Education and work account for the largest period in a person's life. Furthermore, there are strong ties between education and the labour market. This thesis explores the interrelations among them and identifies gains and losses for the... Lire la suite
Putting them together, education and work account for the largest period in a person's life. Furthermore, as the relevant literature points out, there are strong bilateral ties between education and the labour market. This thesis explores the interrelations among them in a microeconomic level and identifies gains and losses for the individual from adolescence till retirement. Using both theoretical models and empirical tools, it addresses several questions such as: How can parental working status affect children’s educational choices in a tuitionfree school system and what are the consequences ? What are the economic gains from different types of education, in terms of wages and employment ? Do academic or vocational qualifications imply higher gains for individuals in the labour market? And finally, how does education affect retirement decisions and why better educated workers can stay longer in the labour market ? These questions are examined for Belgium, and special attention is placed upon the specificities of its socioeconomic environment and education system.
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Another project on private returns of education? . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Extending the Becker/ Mincer approach to education . . . . . . 3
1.3 Why is Belgium an interesting case? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.4 Methodological issues and questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 The project's structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Do parental jobs and money buy higher schooling? Evidence
from track choice in Belgium. 13
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Choosing between dierent education tracks in Belgium . . . . 16
2.3 The econometric framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 The sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 Empirical results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Appendices 32
2.A Tables from section 2.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.B Complete tables from section 2.5.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.C Complete tables from section 2.5.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3 General education versus vocational training: How do they
aect individual labour market performance? 37
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 The multiple dimensions of education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.3 Monthly or annual earnings? A decomposition story . . . . . . 42
3.4 The model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.5 The sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.6 Estimation results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Appendices 62
3.A Construction of variables and connection to the PSBH questionnaire.. . . 62
3.B Estimations using random eects and OLS . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4 Retirement, education and the role of pension benets 69
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2 Some facts on retirement decision and pension systems . . . 71
4.3 A lifecycle model of earnings with endogenous retirement. . 73
4.4 Retirement decisions under dierent retirement benets schemes 79
4.5 The downward shift in employment probabilities for older workers 86
4.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Appendices 90
4.A Analytical solution of Alders' model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.B Analytical solution of Alders model for l = 0 and
(t) s
. . . 92
4.C Analytical solution of Alders model with 0 < l < 1 and
(t) s ... 93
4.D Analytical solution with a variable replacement rate . . . . . . 93
Bibliography 95