IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/actuec/v70y1994i1p27-41.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Le taux de rendement de l’éducation et la conjoncture économique : Québec, 1981-87

Author

Listed:
  • Lemelin, Clément

    (Département des sciences économiques, Université du Québec à Montréal)

  • Prud’homme, Philippe

    (Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec)

Abstract

Economists have grown accustomed to measuring the profitability of education with an all-purpose rate of return. Even though the benefits of education are received in the future, the rate of return is obtained by comparing costs and increments in earnings observed in a single period. Since earnings profiles are affected by the economic outlook, the rate of return to education may very well be correlated with the business cycle. To evaluate this sensitivity, private rates of return to university education in Quebec are computed for six years between 1981 and 1987. The results show that the rate of return is sensitive to the business cycle, being higher in a recession. On a pris l’habitude d’évaluer la rentabilité de l’éducation, considérée comme un investissement, à l’aide d’un taux de rendement « à tout usage ». Même si les bénéfices sont futurs, ce taux est obtenu en mettant en relation des coûts et des différences de revenu observés à la même période. Les profils de revenu étant affectés par la conjoncture économique, ce taux de rendement pourrait varier le long du cycle économique. Pour évaluer cette sensibilité, le taux de rendement privé des études universitaires au Québec est calculé pour six années, entre 1981 et 1987. Les résultats obtenus indiquent une variabilité du taux de rendement, qui paraît plus élevé en période de ralentissement économique.

Suggested Citation

  • Lemelin, Clément & Prud’homme, Philippe, 1994. "Le taux de rendement de l’éducation et la conjoncture économique : Québec, 1981-87," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 70(1), pages 27-41, mars.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:actuec:v:70:y:1994:i:1:p:27-41
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/602128ar
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Randall H. King, 1980. "Some Further Evidence on the Rate of Return to Schooling and the Business Cycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 15(2), pages 264-272.
    2. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling, Experience, and Earnings," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number minc74-1.
    3. Thomas J. Kniesner & Arthur H. Padilla & Solomon W. Polachek, 1978. "The Rate of Return to Schooling and the Business Cycle," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 13(2), pages 264-277.
    4. McKinley L. Blackburn & David E. Bloom & Richard B. Freeman, 1989. "The Declining Economic Position of Less-Skilled American Males," NBER Working Papers 3186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. James P. Smith & Finis R. Welch, 2004. "Local Labor Markets and Cyclic Components in Demand for College Trained Manpower," Labor and Demography 0403022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Jacob A. Mincer, 1974. "Schooling and Earnings," NBER Chapters, in: Schooling, Experience, and Earnings, pages 41-63, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Walter Y. Oi, 1962. "Labor as a Quasi-Fixed Factor," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(6), pages 538-538.
    8. Richard B. Freeman, 1975. "Overinvestment in College Training?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 10(3), pages 287-311.
    9. Francois Vaillancourt & Irene Henriques, 1986. "The Returns to University Schooling in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 12(3), pages 449-458, September.
    10. Kosters, Marvin H, 1990. "Schooling, Work Experience, and Wage Trends," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 309-312, May.
    11. Psacharopoulos, George (ed.), 1987. "Economics of Education," Elsevier Monographs, Elsevier, edition 1, number 9780080333793.
    12. Psacharopoulos, George, 1989. "Time trends of the returns to education: Cross-national evidence," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 225-231, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Polachek, Solomon W., 2008. "Earnings Over the Life Cycle: The Mincer Earnings Function and Its Applications," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 4(3), pages 165-272, April.
    2. Lederman, Daniel & Rojas, Diego, 2014. "Export shocks and the volatility of returns to schooling : evidence from twelve Latin American economies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7144, The World Bank.
    3. Chen, Yanan & Kelly, Kyle A., 2019. "The gender difference in wages and the returns to schooling over the great recession in the U.S," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 190-198.
    4. Psacharopoulos, George & Ying Chu Ng, 1992. "Earnings and education in Latin America : assessing priorities for schooling investments," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1056, The World Bank.
    5. Hk Siphambe, 2008. "Rates Of Return To Education In Botswana: Results From The 2002/2003 Household Income And Expenditure Survey Data Set," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 76(4), pages 641-651, December.
    6. Heaton, Christopher & Throsby, David, 1998. "Benefit-Cost Analysis of Foreign Student Flows from Developing Countries: The Case of Postgraduate Education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 117-126, April.
    7. Daehaeng Kim & Chul-In Lee, 2007. "On-the-Job Human Capital Accumulation in a Real Business Cycle Model: Implications for Intertemporal Substitution Elasticity and Labor Hoarding," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 10(3), pages 494-518, July.
    8. Brown, Byron W. & Woodbury, Stephen A., 1998. "Seniority, external labor markets, and faculty pay," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 771-798.
    9. Clifford Clogg & James Shockey, 1984. "Mismatch between occupation and schooling: A prevalence measure, recent trends and demographic analysis," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 21(2), pages 235-257, May.
    10. Kazamaki Ottersten, Eugenia & Mellander, Erik & Meyerson, Eva M. & Nilson, Jörgen, 1994. "Pitfalls in the Measurement of the Return to Education: An Assessment Using Swedish Data," Working Paper Series 414, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    11. Angel de la Fuente & Antonio Ciccone, 2003. "Human capital in a global and knowledge-based economy," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 562.03, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    12. Lewis M. Segal & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1997. "The Growth of Temporary Services Work," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 117-136, Spring.
    13. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Melissa S. Kearney, 2005. "Trends in U. S. Wage Inequality: Re-Assessing the Revisionists," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2095, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    14. Tinh Doan & Quan Le & Tuyen Quang Tran, 2018. "Lost in Transition? Declining Returns to Education in Vietnam," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(2), pages 195-216, April.
    15. Pratap, Sangeeta & Quintin, Erwan, 2011. "Financial crises and labor market turbulence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 601-615.
    16. François Rycx & Yves Saks & Ilan Tojerow, 2015. "Does Education Raise Productivity and Wages Equally? The Moderating Roles of Age, Gender and Industry," Working Paper Research 281, National Bank of Belgium.
    17. Monika Merz & Axel Schimmelpfennig, 1999. "The Demand for Higher Education in Germany," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 68(2), pages 204-208.
    18. Lee, Chul-In, 2008. "On-the-job human capital investment and intertemporal substitution: New evidence on intertemporal substitution elasticity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 3350-3375, October.
    19. Vila, Luis-Eduardo & Mora, Jose-Gines, 1998. "Changing Returns to Education in Spain during the 1980s," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 173-178, April.
    20. Theodore R. Breton & Andrew S. Breton, 2021. "Growth in a macro‐Mincer model: Good results with schooling and experience interactions," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 563-581, May.

    More about this item

    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:ris:actuec:v:70:y:1994:i:1:p:27-41. 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: Benoit Dostie The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Benoit Dostie to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/scseeea.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.