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

Eric Hanushek, Ludger Woessmann and Lei Zhang

No 17504, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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.

JEL-codes: I20 J24 J31 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
Note: ED LS PE
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Published as Eric A. Hanushek & Guido Schwerdt & Ludger Woessmann & Lei Zhang, 2017. "General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(1), pages 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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