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Predictors of Economic Outcomes among Romanian Youth: The Influence of Education—An Empirical Approach Based on Elastic Net Regression

Author

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  • Ana-Maria Zamfir

    (Department of Education, Training and Labour Market, National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection, 010643 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu

    (Department of Education, Training and Labour Market, National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection, 010643 Bucharest, Romania
    Department of Statistics and Econometrics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010552 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Cristina Mocanu

    (Department of Education, Training and Labour Market, National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection, 010643 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

Young people have to be provided with opportunities to access prosperous, resilient and fulfilling lives. Investing in education and skills is considered one of the most important ways to support young people’s well-being and to enable them to enjoy good career prospects. Using the framework of human capital theory, we explored the role of education among the factors explaining wage variation among Romanian youth. We built our analysis on micro-data for Romania from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions 2020. In order to identify the most important factors influencing the wage distribution, we employed the elastic net regression approach. Moreover, we considered the phenomenon of expansion of education and ran the analysis by alternately using a traditional measure for education and a relative measure reflecting the theory of education as positional good. We ran the analysis for different cohorts of the population, focusing the discussion on the results for young people. Our findings confirm the importance of education for wage distribution together with other factors of influence, such as gender, degree of urbanization, region, sector of employment and working experience. Our conclusions are relevant for designing more effective educational and social policies to deal with various disadvantages faced by youth in Romania.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana-Maria Zamfir & Adriana AnaMaria Davidescu & Cristina Mocanu, 2022. "Predictors of Economic Outcomes among Romanian Youth: The Influence of Education—An Empirical Approach Based on Elastic Net Regression," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9394-:d:877090
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    References listed on IDEAS

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