General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle

Hanushek, Eric A.; Schwerdt, Guido; Wößmann, Ludger and Zhang, Lei (2017): General Education, Vocational Education, and Labor-Market Outcomes over the Lifecycle. In: Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 52, No. 1: pp. 48-87

Abstract

Policy proposals promoting vocational education focus on the school-to-work transition. But with technological change, gains in youth employment may be offset by less adaptability and diminished employment later in life. To test for this tradeoff, we employ a difference-in-differences approach that compares employment rates across different ages for people with general and vocational education. Using microdata for 11 countries from IALS, we find strong and robust support for such a tradeoff, especially in countries emphasizing apprenticeship programs. German Microcensus data and Austrian administrative data confirm the results for within-occupational-group analysis and for exogenous variation from plant closures, respectively.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Economics; Economics > Chairs > CESifo-Professorship for Economics of Education and Innovation
• Subjects: 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• ISSN: 0022-166X
• Language: English