Unobserved heterogeneity and risk in wage variance: does schooling provide earnings insurance?

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2011
Series IZA discussion paper, 5531
Number of pages 31
Publisher Bonn: IZA
Organisations
  • Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) - Amsterdam School of Economics Research Institute (ASE-RI)
Abstract We apply a recently proposed method to disentangle unobserved heterogeneity from risk in returns to education. We replicate the original study on US men and extend to US women, UK men and German men. Most original results are not robust. A college education cannot universally be considered an insurance against unpredictability of wages. One conclusion is unequivocally confirmed: uncertainty strongly dominates unobserved heterogeneity.
Document type Working paper
Note February 2011
Language English
Published at http://ftp.iza.org/dp5531.pdf
Downloads
1168fulltext.pdf (Submitted manuscript)
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