General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle

Eric Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann and Lei Zhang

No 6083, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Policy debates about the balance of vocational and general education programs focus on the school-to-work transition. But with rapid technological change, gains in youth employment from vocational education may be offset by less adaptability and thus diminished employment later in life. To test our main hypothesis that any relative labor-market advantage of vocational education decreases with age, we employ a difference-in-differences approach that compares employment rates across different ages for people with general and vocational education. Using micro data for 18 countries from the International Adult Literacy Survey, we find strong support for the existence of such a trade-off, which is most pronounced in countries emphasizing apprenticeship programs. Results are robust to accounting for ability patterns and to propensity-score matching.

Keywords: vocational education; apprenticeship; employment; wages; life-cycle; adult education; International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J24 J31 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (75)

Forthcoming - published in: Journal of Human Resources, 2017, 52 (1), 48-87

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Related works:
Journal Article: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle (2017)
Working Paper: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle (2017)
Working Paper: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle (2015)
Working Paper: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle (2012)
Working Paper: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle (2011)
Working Paper: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle (2011)
Working Paper: General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Life-Cycle (2011)
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