign language, field-specific, and non-cognitive skills. Graduates of longer programs, of private institutions, and of schools with higher reputation earn higher wages. Even after controlling for all the characteristics of the degree, a one standard deviation increase in each skill predicts an average wage increase of two percent. Returns to skills vary along the wage distribution, with tenure, with the field of specialization and the type of job obtained immediately after graduation.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IDB Working Paper Series ; No. IDB-WP-01089

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Education and Research Institutions: General ; Education and Inequality ; Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
• Subject: Returns to skills ; Returns to education ; Numeracy ; Literacy ; Foreign language ; Specific skills ; Non-cognitive ; Colombia

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Busso, Matias ; Muñoz, Juan Sebastián ; Montaño, Sebastián
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)
• (where): Washington, DC
• (when): 2020

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.18235/0002121
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/234678
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET