RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2021-09

Title

Decline in Values of Degrees and Recent Evolution of Wage Inequality: Evidence from Chile

Abstract

Using the latest available data from nationally representative household surveys, we analyze the association between changes in returns to higher education degrees and the evolution of wage inequality in Chile from 2013–2017. Employing a decomposition method using unconditional quantile regressions, we find that a significant decline in returns to professional degrees especially from new private universities, with a larger magnitude at upper quantiles, is associated with a substantial reduction in wage inequality, especially for younger graduates. The results are robust to the correction for sample selection bias, controlling for workers' occupation categories, and the choice of the analysis period.

Keywords

Higher education; Returns to degree; Wage inequality

JEL Classification

I23, I24, I26, J31

Note

Please download the supplemantal file to DP2021-09 below.

Supplemental File (1.49MB)

Inquiries

Yoshimichi MURAKAMI
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059

Tomokazu NOMURA
Faculty of Information Technology and Social Sciences
Osaka University of Economics