Work

Cohort effects and the returns to education in West Germany

Year: 2006

Type: article

Abstract: Using a Mincer-type wage function, we estimate cohort effects in the returns to education for West German workers born between 1925 and 1974. The main problem to be tackled in the specification is to separately identify cohort, experience, and possibly also age effects in the returns. For women, we find a large and robust decline in schooling premia: in the private sector, the returns to a further year of post-compulsory education fell from twelve per cent for the 1945-49 cohort to about seven per cent for those born in the early 1970s. Cohort effects in men's returns to education are less obvious, but we do find evidence that they, too, have declined. We conclude by identifying possible reasons for the decline.

Source: Applied Economics

DOI: 10.1080/00036840500439168

Authors: Bernhard Boockmann, Viktor Steiner

Institutions: Centre for European Economic Research, German Institute for Economic Research, IZA - Institute of Labor Economics, Freie Universität Berlin

Language: English

Topic: Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

Subfield: Economics and Econometrics

Field: Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W3121241450

FWCI: 10.37

Cites: 18

Cited by: 61

Related to: 10