IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ozl/journl/v9y2006i2p173-199.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does it pay for Indigenous youth to go to school? Variation in the predicted economic benefits of High School

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Biddle

    (Australian National University)

Abstract

Indigenous Australians are less likely to complete high school than non-Indigenous Australians. One reason for this may be differences in the income and employment incentives to do so. This paper provides evidence on the predicted economic benefits of education using data from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, focusing on variation within the Indigenous population. The paper finds the difference in employment outcomes by high school education to be smaller for those in remote areas than those in non-remote areas, however once employed the relative effect on income varies by the particular education comparison. The income benefits of education are low for those in both CDEP and non-CDEP employment, showing that for Indigenous Australians, one of the biggest economic benefits of completing high school appears to be the ability to find a non-CDEP job.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Biddle, 2006. "Does it pay for Indigenous youth to go to school? Variation in the predicted economic benefits of High School," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 9(2), pages 173-199, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:9:y:2006:i:2:p:173-199
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE092biddle.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Altman, Jon & Gray, Matthew & Levitus, Robert, 2005. "Policy issues for the Community Development Employment Projects scheme in rural and remote Australia," MPRA Paper 1391, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Boyd H. Hunter, 2003. "The Rise of the CDEP Scheme and Changing Factors Underlying Indigenous Male Employment," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 6(3), pages 473-496, September.
    3. Roland G. Fryer & Steven D. Levitt, 2013. "Testing for Racial Differences in the Mental Ability of Young Children," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 981-1005, April.
    4. James Heckman & Edward Vytlacil, 2001. "Identifying The Role Of Cognitive Ability In Explaining The Level Of And Change In The Return To Schooling," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(1), pages 1-12, February.
    5. Justin L. Tobias, 2003. "Are Returns to Schooling Concentrated Among the Most Able? A Semiparametric Analysis of the Ability–earnings Relationships," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(1), pages 1-29, February.
    6. Russell Ross, 1993. "A Probit Analysis of Aboriginal Employment Prospects in New South Wales," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 69(3), pages 253-258, September.
    7. Peter Streufert, 2000. "The Effect of Underclass Social Isolation on Schooling Choice," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 2(4), pages 461-482, October.
    8. Kevin Hollenbeck & Jean Kimmel, 2001. "The Returns to Education and Basic Skills Training for Individuals with Poor Health or Disability," Upjohn Working Papers 01-72, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    9. Gordon B. Dahl, 2002. "Mobility and the Return to Education: Testing a Roy Model with Multiple Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(6), pages 2367-2420, November.
    10. P. N. Junankar, 2003. "Estimating the Social Rate of Return to Education for Indigenous Australians," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 169-192.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Catherine Ris & Samuel Gorohouna, 2013. "Decomposing differences in employment outcomes between Kanak and other New Caledonians - how important is the role of school achievement?," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(1), pages 115-135.
    2. Benjamin J. Stephens, 2010. "The Determinants of Labour Force Status among Indigenous Australians," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 13(3), pages 287-312.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gareth D. Leeves, 2014. "Increasing returns to education and the impact on social capital," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 449-470, October.
    2. Eliasson, Kent, 2006. "The Role of Ability in Estimating the Returns to College Choice: New Swedish Evidence," Umeå Economic Studies 691, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    3. Nicholas W Papageorge & Kevin Thom, 2020. "Genes, Education, and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 1351-1399.
    4. Koop, Gary & Tobias, Justin L., 2006. "Semiparametric Bayesian inference in smooth coefficient models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 283-315, September.
    5. David Newhouse & Daniel Suryadarma, 2011. "The Value of Vocational Education: High School Type and Labor Market Outcomes in Indonesia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 25(2), pages 296-322, May.
    6. Boyd Hunter, 2006. "Further explorations of the interactions between crime and Indigenous employment," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 9(2), pages 217-237, June.
    7. Kevin Denny & Vincent O'sullivan, 2007. "Can education compensate for low ability? Evidence from British data," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(9), pages 657-660.
    8. Jutta Viinikainen & Katja Kokko & Lea Pulkkinen & Jaakko Pehkonen, 2010. "Personality and Labour Market Income: Evidence from Longitudinal Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 24(2), pages 201-220, June.
    9. Pauline Halchuk, 2006. "Measuring employment outcomes for Indigenous Australians," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 9(2), pages 201-215, June.
    10. Dale J. Poirier & Gary Koop & Justin Tobias, 2005. "Semiparametric Bayesian inference in multiple equation models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(6), pages 723-747.
    11. Black, Dan A. & Smith, J.A.Jeffrey A., 2004. "How robust is the evidence on the effects of college quality? Evidence from matching," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1-2), pages 99-124.
    12. Sofie J. Cabus & Carla Haelermans, 2017. "Work or Schooling? On the Return to Gaining In-School Work Experiences," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 34-57, March.
    13. Justin L. Tobias & Mingliang Li, 2004. "Returns to Schooling and Bayesian Model Averaging: A Union of Two Literatures," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 153-180, April.
    14. Rodrigo M. S. Moita & Claudio Paiva, 2013. "Political Price Cycles in Regulated Industries: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 94-121, February.
    15. Ismaël Mourifié & Marc Henry & Romuald Méango, 2020. "Sharp Bounds and Testability of a Roy Model of STEM Major Choices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(8), pages 3220-3283.
    16. Jeremy T. Fox, 2010. "Estimating the Employer Switching Costs and Wage Responses of Forward-Looking Engineers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(2), pages 357-412, April.
    17. Gordon Hanson & Chen Liu & Craig McIntosh, 2017. "The Rise and Fall of U.S. Low-Skilled Immigration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 48(1 (Spring), pages 83-168.
    18. Steven N. Durlauf & Yannis M. Ioannides, 2010. "Social Interactions," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 451-478, September.
    19. Tschopp, Jeanne, 2015. "The Wage Response to Shocks: The Role of Inter-Occupational Labour Adjustment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 28-37.
    20. Myck, Michal & Nici?ska, Anna & Morawski, Leszek, 2009. "Count Your Hours: Returns to Education in Poland," IZA Discussion Papers 4332, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination; Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials by Skill; Training; Occupation; etc.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ozl:journl:v:9:y:2006:i:2:p:173-199. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sandie Rawnsley (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/becurau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.